The Mediterranean diet relieves symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, however the low FODMAP diet still produces better results. The corresponding study was published in Neurogastroenterology & Motility.
Studies show that the Mediterranean diet is beneficial for multiple health conditions from cardiovascular and metabolic conditions to cognitive disorders and overall mortality. While some research suggests that the diet could be beneficial for reducing bowel symptoms as well, until now, findings have been inconclusive.
In the current study, researchers conducted a pilot-feasibility, randomized controlled trial (RCT) to compare the Mediterranean diet and the low FODMAP diet, which is known to improve symptoms in 50-60% of patients with IBS, and is thought to be superior to other dietary interventions for the condition.
For the study, the researchers randomized 26 patients with either IBS-D (diarrhea) or IBS-M (mixed symptoms of constipation or diarrhea) to either the Mediterranean or low FODMAP diet for four weeks. The primary endpoint was an FDA-standard 30% reduction in abdominal pain intensity after four weeks.
Whereas 81.8% of those in the low FODMAP group met the primary endpoint for symptom improvement, the same was true for 73% of patients in the Mediterranean diet group. The researchers noted that while the Mediterranean diet provided symptom relief, those in the low FODMAP diet still experienced greater improvements in both abdominal pain intensity and IBS symptom severity scores.
"Restrictive diets, such as low FODMAP, can be difficult for patients to adopt," lead author of the study, Prashant Singh, MBBS, a gastroenterologist at Michigan Medicine, said in a press release.
"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,” he added.
The researchers found the findings sufficient to warrant future, larger controlled trials to investigate the potential for the Mediterranean diet to treat patients with IBS.
