Diet and Nutrition Q&A by Betty Kovacs Because ulcerative
colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease affect the digestive tract many
people believe that their diet has something to do with causing
them. While the actual cause of these two diseases remains
unknown, there has been some research that has shown an
association between specific dietary habits and UC and Crohn's
disease. These studies are done retrospectively (looking back)
by examining the food records of people before being diagnosed
with UC or Crohn's and comparing them with people who do not
have either disease. The limitation to this is that there is a
great deal of inaccuracy when people self-report their dietary
intake, and when studies are done retrospectively, you can't say
for sure that the specific food causes the disease. There could
be factors outside of their diet that are the actual cause but
were not part of the study. The only way to know for sure would
be to perform studies where the only difference between the
people with and without the di