Best Foods to Eat (and Avoid) if You Have Psoriasis
If you have psoriasis, the foods most worth building your plate around are oily fish, colourful vegetables and fruit, gut-friendly ferments, and healthy fats like olive oil and avocado. On the flip side, it’s generally worth cutting back on red and processed meat, refined sugar, alcohol, and ultra-processed convenience food, as these tend to fuel the inflammation that drives flare-ups. There’s no single “psoriasis diet” that works for everyone, but these swaps are a sensible, well-supported starting point.
Below, we’ll unpack why food and skin are so closely linked, walk through what to eat more of and what to ease off, and share a few practical tips for making changes that actually stick.
❤️ Learn how to heal Psoriasis by eating Avocados. 💪🏻
Why What You Eat Shows Up on Your Skin
Psoriasis is driven by inflammation and an overactive immune response, and both are influenced by what’s happening in your gut. Your digestive system and your skin are in constant conversation with one another, so when your gut is out of balance, your skin often carries the evidence.
This doesn’t mean food alone causes psoriasis, or that diet is a replacement for proper skincare and medical guidance. But it does mean that what you eat day to day can either add fuel to the fire or help calm things down. Many people with psoriasis notice fewer, milder flare-ups once they support their body from the inside as well as the outside.
Foods Worth Adding to Your Plate
Oily fish and omega-3s
Salmon, mackerel, sardines and anchovies are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which help to calm inflammation throughout the body. Aim for two portions of oily fish a week where you can. If fish isn’t for you, walnuts, chia seeds, flaxseed and a good-quality algae-based omega-3 supplement are worthwhile alternatives.
Colourful vegetables and fruit
Leafy greens, berries, peppers, carrots and beetroot are packed with antioxidants, which help protect skin cells from the kind of damage that keeps inflammation ticking over. A simple rule of thumb: the more colours on your plate, the wider the range of nutrients you’re getting. Try to fill at least half your plate with vegetables at main meals.
Gut-friendly ferments
Live yoghurt, kefir, sauerkraut and kimchi introduce beneficial bacteria that support a healthier gut environment. Since gut balance and skin health are so closely linked, a spoonful of sauerkraut alongside dinner or a small glass of kefir in the morning can be a genuinely useful daily habit.
Healthy fats
Extra virgin olive oil, avocado and nuts provide monounsaturated fats that support the skin’s natural barrier and help dial down inflammation. Swapping butter or vegetable oil for a good olive oil in your everyday cooking is one of the easiest changes to make.
Foods and Drinks Best Limited
Red meat and processed meat
Bacon, sausages, salami and frequent red meat can promote inflammation, partly through their saturated fat content and partly through compounds formed during processing. You don’t need to cut these out entirely, but treating them as an occasional food rather than a daily staple tends to make a noticeable difference.
Refined sugar and ultra-processed food
Sugary drinks, sweets, white bread, crisps and ready meals can cause blood sugar spikes that contribute to inflammation over time. Swapping refined carbohydrates for wholegrain versions, and reaching for fruit or a handful of nuts instead of packaged snacks, is a gentle way to bring this down.
Alcohol
Alcohol is one of the most commonly reported psoriasis triggers. It can interfere with the effectiveness of some treatments and place extra strain on the liver, which plays an important role in clearing toxins from the body. If you drink, keeping it occasional rather than routine is worth considering.
A note on nightshades
Tomatoes, peppers, aubergine and white potatoes are sometimes singled out as psoriasis triggers, but the evidence here is mixed and very individual. Rather than cutting them out on principle, it’s worth keeping a simple food diary to see whether they genuinely affect you before making them off-limits.
A Few Practical Tips for Making Changes Stick
- Start small: start with one meal a day, rather than overhauling everything at once — a Monday-to-Friday breakfast swap is far easier to keep up than a full diet rewrite.
- Keep a simple diary: write down what you eat and how your skin behaves over a few weeks. Patterns often become obvious that you’d never spot otherwise.
- Think months, not days: psoriasis responds to consistency far more than to short bursts of “perfect” eating. A good-enough diet kept up for months beats a strict one abandoned after a fortnight.
- Pair changes with something you enjoy: swapping a habit for a better one (herbal tea instead of a second glass of wine, berries instead of biscuits) tends to stick far better than simply removing something and leaving a gap.
❤️ Learn which foods to avoid for Psoriasis, even some which you may have thought is okay for you to eat. 💪🏻
A Gentle Reminder
Diet is one piece of the picture alongside good skincare, stress management and appropriate medical support — not a replacement for any of them. What works brilliantly for one person may do very little for another, which is exactly why paying attention to your own patterns, and getting personalised guidance where you can, tends to serve you far better than following a generic list.
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Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and does not substitute medical advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your health regimen. Planet Wellness practitioners draw on over 50 years of natural health experience using Iridology, Nutrition, and Kinesiology.
