What Is the Crohn's Disease Exclusion Diet? Here's What You Need to Know
Digestive HealthCrohn's Disease

What You Need to Know About the Crohn’s Disease Exclusion Diet

What You Need to Know About the Crohn’s Disease Exclusion Diet
Everyday Health
By
Stacy Kish and
Updated on January 30, 2026
by

While there is no cure for Crohn’s disease, a form of inflammatory bowel disease that causes inflammation and damage in the digestive tract, certain diets may help reduce symptoms. Among them are the low-FODMAP diet, the specific carbohydrate diet, and exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN), a liquid-only diet.

There’s also the Crohn’s disease exclusion diet (CDED), which combines whole foods and partial enteral nutrition (PEN) in the form of nutritional shakes, and which aims to treat both symptoms and active inflammation.

The CDED excludes certain foods commonly present in the Western diet that are associated with inflammation, which negatively alters the balance of the gut microbiome — the trillions of bacteria, fungi, parasites, and other microbes found in the gut — and weakens the intestinal barrier. The diet’s goal is to help relieve the gut microbiome imbalance (dysbiosis) to encourage an adequate immune response, thereby strengthening the intestinal barrier and reducing inflammation, to heal the lining of the gastrointestinal tract.

“The reasoning behind the diet format was to combine the benefits of exclusive enteral nutrition with anti-inflammatory foods to help provide an ideal fuel source for beneficial bacteria and optimize the patient’s microbiome,” says Laura Manning, RD, a registered dietitian and clinical nutrition manager at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. “When the patient’s microbiome shifts to having more beneficial bacteria, it can lower inflammation in the gut.”

Find out more about how the CDED might help people with Crohn’s.

A Diet That Works in 3 Phases

When following the CDED, many foods are removed from the diet; some are slowly reintroduced. The diet follows three phases: The first two are broken into six-week increments, while the third may last as long as nine months, and all three include PEN in liquid form.

During phase one, mandatory foods consist of fish, chicken breast, and eggs. Other foods that are allowed are rice, cooled potatoes, tomatoes, onion, garlic, ginger, olive oil, and canola oil. Limited amounts of cucumbers, carrots, spinach, lettuce, bananas, apples, avocados, strawberries, melon, and citrus juices are also permitted. Fifty percent of calories come from these whole foods, while PEN composes the other 50 percent.

In phase two, participants eat the mandatory and allowed foods from phase one, and add tuna, whole-grain bread, oats, yams, and red peppers.

Some vegetables, including beans, peas, turnips, and parsnips are reintroduced after week 10. Twenty-five percent of calories come from nutritional drinks during this stage. Throughout the first two phases, red meat, seafood that’s high in the chemical compound taurine, and alcohol aren’t allowed.

Phase three is the maintenance phase of the diet. In addition to eating foods from phases one and two, other foods are introduced, such as other types of seafood, plus eggs, cocoa, coffee, grains, some dairy, and alcohol (if tolerated). Mandatory foods from phase one are no longer required, though 25 percent of your calories continue to come from liquid nutrition.

Foods that are never allowed on the diet include sugar-sweetened drinks like sodas, processed meats (anything preserved, smoked, cured, breaded, salted, or seasoned), emulsifiers (additives that keep ingredients from separating), and gums (typically used to thicken foods).

If symptoms flare up during the maintenance phase, you can return to the previous phase to regain control over your symptoms. If not adhering to the diet is believed to be the reason for your relapse, you might opt to return to phase one.

“A patient’s quality of life around food was strongly considered in the development of the diet,” Manning says. “If [they] are able to achieve similar results [to exclusive enteral nutrition] with the addition of solid food, then it is a higher likelihood that patients will remain on the diet for the duration and beyond.”

Who Benefits From This Diet?

“The diet is often used in children and [also in] adults with mild to moderate Crohn’s disease,” says Manning. It’s typically prescribed during flares — periods of active inflammation.

A number of small studies on children and adults have shown that CDED, when paired with PEN, helped participants achieve remission. One research review noted that about 55 to 77 percent of participants reached remission on a CDED that included liquid nutrition.

For children especially, whose doctors may want to avoid prescribing medications with serious side effects like steroids or who can’t maintain a liquid-only diet like EEN, CDED can help reduce inflammation in the digestive tract so they can better absorb nutrients for normal growth and development.

One research review noted that the CDED combined with PEN was better tolerated than a liquid-only diet in children with mild to moderate Crohn’s disease, and both were equally effective at inducing remission by week six. The review’s authors also cited the fact that CDED with PEN led to sustained remission, and suggested that it might be easier to follow long-term than EEN.

There are fewer studies on CDED with PEN in adults than in children, and while efficacy rates are similarly high — two small studies achieved remission in 68 and 69 percent of adult participants — large, randomized controlled trials are needed in both groups to confirm these findings.

Clinical trials are beginning to study the effectiveness of the CDED in different groups with more severe symptoms of the disease.

Is the CDED Right for You?

Because of the restrictive nature of the diet, Brittany Rogers, RDN, a registered dietitian based out of New York City and a member of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation's national scientific advisory committee, encourages anyone considering the CDED to work with a registered dietitian and their gastroenterologist. As with all medical treatments, exclusion diets have potential side effects, including disordered eating behaviors.

“The CDED diet is highly structured but allows for some flexibility in choices, so you can continue to enjoy eating while being proactive in your care process,” says Manning. “It is important to know that when you do embark on a diet therapy, you give yourself grace occasionally if it is not exact.”

The Takeaway

  • The Crohn’s disease exclusion diet (CDED) is a nutritional therapy that combines whole foods and liquid nutrition, with a goal of reducing symptoms and balancing the gut microbiome to decrease inflammation during a flare.
  • The diet follows a three-phase structure, beginning with a six-week period of food restriction, followed by a six-week period of food reintroduction, then a longer maintenance phase with an even less restrictive diet plan.
  • CDED is primarily recommended for children and adults with mild to moderate Crohn’s disease, and preliminary studies have shown that a majority of participants are able to achieve remission on the diet.

Resources We Trust

EDITORIAL SOURCES
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Resources
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Lynn Grieger, RDN, CDCES

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Lynn Grieger is a registered dietitian-nutritionist, certified diabetes care and education specialist, certified personal trainer, and certified health and wellness coach. She completed requirements to become a registered dietitian at Valparaiso University in 1987 and completed a dietetic internship at Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey, Illinois, in 1988. 

Lynn brings her expertise in nutrition, exercise, and behavior change to her work in helping people reach their individual health and fitness goals. In addition to writing for Everyday Health, she has also written for websites and publications like Food and Health Communications, Today's Dietitian, iVillage.com, and Rodale Press. She has a passion for healthy, nutrient-dense, great-tasting food and for being outdoors as much as possible — she can often be found running or hiking, and has completed a marathon in every state.

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Linda Thrasybule is a former senior editor at Everyday Health, where she oversaw coverage of digestive health, heart health, and cancer. She has more than 20 years of experience covering health, nutrition, lifestyle and wellness trends, and science. Her work has appeared in Reuters Health, LiveScience.com, NPR’s Shots blog, Yahoo News, and TheWeek.com. She has also written clinical topics and research briefs for a number of government agencies and nonprofit health organizations. She earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University in 2011.

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