We know that with IBD not all food that is ingested is properly and thoroughly digested, and any food that isn't digested is a potential irritant to the intestine. We must find solutions and answers within our diet in order to aid our bodies in reclaiming health. Medically prescribed elemental diets, which contain the end-products of digestion and require little to no digestion have been shown to provide rapid absorption of much needed nutrients in shortened and diseased intestines. On elemental diets minimal residue from digestion has meant minimal irritation and translated into bowel rest, which has given an opportunity for intestinal healing. Bacteria and yeast have then been left to starve without partially digested carbohydrates to feed on.
Elemental diets are expensive and they taste foul.
But the concept of ingesting pre-digested foods that require minimal digestion may give us an idea of what we need to be including in a diet that would give the body the opportunity and the nutrition it needs to heal an inflamed intestine. How long this process would take is unknown and probably very specific to the individual, but certainly seems worth researching. Drug therapies don't seem to lead to genuine healing, and in the long run may actually do more to perpetuate disease by causing imbalance within the digestive system and other bodily systems. They seem best if used for short periods of time as needed to stabilize an emergency situation. And indeed there are situations when surgery is a life saver, but it should be a last course of action and not an inevitable end.