How to Follow a Mediterranean Diet for Psoriasis

The Mediterranean diet is known to help with inflammation, which may help ease your psoriasis symptoms. Here’s what it means to follow this diet, along with a sample day’s menu featuring these healing foods.

What you eat may affect your psoriasis symptoms more than you think.

In recent years, psoriasis researchers have spent a lot of time looking at how your gut affects your symptoms. Many suggest that what you eat can affect the amount of inflammation in your body.

Some foods — including many found in the Mediterranean diet — may help lower overall inflammation, which could help reduce the severity of your psoriasis symptoms. This might make switching to or adopting the Mediterranean diet a good choice.

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What is the Mediterranean diet?

The Mediterranean diet isn’t a fad diet endorsed by a random celebrity personality. It’s more of a broad concept that means eating foods that people living in the Mediterranean region — think Italy, Greece, and others — consume on a regular basis.

There’s technically no standard diet, since foods from the region span at least 16 countries and cultures. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t several common features found in a Mediterranean-style diet. These include:

• consuming more fish than meats
• minimal or no processed foods
• an emphasis on fresh fruits and vegetables, beans, nuts, breads and other grains, potatoes, and seeds
• olive oil as the primary source of fat
• consuming poultry, dairy, eggs, and fish in moderation
• an emphasis on plant-based foods

You may also consume low to moderate amounts of wine.

Unlike some popular diets, there are no calorie restrictions. Instead, the emphasis is on eating a more plant-based diet with olive oil as the main source of fat.

How it affects psoriasis

Emerging evidence suggests that following a Mediterranean diet may help with psoriasis symptoms and may even help prevent severe forms of psoriasis from developing.

Research suggests that certain foods and eating patterns can help control several inflammation markers, leading to reduced inflammation in moderate to severe psoriasis.

What’s more, people on diets such as the Mediterranean diet often lose weight, leading to more potential for reducing inflammation.

According to a 2022 research review, several studies found a link between consuming olive oil, legumes, and fish and a reduction in psoriasis area severity index (PASI) scores. In other words, people who consumed higher amounts of these foods often found they had less severe symptoms related to psoriasis.

A 2018 study found that people with psoriasis who followed a Mediterranean diet were less likely to have a severe form of the condition.

But remember: You shouldn’t stop your current treatment plan if you decide to adopt a Mediterranean eating plan. Instead, it may be a good addition to your current lifestyle and medical treatments to help you better manage your symptoms.

Before making any major changes to your diet, you should make sure to consult a doctor or nutritionist. A nutritionist can help you design a meal plan that works well for you.

Sample day on a Mediterranean diet

A Mediterranean diet focuses on mainly fresh ingredients, like fruits and vegetables, healthy fats, breads and whole grains, and lean protein sources, like fish and poultry.

You can also include dairy products, like cheese or yogurt, as well as limited amounts of wine (though you should check with a doctor first).

A sample day of eating a Mediterranean diet could look like this:

Breakfast

Breakfast could include a serving of fresh fruit over Greek yogurt. Sprinkling some low sugar granola or roasted nuts and seeds over the yogurt is a good idea, too.

You could also try avocado toast and an egg, served with a side of fruit.

Lunch

For lunch, you could try a large salad that includes a serving of hummus, a baked salmon filet, and plenty of fresh greens like lettuce, spinach, and arugula.

If salad isn’t to your liking, you could make a grain bowl with quinoa, roasted chicken, red onions, cucumber, and other vegetables, like tomatoes or artichoke hearts.

Dinner

For dinner, you could try baked cod over roasted vegetables and potatoes.

You could also saute some shrimp in olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and garlic and serve it over whole grain pasta with a side of vegetables.

Dessert

People following a Mediterranean diet often eat fresh fruit for dessert instead of a sugary treat.

You could slice up your favorite fruit, like pineapple, and eat it as is.

For added flavor, you could serve it with a small amount of Greek yogurt or with a small amount of whipped cream.

Snacking

For snacks, you could try eating small amounts of different foods. Some Mediterranean-friendly snacks you can try include:

• a mix of nuts
• seeds
• air-popped popcorn
• whole grain crackers with a slice of cheese
• fruit and nuts
• roasted chickpeas
• trail mix
• hummus and vegetables
• a hard-boiled egg with a small amount of cheese or fruit
• berries and cottage cheese

Takeaway

The Mediterranean diet may help reduce inflammation, which could help you better manage your symptoms.

There’s no single diet or specific plan to follow. Instead, a Mediterranean diet mainly acts as a guide. It emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, good fats (like olive oil), and lean proteins, such as chicken and fish.

Before making any changes, consider talking with a doctor or nutritionist first.