This review of the past year's literature shows continuing interest in the prevalence of nutritional problems in inflammatory bowel disease, especially Crohn's disease, and the occurrence of specific deficiencies such as zinc, copper, selenium, and calcium. There is also continuing interest in the correction of nutritional insufficiency in inflammatory bowel disease and in the use of nutrition, especially elemental diets, as possible primary therapy in Crohn's disease. A number of clinical trials have been reported on this subject in the past year and mixed results obtained. Although some studies suggest that elemental diets are no different from polymeric preparations in the management of Crohn's disease, the suspicion remains that there may be a specific effect of elemental diets in some patients. There is a case for further well-planned, prospective, well-controlled studies to investigate this whole area further. Other interesting work has looked at the effect of artificial nutritional support on abnormalities of liver function tests and an assessment of home artificial nutritional support in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.