Monday 23 June 2014

Junk Food and IBD... The Power of Social Media

A report for BBC Radio’s Newsbeat programme linking eating junk food with developing Crohn’s Disease has been described as ‘distressing’ and not backed up by hard evidence. We explain how the charity's members reacted and what we did behind the scenes to remedy the situation. You can also read a write up by Rachel Flint, who appeared in the interview on BBC's Breakfast programme here.


If you missed it, here is the original proramme:


The broadcast last week was then followed up by articles and broadcasts in the national media, even though there has been no definitive scientific link made to any particular diet or food additive as being a sole cause of the disease.
On our Facebook page and Twitter, hundreds of Crohn's and Colitis UK members and supporters voiced their concern and upset over the damage caused by the report.
The Charity was quick to respond to all the inaccuracies.
We ensured these misleading statements were corrected in the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail, arranged for Professor Chris Probert from our Clinical Advisers team to appear on BBC News 24, ensured there was a change to the BBC website report, and took part in numerous regional radio interviews in addition to Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine show.
Professor Probert on BBC News 24:


A jointly-written letter published in The Times by David Barker, Chief Executive of Crohn’s and Colitis UK, and Dr Ian Forgacs, President of the British Society of Gastroenterology, explained why headlines such as the newspaper’s “Junk food diet to blame as number of youngsters with Crohn's disease soars” were simply wrong.
This statement is not supported either by scientific data or mainstream medical opinion,” says the letter.
The implication that thousands of young people with Crohn's Disease have somehow brought that exceptionally unpleasant condition on themselves is proving most distressing to them and their families. It is true that Crohn's disease is becoming more common which is only serving to make more urgent the already considerable research effort. The cause remains unknown yet it is plausible that environmental factors play a part and a number of theories have been proposed.
The letter goes on to say that while eating junk food ‘may not be wise’, there is no data to support the view that eating crisps, burgers, and pizzas predisposes anybody to developing Crohn's Disease.

To tell young people that they may have played a part in giving themselves an exceptionally unpleasant, potentially lifelong and quite incurable condition such as Crohn's Disease needs to be backed by hard evidence and that evidence is just not there,” it concludes.
We will continue to work hard on this issue and will update members in the next issue of NEWS. For more information on this subject, our booklet Food and IBD is available to download from our website or by post.


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