Helping You Maintain a Balanced, Nutritious Diet and Ease Symptoms 

Living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can make eating feel unpredictable. Certain foods may trigger symptoms, nutrient deficiencies can develop over time and flare-ups may interfere with maintaining a healthy weight and energy level. At Keck Medicine of USC, we offer clinical nutrition guidance from registered dietitians to help you manage your IBD symptoms and increase the chances that you are getting a balanced, nutritious diet.  

Our registered dietitians provide evidence-based nutrition care tailored to your diagnosis, symptoms and treatment plan. Whether you are newly diagnosed with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, recovering from surgery or managing long-term digestive complications, we create personalized strategies designed to help you feel your best.  

At Keck Medicine, your clinical nutrition care is coordinated with your gastroenterologist, colorectal surgeon and broader care team. This multidisciplinary approach helps ensure your nutritional needs are addressed alongside your medical treatment. Good nutrition can play an important role in helping you maintain strength, energy and overall wellness while living with IBD. Our goal is to help you build sustainable eating habits that support your treatment plan and daily life — not just during flare-ups, but long term. 

What to Expect at Your Appointment 

All appointments are virtual. Before your first appointment, your clinician will order labs. During your first appointment, which will last around an hour, your dietitian will go over your current diet, hydration levels and any medications you might be taking that are affecting your nutrient levels. Your dietitian will also go over your concerns and help you come up with small, achievable goals of nutritional changes you can make to your diet to address your concerns and deficiencies and help you manage other co-occurring diagnoses you might have, such as diabetes.  

Follow-up appointments are usually scheduled every few months and last about 45 minutes.  

Conditions We Treat 

Our clinical nutrition experts help patients manage nutritional concerns related to: 

• Crohn’s disease 
• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and overlapping gastrointestinal conditions 
• Malnutrition related to digestive disease 
• Microscopic colitis 
• Short bowel syndrome 
• Post-surgical nutrition needs 
• Ulcerative colitis 

Our Nutrition Services 

Your nutrition plan is individualized based on your symptoms, medical history and lifestyle. Services may include: 

• Comprehensive nutrition assessment: We evaluate your current diet, symptoms, nutritional status, lab work and treatment history to identify areas where nutrition support can improve your health. 
• Personalized meal planning: Our dietitians develop realistic eating strategies tailored to your condition, food tolerances and goals. We help you maintain balanced nutrition while minimizing foods that may worsen symptoms. 
• Flare-management support: During active disease flares, nutrition needs often change. We provide guidance on hydration, symptom-friendly foods and nutritional support to help you maintain strength and recovery. 
• Nutrient deficiency monitoring: IBD can affect absorption of nutrients such as iron, vitamin B12, vitamin D and calcium. Our team helps identify deficiencies and recommends dietary changes or supplementation when appropriate. 
• Specialized diet guidance: We provide education on evidence-based dietary approaches that may support symptom management, including low-residue, low-fiber or other medically appropriate nutrition plans. 
• Nutrition support before and after surgery: If surgery is part of your treatment plan, our dietitians help optimize your nutritional health before surgery and support recovery afterward.

Why Choose Us for Nutrition Care

We offer evidence-based, culturally sensitive nutrition counseling that is integrated into your ongoing care and incorporates the foods you love to eat.

Telehealth allows you to connect with a clinician from anywhere in California, with no travel time or sitting in a waiting room. We send you to local labs and imaging centers to make the testing you need easy.

Our clinicians are experienced in supporting patients with a history of eating disorders and provide compassionate, weight-inclusive nutrition care with treatment plans designed to improve digestive health without triggering restrictive or disordered eating behaviors.