New Delhi, Jun 1: A team of US researchers has found that the Mediterranean diet may provide symptom relief for people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Irritable bowel syndrome affects an estimated 4-11 per cent of all people, and a majority of patients prefer dietary interventions to medication.

The low FODMAP diet leads to symptom improvement in more than half of patients, but is restrictive and hard to follow. Previous investigations from Michigan Medicine researchers in the US into more accessible alternative diets led to a proposed “FODMAP simple,” which attempted to only restrict the food groups in the FODMAP acronym that are most likely to cause symptoms.

In the new study published in the journal Neurogastroenterology & Motility, participants were randomised into two groups, one following the Mediterranean diet and the other following the low FODMAP diet, a common restrictive diet for IBS. In the Mediterranean diet group, 73 per cent of the patients met the primary endpoint for symptom improvement, versus 81.8 per cent in the low FODMAP group.

“Restrictive diets, such as low FODMAP, can be difficult for patients to adopt,” said Prashant Singh, Michigan Medicine gastroenterologist and lead author on the paper.

“In addition to the issue of being costly and time-consuming, there are concerns about nutrient deficiencies and disordered eating when trying a low FODMAP diet. The Mediterranean diet interested us as an alternative that is not an elimination diet and overcomes several of these limitations related to a low FODMAP diet,” Kumar added.

The Mediterranean diet is already popular among physicians for its benefits to cardiovascular, cognitive, and general health. Previous research on the effect of the Mediterranean diet on IBS, however, had yielded conflicting results.

While the Mediterranean diet did provide symptom relief, the low FODMAP group experienced a greater improvement measured by both abdominal pain intensity and IBS symptom severity score.

“This study adds to a growing body of evidence which suggests that a Mediterranean diet might be a useful addition to the menu of evidence-based dietary interventions for patients with IBS,” said William Chey, chief of Gastroenterology at the University of Michigan.

(IANS)

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