Research

Mixed

Enteral nutrition induces remission in adult Crohn's disease patients with efficacy comparable to corticosteroids, provided the patient completes the treatment protocol.

If you have active Crohn's disease, discuss enteral nutrition (liquid formula) with your gastroenterologist as a primary treatment. It works as well as steroids for those who stick with it, but you must commit to drinking only the formula for 2-6 weeks. Success depends on your motivation and support from a dietitian, not just the formula itself.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
patients who successfully completed enteral nutrition achieved comparable remission rates to those given corticosteroids... The overall remission rate with enteral nutrition was in the region of 60%, which is higher than the 20–30% response rate observed with placebo.
J. Goh et al. · Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics · 2003

Why this rating

Based on meta-analyses of RCTs, but confounded by heterogeneity of formulations and high dropout rates in enteral arms.

Source

Nutrition and adult inflammatory bowel disease

J. Goh et al. · Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics · 2003

DOI 10.1046/j.1365-2036.2003.01482.x

narrative_reviewCited 237×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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