Psoriasis meal plan: a seven-day menu and shopping list

Who is this menu for, and who is it not for?

Who it is for. An adult with psoriasis who eats a varied diet, has no other medical restrictions, and wants the week planned out. It is suitable whether you have just started dermatology follow-up or have been receiving treatment for years. This is an eating pattern; skin treatment remains the treatment prescribed by your dermatologist.

Who it is not for. It is not designed for pregnancy or breastfeeding, or for anyone under 18. It is also not designed for people with diabetes treated with insulin or medicines that can lower blood sugar too much, chronic kidney disease, or a current or past eating disorder. If you have a condition with its own dietary plan, such as coeliac disease, a diagnosed allergy, or heart or liver failure, follow that plan. If you have confirmed coeliac disease, this menu contains gluten and must be adapted.

Some people with psoriasis also develop psoriatic arthritis, which is treated by rheumatology and differs from rheumatoid arthritis. The psoriasis eating guide explains what psoriasis is and which dietary recommendations are supported by scientific evidence.

This menu does not give a calorie figure. None of its sources gives an energy figure for psoriasis, and we will not include a number that has not been calculated. If you are still hungry, add vegetables and pulses before adding bread.

The full week: breakfast, lunch and dinner

Dessert fruit and water are not shown in the table, so they do not have to be repeated twenty-one times. The guideline is to have whole fruit after lunch and dinner. Extra-virgin olive oil is used in every dish, and quantities are for one person.

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Monday	Wholemeal bread with tomato, extra-virgin olive oil and fresh cheese · coffee with milk or herbal tea	Lentils with carrot, leek and paprika · tomato and spring onion salad	Pumpkin soup · two-egg French omelette with wholemeal bread · plain yoghurt
Tuesday	Plain yoghurt with rolled oats, banana and walnuts	Brown rice with courgette, pepper and chicken · orange	Lamb’s lettuce, tomato and avocado salad · oven-baked sardines with potato
Wednesday	Wholemeal bread with oil and grated tomato · scrambled egg · coffee with milk	Chickpeas with spinach, garlic and hard-boiled egg · kiwi	Steamed green beans and potato with oil · grilled hake with lemon · plain yoghurt
Thursday	Milk or soya drink with rolled oats, fruit and almonds	Wholemeal pasta with homemade tomato sauce, tuna and oil · fruit	Leek and courgette soup · scrambled eggs with mushrooms and cheese · wholemeal bread
Friday	Plain yoghurt with strawberries or berries, linseeds and hazelnuts	Potato stew with cod, onion and paprika · lettuce and tomato salad	Wholemeal bread with tomato and tinned mackerel · grated carrot with walnuts · fruit
Saturday	Wholemeal bread with oil and Serrano ham · orange · coffee with milk	Rice with vegetables and chicken · tomato and red pepper salad	Vegetable soup with wholemeal noodles · courgette and onion omelette · plain yoghurt
Sunday	Wholemeal toast with avocado and poached egg · fruit	White beans with pumpkin and leek · oven-baked sea bream with lemon	Gazpacho or vegetable purée, depending on the season · grilled turkey and pepper skewer · wholemeal bread

The week includes pulses on three days, oily fish three times, white fish three times and eggs six times. Vegetables are included in all fourteen lunches and dinners, and there is whole fruit every day. And there is tomato nine times, by design.

The two snacks not shown in the table

There is nothing planned for mid-morning or mid-afternoon, by design. If you feel fine until lunch and dinner, you do not need these snacks. If you do need something, you can alternate between four options using food already on the shopping list.

• Fruit with a handful of nuts
• Plain yoghurt with fruit
• Wholemeal toast with oil and tomato
• Almonds with coffee and milk

The weekly shopping list

For one person and seven days, organised by supermarket aisle so you can shop in one go. Any leftover vegetables can be frozen or used in a soup. Tinned pulses, canned fish and frozen vegetables are useful pantry staples for days when you have no energy to cook.

Vegetables

• 1.5 kg ripe tomatoes and 2 jars of crushed tomatoes
• 1 kg potatoes, half a pumpkin and 3 courgettes
• 500 g carrots, 300 g green beans and 400 g spinach, which can be frozen
• 2 leeks, 4 onions, 1 bunch of spring onions and 1 head of garlic
• 2 peppers, one of them red, and 250 g mushrooms
• 1 lettuce, 1 bag of lamb’s lettuce, 1 cucumber and 2 avocados

Fruit

• 12 pieces of seasonal fruit for dessert
• 4 oranges, 3 bananas, 2 kiwis and 1 lemon
• 250 g strawberries or berries

