How to Find the Best Meal Replacement Shakes for Crohn’s Disease

📌 Overview and Key Takeaways

This is a Dietitian’s guide on how to find the best meal replacement shakes for Crohn’s disease.

Discover how to safely support your diet with Crohn’s.

Last Updated
Jan 10, 2026

Author and Medical Reviewer

Written by Kayla Kamen, MS, RD

Kayla Kamen is a Registered Dietitian with a MS in Nutrition.

Medically reviewed by Jennifer Fossett, PA-C

Jennifer Fossett is a Physician Assistant with a BA in Nutritional Sciences.

Meal Replacement Shakes for Crohn’s

Are Meal Replacements Good for IBD?

Crohn’s disease is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that causes chronic inflammation of the digestive tract.

Living with Crohn’s disease can be stressful and overwhelming because you have to pay close attention to what you eat.

Certain foods can trigger symptoms, called flares, including diarrhea and stomach pain.

And over time, flares can lead to weight loss and malnutrition.

As you probably know, avoiding certain foods can help you manage Crohn’s disease, reduce gastrointestinal symptoms, and promote intestinal healing.

You might not know, however, that the inflammation caused by Crohn’s disease increases your body’s calorie and protein needs, and that a deficiency of either can impair your ability to heal.

It is recommended that Crohn’s patients eat 600 more calories per day than healthy adults (Therap Adv Gastroenterol, 2013).

And the protein requirement for Crohn’s patients with active disease is 1.2 to 1.5 grams per kilogram of bodyweight per day, which is considerably more than that of the general population (0.8 g/kg/day) (Eur J Nutr, 2020).

Eating all this extra food can be challenging, especially for someone with a sensitive stomach, which is where meal replacement shakes can help.

Meal replacement shakes can be a convenient and effective way to ensure that you are getting the nutrients you need without irritating your gut.

Clinical research even suggests that liquid nutritional supplementation can have a positive impact on the onset and progression of IBD (Nutrients, 2017).

Here is a summary of the benefits of meal replacement shakes for individuals with Crohn’s:

• Convenience: Meal replacement shakes are quick and easy to prepare, making them a convenient meal option on busy days.
• Reduced inflammation: Certain meal replacement shakes contain ingredients with anti-inflammatory properties, helping to reduce inflammation in the digestive tract.
• Improved nutrient absorption: The liquid form of meal replacement shakes allows for better nutrient absorption, ensuring you get the nutrition you need.
• Weight maintenance: Flare-ups and gastrointestinal symptoms can cause weight loss. Meal replacement shakes can provide the calories needed to curb malnutrition and maintain a healthy body weight.

It is important to note, however, that meal replacement shakes should not replace other forms of nutrition; they are intended only to fill in gaps in your diet.

If you have questions about how or when to use meal replacements, consult our network of trusted healthcare professionals.

It is also worth noting that not all meal replacements are created equal.

In fact, many meal replacements contain ingredients known to cause painful digestive side effects and even long-term gut health issues.

What Are the Best Crohn’s Disease Meal Replacement Shakes?

Every gut is different and what causes side effects for one person might not necessarily cause them for the next.

Nevertheless, there are a few rules of thumb that anyone grappling with Crohn’s disease should follow when buying a meal replacement.

Firstly, the fewer the ingredients the better.

Fewer ingredients generally translates to fewer symptoms.

Second, the simpler the ingredients the better.

The more an ingredient looks like real food, the easier it is to digest.

Finally, there are a few types of ingredients that you should always avoid, including food additives, dairy-based proteins, and protein concentrates and isolates.

🚫 Avoid Food Additives

Regularly eating emulsifiers, thickeners, and other additives can not only upset your stomach, but also alter the composition of your gut microbiome (North Clin Istanb, 2019).

This can lead to gut dysbiosis, or an imbalance in gut bacteria, which is linked to the development of Crohn’s disease (Microorganisms, 2022; Int J Mol Sci, 2022).

Research shows that a healthy gut microbiome modulates the production and secretion of mucins and stratification of the mucus layers that make up the intestinal mucosal barrier (Exp Mol Med, 2021).

An unhealthy, or dysbiotic, gut microbiome results in the weakening of this barrier, thereby causing inflammatory damage.

