Digestive Health Month

To kick off Digestive Health Month, we hosted a policy-focused webinar on May 7, 2026, exploring the EU Safe Hearts Plan and its relevance for digestive health. 

As cardiovascular and digestive diseases share key risk factors, including obesity, unhealthy diets, alcohol consumption and metabolic dysfunction, the Safe Hearts Plan offers important opportunities for cross-disease prevention and more coordinated public health action.

Watch webinar recording on Gutflix

This year’s Digestive Health Month campaign focuses on prevention and early detection to address the growing burden of digestive diseases and cancers across Europe. 

By highlighting the role of nutrition and screening, the campaign aims to promote effective, evidence-based approaches to strengthen public health and improve digestive health outcomes. 

Two key themes will guide the campaign: 

• Nutrition and digestive health   
• Digestive cancer screening  

Unhealthy diets are a leading but preventable driver of digestive diseases and cancers across Europe. Food environments increasingly shaped by ultra-processed foods (UPFs), alongside declining consumption of fibre-rich and minimally processed foods, are reshaping population health.  

UPFs are linked to a wide range of conditions, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, IBD, MASLD, colorectal cancer and other chronic digestive diseases.  

Addressing this burden requires a shift from individual responsibility alone towards systemic, policy-driven action that improves food environments and expands access to healthy, affordable food. 

Our position paper explores the impact of modern diets on digestive health and outlines key policy measures for preventing non-communicable diseases. 

Read position paper

In 2022, Europe recorded approximately 2.7 million new cancer cases. Digestive cancers, including colorectal, gastric, liver and pancreatic cancers, account for a substantial share and remain among the leading causes of cancer-related mortality.

Screening plays a crucial role in reducing this burden. It enables earlier diagnosis, improves survival rates and allows for more effective and less invasive treatment, while also reducing healthcare costs. 

However, access to screening programmes across Europe remains uneven. Expanding and strengthening these programmes is key to ensuring earlier detection and better outcomes.

Our position paper outlines the latest evidence, as well as the policy and implementation priorities needed. 

Read position paper

Our campaign does not end here! 

We invite you to share this page with your network and join the conversation on social media using  #DigestiveHealthMonth and #EUNewsline. 

Support the campaign by sharing our key message cards, infographics and position papers to help raise awareness of digestive health across Europe.