Food processing implicated in Crohn’s disease risk

Individuals who consume high amounts of unprocessed or minimally processed foods are less likely to develop Crohn’s disease (CD), according to a study.

The study used data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort and included 413,590 participants (mean baseline age 51.7 years, 68.6 percent women) from eight European countries.

Researchers collected dietary data at baseline using validated country-specific dietary questionnaires. They applied Cox models to estimate the associations of intake of unprocessed/minimally processed and ultra-processed foods with the risks of CD and ulcerative colitis (UC).  

Over a mean follow-up of 13.2 years, a total of 179 incident cases of CD and 431 incident cases of UC were documented.

The risk of CD was significantly lower among participants with high intake levels of unprocessed/minimally processed foods (highest vs lowest intake quartile: adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.57, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.35–0.93; p_trend<0.01). This was especially true for those who consume greater amounts of fruits (adjusted HR, 0.54, 95 percent CI, 0.34–0.87) and vegetables (adjusted HR, 0.55, 95 percent CI, 0.34–0.91).

On the other hand, there were no associations noted between intake of unprocessed/minimally processed foods and the risk of UC and between intake of ultra-processed foods and CD or UC risk.