Trying New Diets To Improve Psoriasis Symptoms

I have lost count of all my trial and error with diets over the years to help improve my psoriasis. I recently managed to gather enough courage to give it another go. Eating certain things can make me itch like crazy.

First, I decided to try an all-natural diet. Geesh! Who was I fooling? Could I really give up bread, pasta, sugar, and meat? These foods have been a part of my diet my entire life. I knew I could not stick to this. I did put together a salad of avocado, kale, sundried tomatoes without any dressing, and dinner was served. What was I thinking?

Researching different diets for psoriasis

After that experience, I decided that I needed to know more about different diets. Most of the information I managed to gather indicated that I should lean towards gluten-free diets. The research I gathered had a few recommendations such as:

• Avoid trigger foods
• Drink plenty of water
• Eliminate trans fats (no packaged and no fried foods)
• Avoid sugar and alcohol

Although the diets were highly recommended, there was no scientific evidence to support them. It is hard to have a controlled situation where you can have a group of psoriasis sufferers and monitor their diets for long periods to gather adequate information.

Learning psoriasis trigger foods

Having gathered all this information from various sources, I decided to give my diet a more serious approach so I made lists of foods that I could eat and those that I could not.

Foods that I learned to avoid: Sweetened beverages, red meat, fried foods, pastries, pasta, and cheeses.

Foods that I chose to eat more of: Leafy greens, nuts, coldwater fish, flaxseeds and olive oil, walnuts and pumpkin seeds, figs and strawberries, mangoes, sweet potatoes and blueberries, spinach, and carrots.

As we all know, what might work for me may not work for another. It was not easy, but I stuck to the diet as much as possible. I had food cravings all day long, especially for sweets.

After keeping this up for about a month there were some actual improvements in my condition. My ears were no longer inflamed. There was a very itchy patch on my scalp that I have always had, and it had disappeared. Oh my, what a relief. My thighs and legs were not inflamed that much anymore.

An improvement in symptoms and lifestyle

After some time, I just could not keep away from bread and dairy products. I also may have drunk a few more cups of coffee than I should have. I woke up one morning and my ears, legs, and thighs were so inflamed they felt like they were on fire.

The only thing I could possibly do was to reduce my intake of certain foods since I was unable to completely give them up. Bread, sugar, cheese, and coffee are my Achilles heel. I learned that to control my symptoms did not require just a diet. It requires a complete lifestyle change. I am not sure how people do this.

Are you able to stick to any lifestyle changes for long periods of time?