Has anybody tried or is trying the IBD-AID diet?

I'm going to give it a go. I know that people have found SCD and Paleo helpful but IBD-AID seems the one I could most likely stick to.

The diet was developed by the University of Massachusetts Medical School and is summarized like this on their website http://www.umassmed.edu/nutrition/healthy-eating/gastrointestinal/ibd/

Q: What is the Anti-Inflammatory Diet for IBD?

A: The IBD-AID was derived (and updated) from the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), and is a nutritional regimen that is based on:

1. Promoting the beneficial, anti-inflammatory intestinal bacteria with:

○ Vegetables & Fruit
○ Soluble Fiber (steel-cut oats, ground flax seed, lentils, beans)
○ Good protein & fats (beans, nuts, olive oil, avocado, ground flaxseed, fish, soy)
○ Probiotics (yogurt, kefir, miso, kimchi, sauerkraut, local honey)
○ Prebiotics (artichokes, leeks, asparagus)

2. And decreasing the pro-inflammatory intestinal bacteria by eliminating certain carbohydrates, such as:

○ Refined sugars and certain starches
○ Grains (steel-cut and rolled oats are allowed)
○ Lactose (anything containing milk or cream)

These carbohydrates are thought to provide a food for pro-inflammatory bacteria.

3. Together, the foods in this diet decrease bowel inflammation, aid in the repair of the gut, and help to restore balance to the immune system.

Preliminary results were published in Nutrition Journal, here's an abstract of the abstract:

Of the 40 patients with IBD, 13 patients chose not to attempt the diet (33%). Twenty-four patients had either a good or very good response after reaching compliance (60%), and 3 patients' results were mixed (7%). Of those 11 adult patients who underwent further medical record review, 8 with CD, and 3 with UC, the age range was 19-70 years, and they followed the diet for 4 or more weeks. After following the IBD-AID, all (100%) patients were able to discontinue at least one of their prior IBD medications, and all patients had symptom reduction including bowel frequency.

The article is open access and available here:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24428901

Well, pb4, your disease is much more complicated than mine but there are similarities. I also have underlying IBS, I'm in 'remission' with Humira and have issues with frequency. I'm trying to address the frequency with the diet. The intention for me is to try to keep flares from getting started. Maybe that's wishful thinking but if the system is healthier, it should have less tendency to go into a disease state.

Good luck with your diet and chasing away your depression.

I do use this from time to time, but I cannot tolerate a lot of the foods. Things like ground flax seed, lentils, beans, raw vegetables, commercial yogurt and even some home made 24 yogurt are no go's for me. But work arounds are pretty easy. SCD is still the best for me food tolerance wise.

This is well worth a try though as everyone is going to be a little different in what they can and cannot tolerate and of course as you say this one is fairly easy to stick to.

The best thing was just trying it as it opened up some new foods that I otherwise tended to avoid.

Good luck and i hope you see a reduction in some of your symptoms.