Diet implicated in irritable bowel syndrome

Studies suggest fructose or fat may be the culprits in the gastrointestinal illness, yet physicians say dietary modifications alone are rarely sufficient to eliminate symptoms.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Dec. 1, 2003.

Fat intake or fructose consumption may play a role in irritable bowel syndrome and other gastrointestinal illnesses, according to two papers presented at the October meeting in Baltimore of the American College of Gastroenterology.

One study by researchers at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, found that patients with IBS who were also intolerant to fructose and who followed a fructose-limited diet had significant improvement in their symptoms, while those who did not change their eating habits continued having problems. Another study, this one from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minn., found that patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders, including IBS, seemed to consume more fat and fewer carbohydrates than others.

Physicians said, however, that these studies were not conclusive enough to start restricting the diets of every patient with IBS or other form of gastrointestinal distress and that, in their experience, dietary interventions have mixed results.

"If you take a history, and patients seem to have some connection between certain types of foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables for fructose or milk products for lactose, then you can do a dietary trial, and it can sometimes make a difference," said Keith Holten, MD, associate professor of clinical family practice at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. "But just doing dietary maneuvers alone really hasn't been shown to be that effective for large groups of IBS patients."