Food Network Star, CCFA, IBD Expert to Launch Web Resource for Nutrition Information

Issue: January 2015

The Food Network’s Sunny Anderson, who has been living with ulcerative colitis for the past 2 decades, has partnered with the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America and Lindsey Albenberg, DO, a gastroenterologist from the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, to launch Get Your Full Course, a web resource designed to provide patients with accurate information about diet and nutrition as an adjunct to therapies for managing inflammatory bowel disease.

“There is a lot of misinformation out there on the internet [about IBD],” Anderson said in an interview with Healio Gastroenterology. “One of the main misconceptions is that food causes it or can cure it,” and while this is not the case, food can play a role in providing comfort and avoiding exacerbation of symptoms associated with flare-ups, she said. “So GetYourFullCourse.com is really a neat way for people like me who have ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease to find recipes that are packed with nutrients—because one of the main issues we have is malabsorption of nutrients—and also get great information sanctioned by the CCFA about treatments, symptoms and how to talk to your doctor.”

Albenberg agreed that there is a lack of accurate information on the role of diet in IBD available to patients on the internet, which is a problem because patients want this information, she said.

Sunny Anderson

Lindsey Albenberg

“There is very little role for diet as a sole therapy for IBD, but I think that based on what patients read on this website it will spark some discussion between patients and physicians about how diet can be an adjunct to the therapies that are already ongoing,” Albenberg said. “I think that physicians can feel comfortable recommending this website to direct patients to a place that they know is going to give accurate information as opposed to having them just surf the internet.”

Albenberg, whose expertise stems from her research on how diet affects the gut microbiome in patients with IBD, said that conversations with IBD patients concerning diet recommendations can be difficult for physicians due to a lack of good evidence on the subject. “We have evidence based on epidemiologic studies that diet may influence the development of IBD, but I think that there are fewer studies on the role the diet plays in the inflammatory process,” she said.

Providing accurate information on just how limited the data are, especially regarding the more restrictive diets patients will find on the internet, Albenberg said, is important because of the heightened risk for malnutrition in patients with IBD. “Obviously the more dietary components you restrict, the higher your risk of malnourishment, especially in pediatrics,” she said. “I think there are some general recommendations that can be made based on what we know now, but in terms of specific diets, the only diet that has been proven to be effective for certain patients with IBD is enteral nutrition therapy,” she said.

But Albenberg thinks the landscape will change, and that diet will play a bigger role in the treatment of IBD as more data becomes available. “The field is moving quickly, and I think we’ll have more evidence for various dietary manipulations in patients with IBD, and I think that when that happens it will be easier for physicians to have discussions with their patients.”

For now, she said, general dietary recommendations can be made, like eating a diet higher in fiber, fruits and vegetables, and lower in animal fat, protein, preservatives and packaged foods. However, she and Anderson both agreed that how diet affects IBD symptoms varies widely from patient to patient.

“How I find ingredients that I stay away from, or that exacerbate [my symptoms] when I’m going through flare-ups, is just trial and error,” Anderson said. “It’s different for every patient, and I think what is good about GetYourFullCourse.com is that patients can go and see that we are aplenty, but we are all different. We all have different symptoms and different triggers.”

Anderson said she also hopes her participation in the Get Your Full Course initiative will help to combat the stigma associated with IBD. “No one really talks about ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, so I’d love to be one of the first people to say, ‘I have it. Let’s put a face on it. Let’s talk about it. Let’s get some information out there, find a way for people who have it to deal with it better, and get the people with symptoms to have a discussion with their physician about it.’” – by Adam Leitenberger

Disclosure: Albenberg reports no relevant financial disclosures.