Foods to Avoid With Psoriasis
Foods that can be inflammatory are best to avoid, or at least limit your intake if you have psoriasis. This is because psoriasis is an inflammatory condition. You can choose to follow an anti-inflammatory diet, which would involve cutting out, or reducing the following:
Dairy Products
Although there’s no solid evidence that dairy can really influence psoriasis, you may still want to give going dairy free a go just to see if it makes you feel better. There’s a theory that there’s a connection between gut health and psoriasis.
When people are diagnosed with gut issues, they can be warned to steer away from dairy products. If the connection between this and psoriasis is accurate, then there is the potential that avoiding dairy products, such as milk, butter, and cheese, could potentially speed up your skin’s recovery.
You may feel you’re able to reintroduce some dairy into your diet once your skin has cleared up. Give it a go if you, but re-introduce gradually.
Alcohol
Several skin conditions are thought to stem from alcohol consumption, so it wouldn’t be entirely unlikely that having a level of alcohol in your diet may trigger, or worsen, your psoriasis flare-ups. I’ve personally tried removing alcohol from my diet when I get any indication that a flare-up is about to occur, and I do actually think it’s helped me.
Drinking alcohol also causes a level of dehydration, and with psoriasis, staying hydrated is quite an essential thing. It’s especially shown with the dryness of your skin, which is why it’s always recommended that you frequently moisturize to keep your skin nice and hydrated.
Red Meat
It’s thought that the type of fat that’s in red meat can be a trigger for psoriasis. This is due to it having quite inflammatory elements. The acid is called arachidonic acid, which is something that can be found in people with psoriasis at a higher level than usual.
There are also discussions around the levels of iron found in red meat. It’s said that if there’s too high of a concentration of iron in your body, it may become pro-inflammatory, which isn’t good for psoriasis flare-ups.
The Bottom Line
At the end of the day, it’s all about trial and error when it comes to your body. What might work for someone else, may not work for you.
Since psoriasis has no specific treatment or cure, you just have to listen to your body a bit and see what it’s telling you. If you think some type of food is affecting you in a certain way, don’t hold research that says otherwise to heart, as there’s no solid scientific evidence around anything to do with psoriasis.
Just do what feels right for you, and remember the everything in moderation rule. Try to maintain a healthy and balanced diet and see if you can manage your psoriasis flare-ups with the types of vitamins, minerals, and oils you consume.
