Elimination Diet Works for Eosinophilic Esophagitis in Adults

Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is increasingly recognized as a cause of dysphagia, food impaction, and heartburn. In children, a true elemental diet seems to be effective but is too unpalatable for routine use. A six-food elimination diet (milk, soy, egg, wheat, peanuts/tree nuts, and shellfish/fish) has shown moderate effectiveness in treating children with EoE but has not been well studied in adults.

In a single-center, prospective study, researchers recruited 50 adult patients with symptoms of dysphagia, heartburn, or food impaction and ≥15 eosinophils per high-power field (eos/hpf) to receive treatment with the six-food elimination diet instead of topical corticosteroids. The diet lasted 6 weeks, at which point endoscopy with esophageal …