What Not to Eat If You Have Psoriasis?

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If you interest trying gluten-free diet, it may take several months to see the improvement. At least, you need to try it for 3 months – make sure that your diet is completely free from gluten.

After 3 months you don’t see any benefits and you doubt that it works for your psoriasis, you can stop it – but still, stay with a healthy & well-balanced diet afterward!

Following a gluten-free diet is not always easy. There are many foods that can contain hidden sources of gluten. But once you get used with it, there should be nothing to worry.

You just need to educate yourself about all hidden sources of gluten and then eliminate them on your diet. Furthermore, there are now also many bakeries and grocery stores provide many gluten-free products.

One thing you need to remember, skipping gluten doesn’t mean you can eat anything as long as it is free of gluten. Still, you need to stick with a well-balanced diet, particularly watch on the calories. Foods labeled with ‘free-gluten’ or ‘free-wheat’ also contain calories.

In addition, gluten-free diet is not only about removing wheat, but also its derivatives. The same goes for barley derivatives. And always remember to read labels regularly since manufactures can make any change in ingredients for their products without notice!

Watch on calories!

This is important to make sure that your weight is well controlled. As mentioned before, obesity can worsen psoriasis. It also increases the risk of complications from the disease such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

So, it is not only about a specific food you need to avoid. You should also concern about calories of foods that you eat to control your weight!

The following are some helpful tips:

  1. Make a food diary and plan the meals ahead of time. This idea can be so helpful to control what you eat. Writing down what not to eat and what you should eat every day can be a crucial part of maintaining ideal weight or getting sustained weight loss.
  2. Avoid eating too fast. Eating slowly can help control your hunger – on the other hand, eating too fast can put you at greater chance of eating more than what you need to satisfy your appetite and hunger.
  3. Keep hydrated! In fact, many times people can mistake their thirst for hunger. Moreover, keeping hydrated is also important for your overall health.
  4. Never skip your breakfast! Skipping breakfast can put you at greater chance of losing control on what you eat at lunch. This is also bad for your insulin sensitivity (the risk of type-2 diabetes).

And make sure the diet in controlling your weight also includes:

  1. Getting adequate fiber, vitamins and other essential nutrients. For instance, you can include whole grains, a wide variety of vegetables and fruits into your diet. And choose low-fat /free-fat dairy products for better result!
  2. Make variety choices for your healthy sources of protein. These can include lean meats, nuts, beans, fish, or eggs. Since egg yolk contain some cholesterol, make sure to eat it not more than 1 egg per day!
  3. Choose healthy fats – most of your fat intake per day should come from unsaturated fats! Therefore, prioritize choosing foods low in saturated foods.
  4. Limit your sodium intake, and skip refined sugars & processed foods!

Diet for your healthy heart!

Again, cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack can be one of complications from poorly-controlled psoriasis. Weight loss diet or diet just for controlling your weight can go together with heart-healthy diet.

The following foods should be limited /avoided if you do serious to improve the health of your heart in long term:

  1. Foods high in saturated fats and salt. They can worsen your healthy cholesterol and blood pressure levels. Visit this section, for more detailed information about healthy foods to lower cholesterol & blood pressure levels.
  2. Skin of poultry and fatty red meats, because they are high in saturated fat.
  3. Alcohol! Some people with psoriasis (especially those with severe disease) get advantage from restricting alcohol entirely. But if you drink, drink moderately (not more than 2 drinks /day for men, and 1 drink /day for women)!
  4. Foods high in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, because they contain trans-fat.
  5. Processed & fast foods.

If necessary, your doctor can prescribe complementary vitamins and supplements to help improve and control your psoriasis. They may include vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, methylsulfonylmethane, or glucosamine & chondroitin!

*Talk with a doctor /professional dietitian for more advice!

Citations /references:

  1. http://www.psoriasis.org/Page.aspx?pid=1795
  2. http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/psoriasis/basics/complications/con-20030838
  3. http://www.psoriasis.org/about-psoriasis/treatments/alternative/diet-supplements

All of these sites accessed on July 2014

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