A POPULATION BASED CASE-CONTROL STUDY OF FOOD CONSUMPTION AND FUNCTIONAL GASTROINTESTINAL DISORDERS

Abstract

Purpose: Diet has been implicated to play a role in functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGID) in studies and our previous analysis showed that nutrient consumption between FGID cases and controls differed only slightly. The purpose of this study is to compare the dietary consumption of food items commonly implicated to exacerbate gut symptoms between individuals with FGID and without symptoms in a population-based sample. Methods: A validated self-report Bowel Disease Questionnaire was mailed to an age- and gender-stratified random sample of persons aged 20–50 years from Olmsted County, MN. All persons who reported either FGID symptoms (IBS or dyspepsia) or no gastrointestinal symptoms were invited to undergo a blinded physician interview and physical exam and to complete a validated Harvard Food Frequency Questionnaire (HFFQ). A subset of 53 cases and 58 controls maintained one week diet diaries. The Wilcoxon rank sum test was used for the statistical analysis. Results: 222 of the 260 eligible (85%) subjects participated and 221 provided diet data: 102 were FGID cases and 119 were healthy controls. Shown in the table below, cases and controls consumed similar number of servings per week of the following food items: wheat-containing foods, lactose-containing foods, caffeinated drinks, fructose-sweetened beverages, and alcoholic beverages. Cases also consumed a similar amount of serotonin-containing foods as controls (4 v. 4.5 servings) as well as similar amounts of tryptophan-containing foods (802.9 units v. 706.4 units). When norepinephrine and epinephrine-containing foods were evaluated, a similar proportion of cases and controls consumed 7 or more servings of coffee and tea (53% v. 53%) but cases were slightly more likely to consume 7 servings per week of chocolate, nuts, bananas, oranges, and raisins (57% v 45%, p = 0.10).TableConclusions: No differences were seen in the consumption of frequently-suspected “culprit” foods between community residents with and without FGID symptoms. Furthermore, little difference was seen in the consumption of food items containing serotonin, tryptophan, and norepinephrine and epinephrine.