What are the dietary taboos for psoriasis?

At present, there are no uniform dietary taboos for all patients with psoriasis. The core principle is to avoid foods that will aggravate skin lesions and cause allergies if you eat them. The rest of the so-called "taboo requirements" vary from person to person. There is no need to blindly follow the general list on the Internet.

First of all, everyone has basically reached a consensus, which is to avoid alcohol. Whether it is liquor, beer or fruit wine, as long as it contains alcohol, try not to touch it. I used to know an older brother who had suffered from psoriasis for 8 years. He took very careful care and the lesions were almost completely gone in the winter. At a class reunion last month, he drank three ounces of white wine without wiping his face. That night, he felt itching on his elbows and scalp. The next day, a red rash appeared where it had gone, and thick scales grew out. It took a month to go away. Alcohol will dilate blood vessels in the skin, aggravate the inflammatory response, and may also affect the effectiveness of conventional medications. This is something that almost all dermatologists will specifically advise.

As for whether we should avoid the most rumored "fat foods" such as beef, mutton, seafood, and spicy foods, there is actually no unified clinical conclusion yet. I have met two patients who are exactly the opposite. One is a eldest sister from Inner Mongolia. She grew up eating beef and mutton. After she got psoriasis, she didn’t dare to touch a bite. But one time she couldn’t help but eat two pieces of hand meat stew at home. The next day, she had several new rashes on her legs. She never dared to touch it again. ； The other is a young man who grew up by the sea. He ate sea fish twice a week. After he got sick, he stopped for three months. Instead, he felt that the skin damage was recovering more slowly. When he went for a review, the doctor said that the omega-3 in the deep-sea fish he ate had anti-inflammatory effects. As long as he didn't feel uncomfortable after eating, he could continue to eat it. After he returned to eating fish, he got better faster.

There are also high-sugar and high-fat foods that have been mentioned more recently. Studies have indeed shown that long-term high-sugar diets can increase the levels of inflammatory factors in the body. Many patients reported that after giving up milk tea, cakes, and fried foods, their skin itchiness was significantly reduced, and the scales fell off less. However, this does not mean that you cannot touch them at all. As long as you do not eat them every day, every day, and occasionally eat a small cake to relieve your cravings, it will basically not have much impact.

The biggest fear is to blindly avoid all foods without understanding anything. I met a 19-year-old girl before. I heard others said that she should not eat all "fat foods". She had not touched meat, eggs, or seafood for half a year. When she finally came for a follow-up check-up, she was severely anemic and her face was... She was sallow and felt dizzy even when walking. The psoriasis recurred for half a year without any improvement. Instead, she adjusted her diet and only avoided eating uncomfortable mangoes and peppers while ensuring nutrition. In less than two months, most of the skin lesions were gone.

If you are really unsure about what you can and cannot eat, just keep a food diary for two weeks and pay more attention to the changes in skin lesions after eating new foods. If you feel itchy or develop new rashes after eating two or three times in a row, it is not too late to stop eating. After all, living with this disease is troublesome enough. There is no need to sacrifice your appetite for unfounded food taboos, right?