Patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis have less healthy dietary patterns compared to those with mild disease, but no difference in adherence to dietary guidelines was found when comparing all patients with psoriasis to healthy controls.
Key Findings
Results
The majority of psoriasis patients reported following a healthy and varied diet, with a minority following specific therapeutic diets.
53% of patients reported a 'healthy and varied diet' and 39% 'no specific diet'
Approximately 10% practiced intermittent fasting
4% followed a Mediterranean diet, 3% a ketogenic/low-carb high-fat diet, and 2% an anti-inflammatory diet
Data were collected via a Food Frequency Questionnaire from 466 patients in the BIOSKIN cohort
Results
Overall adherence to national dietary guidelines was high among psoriasis patients.
90% of psoriasis patients showed high or intermediate adherence to dietary guidelines
The study population included 466 patients with psoriasis from the BIOSKIN cohort
Adherence was assessed against national dietary guidelines
Results
Patients with mild psoriasis adhered more often to dietary guidelines than those with moderate-to-severe disease.
33% of mild psoriasis patients showed high adherence compared to 17% of moderate-to-severe patients
This difference was statistically significant (p = 0.001)
This finding suggests less healthy dietary patterns in more severe disease
Results
No significant difference in dietary guideline adherence was observed between all psoriasis patients and matched healthy controls.
The comparison included 466 psoriasis patients and 1,029 healthy controls from the Copenhagen General Population Study
No significant difference was found (p = 0.79)
Controls were matched healthy individuals from a general population study
Conclusions
The cross-sectional study design precluded determination of causal relationships between diet and psoriasis.
The authors explicitly note that 'due to the cross-sectional nature of this study, the causal relationship between diet and psoriasis remains unclear'
The study compared dietary habits between patients and controls at a single time point
Psoriasis has a well-established association with obesity, but the role of diet remains unclear according to the authors
Martin H, Näslund-Koch C, Løvendorf M, Bojesen S, Kobylecki C, Vedel-Krogh S, et al.. (2026). Dietary habits, nutritional supplement use, and adherence to national dietary guidelines in patients with psoriasis.. Scientific reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-30571-8