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This Month's Newsletter is Packed with Ideas for Using Fresh Summer Produce and for Exercising Safely, plus the DDW2026 Highlights.

Discover what’s new in nutrition and diet for IBD, IBS, celiac disease, and eosinophilic esophagitis from Digestive Disease Week, including tips for challenging conditions, why eating late at night may mess up gut health, and how to make sense of gluten-related disorders.

Fresh Summer Produce for Digestive Health

Summer is the time to enjoy fresh, colorful seasonal produce that adds both flavor and nutrition to IBD-friendly meals. Eating a variety of colorful produce is one of the best ways to add many beneficial gut microbes to your microbiome. Choosing ripe, easy-to-digest produce and preparing it in ways that suit your individual tolerance can help make seasonal eating more comfortable. Consider peeling, cooking, or blending to achieve easier-to-digest textures.

From juicy berries and zucchini to tomatoes and cucumbers, incorporating summer produce into simple and balanced recipes is a delicious way to support overall health while making the most of the season. Here are some easy-to-digest recipes featuring summer produce to enjoy from our recipe database:

Exercising Safely with Chronic GI Conditions

DDW 2026 Nutrition Highlights

From 2-5 May 2026, GI Nutrition Foundation attended Digestive Disease Week in Chicago, USA.

Here’s what’s new and interesting in diet and nutrition for IBD, IBS, celiac disease, and eosinophilic esophagitis from leading experts: 

💡Nutrition care for IBS is shifting from restricted diets to personalized, patient-centered interventions

✅ IBS is a diagnosis we can actively understand and treat

✅ Providers should help patients with IBS assess whether their symptoms are: 

🔸an exaggerated physiologic response

🔸a food intolerance

🔸a result of a cause not related to foods or the digestive tract

✅ GI providers need to be good detectives to:

🔸Differentiate maladaptive from normal adaptive dietary restriction

🔸Know what red flags to look out for

🔸Ask the right questions to patients to identify and manage low appetite

💡It’s not just what you eat, but when you eat it

✅ Data from more than 15,000 participants showed that eating more than 25% of daily calories after 9 p.m. was linked to being 1.7 times more likely to experience constipation, diarrhea, and lower gut microbiome diversity

🗣️ Harika Dadigiri, MD: “Small, consistent habits, like maintaining a structured meal routine, may help promote more regular eating patterns and support digestive function over time”. 

💡Cultural adaptation of diet for better outcomes of Crohn’s

✅ A microbiota-targeted and culturally adapted Mediterranean diet may be a feasible dietary approach for both patients with early Crohn’s disease and their family members from Israel and India

✅ A plant-based diet may produce favorable gut microbiome shifts in patients with ulcerative colitis, which support further study as an adjunct

💡Making sense of gluten-related disorders

✅ In patients who do not have celiac disease but are sensitive to gluten, the likely cause is fructan, a type of FODMAP found in wheat (non-celiac wheat intolerance)

✅ A true refractory celiac disease is rare 👉 Most patients do not improve due to gluten contamination or other causes that can mimic celiac disease

✅ If poor education or an unbalanced gluten-free diet is achieved, eating disorders, psychological side effects, and deficiencies can occur in celiac disease

💡Towards less restrictive, “step-up” diets in eosinophilic esophagitis

✅ Shared decision-making should play a role in determining whether drugs or diet is the first-line treatment, with consideration of the severity of eosinophilic esophagitis

✅ Recent evidence favors starting with less restrictive diets to aid in the early identification of food triggers and shorten the diagnostic process

Food The Main Course to Digestive Health is Celebrating 10 years in 2026

This is the 10-year anniversary of the Food the Main Course conference! Taking place on July 29th-31st, 2026, at The Vanguard in Ann Arbor, MI, this program is offered both in person and virtually by expert faculty and dietitians at the University of Michigan. This course provides knowledge and training for dieticians with an interest in gastrointestinal diseases and disorders. Click here for more information.

GI DREAM Symposium 2026 - Food, Function and Foundations in Gastroenterology

This Symposium, being held in Melbourne, Australia, on Saturday, August 1st, brings together leading experts in nutrition and gastrointestinal health. Designed for dietitians, gastroenterologists, and multidisciplinary clinicians, this one-day event offers a unique opportunity to deepen clinical knowledge, engage with emerging research, and connect with peers passionate about advancing gastrointestinal care. Key topics include: gut motility, disorders of gut–brain interaction, nutrition in GI disease, surgical outcomes, and practical dietary management strategies. If unable to attend in person, recordings will be available to registered attendees. Click here for more information about this event.

Know someone with IBD, IBS, Celiac, or  EoE looking for information on evidence-based nutrition? Forward them this newsletter! They can sign up to join our community and receive our monthly newsletter here.

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*Please note that the GI Nutrition Foundation does not provide medical advice. The content provided here is for informational purposes only. Patients should always talk with their healthcare providers before changing their diet.*