Dietary fiber is good for you, except when it’s not

People who suffer from inflammatory bowel disease may soon have access to personalized dietary guidelines to keep them feeling well, thanks to new research on how dietary fiber affects the disease. The research team discovered that certain types of dietary fiber cause an inflammatory response in some patients, causing symptoms to worsen. They are now working to develop a stool test to examine the microbes found in each patient’s gut in order to predict who will have the negative response, so they can tailor dietary recommendations and treatment for individual patients.