Study Links Plant-Based Foods to Gut Inflammation

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Science Desk

In Short: Researchers at the University of North Carolina find oxalate, a compound in plant-based foods, may contribute to inflammatory bowel disease.

Plant, plant based foods — Photo: Beendy234 / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

Researchers at the University of North Carolina have identified oxalate, a compound found in all plant-based foods, as a potential contributor to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Gastrointestinal biologist Anna Salvador notes that while both IBD patients and healthy individuals consume similar amounts of plant-based foods, IBD patients have higher levels of oxalate in their stool.

Experiments on animals fed extra oxalate showed they experienced more weight loss, prolonged intestinal inflammation, and reduced survival rates.

Some of the healthiest plant-based foods, such as spinach, beetroot, rhubarb, almonds, and sweet potatoes, contain oxalate and could potentially be linked to IBD in certain individuals.

These findings highlight the complex relationship between diet and IBD, indicating that even healthy foods may have unintended consequences for some people.

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These experiments showed that animals fed extra oxalate fared worse by several measures: they lost more weight, developed a greater level of intestinal inflammation for longer, and were less likely to survive.
"These findings identify dietary oxalate as a potentially modifiable factor in intestinal inflammation and underscore the need to consider variation in dietary exposures and oxalate metabolism in inflammatory bowel diseases," write the researchers in their published paper.
It's well accepted that diet plays a role in IBD, alongside several other key factors, and the oxalate found in plant-based foods may be a part of that.
But this latest research indicates that in some people, problems processing the compound properly may lead to gut issues.
The compound increased the inflammatory response, suggesting it's an immune system reaction rather than direct damage that links oxalate and IBD.

Sources

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