Researchers have also found that a healthy gut microbiome contributes to inducing the expansion of regulatory T cells that reduce intestinal inflammation by mediating repair of the intestinal mucosal barrier (Nature, 2013).

A dysbiotic gut microbiome thus makes you both more susceptible to inflammation, and less able to fight it.

⚠️ Here is a list of the most common food additives in meal replacements:

• acacia fiber
• acacia gum
• acesulfame potassium
• artificial flavors
• ascorbic acid
• aspartame
• calcium carbonate
• carrageenan
• cellulose gum
• dextrin
• dicalcium phosphate
• dipotassium phosphate
• erythritol
• gellan gum
• guar gum
• gum arabic
• inulin
• locust bean gum
• maltitol
• maltodextrin
• mono- and diglycerides
• ‘natural’ flavors
• rice bran extract
• rice dextrin
• rice hulls
• rosemary extract
• silica
• silicon dioxide
• sodium alginate
• soluble corn fiber
• sorbitol
• soy lecithin
• sucralose
• sunflower lecithin
• tocopherols
• tricalcium phosphate
• xanthan gum
• xylitol
• zinc oxide

Note that this list includes several artificial sweeteners.

Artificial sweeteners like sucralose and acesulfame potassium are among the worst ingredients for your gut microbiome (Nature, 2014).

They both reduce microbial diversity and promote the growth of potentially pathogenic bacteria.

Also note that as a rule of thumb, if you could not find an ingredient in nature or make it at home, it is a food additive.

🚫 Avoid Dairy-Based Proteins

Dairy-based proteins like whey and casein, although not an issue for everyone, can cause stomach issues.

This is usually because they contain lactose, a sugar many individuals with sensitive stomachs cannot fully digest.

But you might be sensitive to dairy-based proteins even if you are not lactose intolerant.

This is particularly true for casein protein, which forms a gel-like substance in your stomach that slows down digestion.

🚫 Avoid Protein Concentrates and Isolates

You should also consider avoiding protein concentrates and isolates.

Most meal replacements are made from one or both of these protein sources, which have been mechanically and/or chemically stripped of everything but the protein.

This includes the enzymes, fiber, and other natural digestive aids that help you break them down.

You therefore do not digest them in the same way that you do whole foods, which can affect your gut health.

In fact, studies show that regularly eating protein concentrates and isolates can disrupt your gut microbiome and cause the formation of toxic byproducts in your gut (Nutrients, 2018; Mol Nutr Food Res, 2024).

So instead of ultra-processed protein concentrates or isolates, look for whole food protein sources like egg whites and almonds.

They are easier to digest and absorb.

Order Samples to see for yourself.

Sources

1. Therapeutic Advances in Gastroenterology (Therap Adv Gastroenterol). Nutritional management of Crohn’s disease. 2013.
2. European Journal of Nutrition (Eur J Nutr). Habitual dietary intake of IBD patients differs from population controls: a case–control study. 2020.
3. Nutrients (Nutrients). Dietary Protein and Amino Acid Supplementation in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Course: What Impact on the Colonic Mucosa?. 2017.
4. Northern Clinics of Istanbul (North Clin Istanb). Food additives and microbiota. 2019.
5. Microorganisms (Microorganisms). Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis: Triggers, Consequences, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Options. 2022.
6. International Journal of Molecular Sciences (Int J Mol Sci). Dysbiosis in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Pathogenic Role and Potential Therapeutic Targets. 2022.
7. Experimental & Molecular Medicine (Exp Mol Med). The role of gut microbiota on the intestinal mucosa and intestinal immunity. 2021.
8. Nature (Nature). Treg induction by a rationally selected mixture of Clostridia strains from the human microbiota. 2013.
9. Nature (Nature). Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota. 2014.
10. Nutrients (Nutrients). Effect of a Protein Supplement on the Gut Microbiota of Endurance Athletes: A Randomized, Controlled, Double-Blind Pilot Study. 2018.
11. Molecular nutrition & food research (Mol Nutr Food Res). In Vitro Fermentation of Animal and Plant Protein Isolates by the Human Gut Microbiota Under High and Low Carbohydrate Conditions. 2024.

Editorial Guidelines

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This article was written by a Registered Dietitian and reviewed by a Physician Assistant. We rely on peer-reviewed research and trusted medical sources, and regularly update our content to ensure accuracy and clarity.