The healthy foods that could aggravate IBD

Healthy foods like almonds and spinach could be aggravating irritable bowel disease (IBD).

The foods contain oxalates, compounds found in all plant foods, which could be hard for the IBD sufferer to process easily.

The typical IBD sufferer has low levels of two proteins that help move oxalates through the gut, say researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

It could be a vicious cycle.  Low levels of the protein increase the chances of gut inflammation which, in turn, lowers levels of the proteins even further.

IBD sufferers have much higher levels of oxalate in their stools than healthy people, even when both groups have eaten similar amounts of plant foods, the researchers say, which suggests they are not processing oxalate efficiently.

Gut bacteria that can break down oxalates are also less abundant in the IBS sufferer, the researchers point out.

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