Dietary Patterns Linked to Crohn’s Disease Odds in Saudi Case-Control Study

Frequent consumption of fast food, carbonated soft drinks, and spicy food was associated with substantially higher odds of Crohn’s disease in a case-control study conducted in Saudi Arabia, while dietary patterns low in so-called risk-promoting foods were linked to markedly lower odds, regardless of how much protective food participants ate.

The study, published in Frontiers in Nutrition, included 219 patients with Crohn’s disease and 395 controls. Researchers scored how often participants ate selected foods on a four-level frequency scale and then grouped them into four combined dietary patterns based on their consumption of foods classified as risk-promoting or protective: high risk-promoting/low protective, high risk-promoting/high protective, low risk-promoting/low protective, and low risk-promoting/high protective.

Using multivariable logistic regression, the team estimated odds ratios with 95 percent confidence intervals. Patients with Crohn’s disease reported more frequent intakes of fast food, carbonated soft drinks, spicy food, and fruit, with odds ratios of 4.12 (95 percent CI 3.02 to 5.63), 3.89 (2.74 to 5.52), 1.67 (1.33 to 2.09), and 3.48 (2.41 to 5.02), respectively.

The combined-pattern analysis pointed in the same direction. Participants who consumed few risk-promoting foods had substantially lower odds of Crohn’s disease whether their intake of protective foods was low, with an odds ratio of 0.16 (95 percent CI 0.07 to 0.35), or high, with an odds ratio of 0.14 (95 percent CI 0.07 to 0.27).

Protective foods, by contrast, did not appear to offset a diet heavy in risk-promoting items. Among participants whose consumption of risk-promoting foods was high, high intake of protective foods was not associated with lower odds of Crohn’s disease, with an odds ratio of 1.15 (95 percent CI 0.69 to 1.92), a range that includes the value of no association.

The authors concluded that frequent intakes of fast food, carbonated soft drinks, and spicy food were associated with greater odds of Crohn’s disease, and that dietary patterns characterized by low consumption of risk-promoting foods were associated with substantially lower odds.

Because this was a case-control study, the findings represent associations rather than demonstrated causal effects. Participants with the disease reported their past food intake, and recall of diet can differ between patients and healthy controls, a limitation inherent to this study design. The confidence intervals also indicate statistical uncertainty around each estimate, particularly for the combined dietary patterns, where the intervals are wide.

The study was conducted in Saudi Arabia, so the specific foods implicated and the magnitude of the associations may not generalize to populations with different diets. The authors note that evidence on combined dietary patterns in relation to Crohn’s disease had remained limited, and the work was intended to address that gap by examining both individual foods and broader patterns of consumption.

Subject of Research: Associations between individual food consumption, combined dietary patterns, and Crohn's disease in a Saudi case-control study

Article Title: Food consumption and combined dietary patterns in relation to Crohn’s disease: a case–control study in Saudi Arabia

Article References: Malibary, M., Sheerah, H. A., Arafa, A., Alharbi, M. H., Aljohani, N. E., Alghamdi, M. M., Allogmanny, S. M., Yamani, A. N., Shoqeair, M. M., Alzeer, O. Z., Molla, H. N., & Almofarreh, A. (2026). Food consumption and combined dietary patterns in relation to Crohn’s disease: a case–control study in Saudi Arabia. Frontiers in Nutrition, 13, Article 1989162. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2026.1989162

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2026.1989162

Keywords: Crohn's disease, dietary patterns, case-control study, fast food, soft drinks, spicy food, Saudi Arabia, nutritional epidemiology, odds ratio, inflammatory bowel disease, Food, consumption