Pulses, grains and pantry staples

• 300 g lentils, 1 jar of cooked chickpeas and 1 jar of white beans
• 400 g brown rice, 250 g wholemeal pasta and 150 g wholemeal noodles
• 400 g rolled oats and wholemeal bread, preferably sliced and frozen
• 1 l extra-virgin olive oil
• Paprika, bay leaves, oregano, cumin and vinegar

Fish, meat and eggs

• 12 eggs
• 4 fresh sardines, 2 tins of mackerel and 2 tins of tuna in spring water
• 300 g hake, 1 sea bream and 250 g desalted cod
• 400 g chicken, 200 g turkey and 80 g Serrano ham

Dairy

• 1.5 l milk or calcium-fortified soya drink
• 7 plain yoghurts
• 200 g fresh cheese and 150 g mature or grated cheese

Nuts and seeds

• 200 g walnuts, 200 g almonds and 100 g hazelnuts, unsalted
• 100 g linseeds

Why does this menu not cut out gluten, dairy or tomato?

Because there is no reason to do so without a diagnosis. The medical board of the National Psoriasis Foundation reviewed 55 studies on diet and psoriasis [1]. It recommends a gluten-free diet only for people who test positive for gluten-sensitivity markers, and the recommendation is weak [1]. If you suspect coeliac disease, ask for testing before removing gluten.

There is even less evidence for dairy, tomatoes and other nightshades. No studies support removing them for psoriasis. No single food treats inflammation. If you have excess weight, managing it and moving regularly matter more than cutting out foods without a reason. The downside is known: removing each food group makes the diet less varied and harder to maintain, and the list of exclusions tends to grow. The same applies to eggs, which is why they appear six times during the week.

If you still want to try it, do the reverse of the usual approach. Remove just one food group, keep track of your skin for three months, and discuss it with your dermatologist. Removing two things at once tells you nothing about either one.

What mistakes do we see in appointments?

There are four mistakes we hear about in appointments almost every week, and none has to do with a specific food.

• Starting with a list of foods to cut out. This is the approach people are most likely to abandon. Add foods first, then consider whether anything needs to be removed once that is established.
• Judging the result after a few days. Studies that find an improvement look at changes over months.
• Buying skin supplements on your own. The medical board does not recommend them for psoriasis [1]. If you suspect a deficiency, a blood test can confirm it.
• Drinking alcohol every day. It is associated with a worse course of psoriasis, even without high levels of consumption.

What makes it Mediterranean, and why does that matter here?

Vegetables and fruit every day, pulses, fish, nuts, whole grains and extra-virgin olive oil as the main fat. This is the pattern in the anti-inflammatory eating guide, and you do not need to buy anything special.

It matters because this is the eating pattern with the strongest support in psoriasis. The MEDIPSO trial was conducted in Madrid with people with mild or moderate psoriasis whose topical treatment was stable [2]. Sixteen weeks of a Mediterranean diet with follow-up from a dietitian-nutritionist reduced disease severity [2]. The comparison group received advice to follow a low-fat diet, without follow-up [2]. It was a small, single-centre trial, so its results should be interpreted cautiously.

One point for anyone who does not need to lose weight: in that trial, improvement occurred without weight loss [2], so changing the eating pattern can be worthwhile in its own right.

What if you have excess weight?

Keep the week as it is and change only the portion sizes. For people with overweight or obesity, weight loss is the only strong recommendation on diet from the National Psoriasis Foundation’s medical board [1]. An analysis of thirteen trials found that weight-loss interventions reduce psoriasis severity, with an average loss of 6.7 kilos compared with the control group [3].

In practice, with this menu, measure the oil with a spoon and have one piece of bread per meal. Fill half your plate with vegetables before serving the rest, and choose fruit or yoghurt for a snack.

At Alimmenta, we do not recommend diets below 1,200 kcal a day under any circumstances. Going below that figure requires medical supervision and can lead to nutrient deficiencies. In appointments, we suggest a rate of half a kilo of fat per week. The method is explained in the guide to losing fat without regaining it.

There is also a reason you cannot see in the mirror. Recommendations from the US network of clinics PPACMAN call for cardiovascular risk to be assessed from diagnosis, especially when psoriasis is moderate or severe [4]. People with psoriasis have higher rates of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol than the general population, and these conditions often go undiagnosed [4]. If high cholesterol is what brought you here, the high cholesterol guide covers it.

How to get the week ready with two cooking sessions

Nobody cooks seven days in a row, and this menu does not ask you to. Two cooking sessions are enough to keep it going.

On Sunday. Cook Monday’s lentils and make twice as much. Roast the pumpkin and peppers at the same time, boil half a dozen eggs and freeze the sliced bread.

Midweek. Make Thursday’s tomato sauce using two jars instead of one, and prepare enough leek and courgette soup for two days.

Dinners do not take long to prepare, because four of the seven can be made with a jar, a tin or two eggs with vegetables. On a day when nothing is ready, the nine quick dinner ideas work here too.