Ultra-processed foods can cause debilitating bowel disease flare-ups, a new study has found.

Poor diet has long been associated with the onset of Crohn’s disease but now researchers have found that there are specific high-risk food groups that can cause severe relapse.

The study – presented at the United European Gastroenterology conference (UEG) in Vienna, Austria this week – found that ultra processed items such as bread, pastries, and starch as well as oil and spreads increased the risk of the disease returning by approximately threefold.

About half-a-million Britons suffer with Crohn’s disease, which causes agonising pain, diarrhoea, exhaustion and extreme weight loss.

The disease can also cause the bowels to narrow, making it difficult for food to pass through.

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A new study presented at the United European Gastroenterology conference has found ultra-processed foods can cause debilitating bowel disease flare-ups (stock image)

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Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are foods which have large numbers of ingredients, not commonly found in home kitchens

Around a third of patients living with the condition, where the gut lining becomes inflamed, will require surgery.

This latest research though found that diet is likely to cause severe symptoms to return even when being managed by medication.

The study followed over a 100 people with Crohn’s over a year and marked when they suffered a relapse – a flare-up so bad that lead to a change in medication, hospitalisation or surgery.

More than double the number of participants who had a high intake of ultra-processed foods ended up relapsing.

The authors of the study also noted that a ‘Western diet’ is associated with symptoms returning. They also said that further research needs to be done on the link with emulsifiers, which are found in ultra-processed foods, as that may be the true cause of the problem.

Last year a study published in the Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology Journal found that a diet high in ultra-processed foods increase your chance of developing Crohn’s disease by 70 per cent.

The latest research though is the first to show the impact after treatment. Experts are now calling on the research to inform treatment for people with Crohn’s disease.

‘In addition to treating active inflammatory bowel disease we want to maintain remission for the long term,’ says Dr Chen Sarbagili Shabat, clinical dietician from Tel Aviv Medical Center, Israel.

‘It’s highly important we know environmental factors are associated with the disease, which is why we can treat active disease with diet. Likewise, we can manage Crohn’s disease in a remission state with diet.’