Trial reportGastroenterology2021
A Randomized Trial Comparing the Specific Carbohydrate Diet to a Mediterranean Diet in Adults With Crohn's Disease.
Trial report in Gastroenterology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. It is linked to trial NCT03058679 (Open Label, Randomized, Multicenter, Comparative Effectiveness Trial of Specific Carbohydrate and Mediterranean Diets to Induce Remission in Patients With Crohn's Disease), which is not on this map. Cited by 167 papers, 11 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Open Label, Randomized, Multicenter, Comparative Effectiveness Trial of Specific Carbohydrate and Mediterranean Diets to Induce Remission in Patients With Crohn's Disease
Who cites it
167 citing papers in PubMed, 11 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 275 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mediterranean diet in treatment of inflammatory bowel disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Indian journal of gastroenterology : official journal of the Indian Society of Gastroenterology · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Study Design Complexity and Participant Completion in Dietary Trials for Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Systematic Review and Metaresearch Study.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Pooled it
- Pharmacological management of upper gastrointestinal Crohn's disease: a systematic review.Journal of Crohn's & colitis · 2025Pooled it
- Effectiveness and safety of non-pharmacological therapies for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease: a network meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Pooled it
- The effect of solid food diet therapies on the induction and maintenance of remission in Crohn's disease: a systematic review.BMC gastroenterology · 2024Pooled it
- The Impact of Dietary Interventions on the Microbiota in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Systematic Review.Journal of Crohn's & colitis · 2024Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of gut microbiota-based therapies in autoimmune and rheumatic diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 80 randomized controlled trials.BMC medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Gut microbiome-associated predictors as biomarkers of response to advanced therapies in inflammatory bowel disease: a systematic review.Gut microbes · 2023Pooled it
- Nutrition, Nutritional Status, Micronutrients Deficiency, and Disease Course of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Nutritional interventions in adult fibrostenotic Crohn's disease: A systematic review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Pooled it
- Effect of modified Mediterranean diet supplemented with partial enteral nutrition in post-surgical patients with Crohn's disease: a pilot clinical trial.The British journal of nutrition · 2026Trial
- A fasting-mimicking diet in patients with mild-to-moderate Crohn's disease: a randomized controlled trial.Nature medicine · 2026Trial
- A pilot randomized controlled trial investigating the effects of an anti-inflammatory dietary pattern on disease activity, symptoms and microbiota profile in adults with inflammatory bowel disease.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2024Trial
- Mediterranean diet, gut microbiota, and intestinal barrier integrity: implications for digestive and systemic health.Antonie van Leeuwenhoek · 2026Review
- Update on Diet and Nutritional Therapies in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.Digestive diseases and sciences · 2026Review
- Rethinking Restrictive Diets in IBD: Toward an Inclusion-Focused Nutritional Paradigm.Current gastroenterology reports · 2026Review
- Precision nutrition for the prevention and management of inflammatory bowel disease.Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2026Review
- Plant and Animal Protein Sources in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Current Evidence and Clinical Implications.JGH open : an open access journal of gastroenterology and hepatology · 2026Review
- Review
107 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Erratum issuedCorrection.2022
Authors and funding
32 authors at 12 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND &
aimsThis study compared the effectiveness of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) to the Mediterranean diet (MD) as treatment for Crohn's disease (CD) with mild to moderate symptoms.
methodsAdult patients with CD and with mild-to-moderate symptoms were randomly assigned 1:1 to consume the MD or SCD for 12 weeks. For the first 6 weeks, participants received prepared meals and snacks according to their assigned diet. After 6 weeks, participants were instructed to follow the diet independently. The primary outcome was symptomatic remission at week 6. Key secondary outcomes at week 6 included fecal calprotectin (FC) response (FC <250 μg/g and reduction by >50% among those with baseline FC >250 μg/g) and C-reactive protein (CRP) response (high-sensitivity CRP <5 mg/L and >50% reduction from baseline among those with high-sensitivity CRP >5 mg/L).
resultsThe study randomized 194 patients, and 191 were included in the efficacy analyses. The percentage of participants who achieved symptomatic remission at week 6 was not superior with the SCD (SCD, 46.5%; MD, 43.5%; P = .77). FC response was achieved in 8 of 23 participants (34.8%) with the SCD and in 4 of 13 participants (30.8%) with the MD (P = .83). CRP response was achieved in 2 of 37 participants (5.4%) with the SCD and in 1 of 28 participants (3.6%) with the MD (P = .68).
conclusionsThe SCD was not superior to the MD to achieve symptomatic remission, FC response, and CRP response. CRP response was uncommon. Given these results, the greater ease of following the MD and other health benefits associated with the MD, the MD may be preferred to the SCD for most patients with CD with mild to moderate symptoms. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03058679.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.