People who eat diets loaded with ultraprocessed foods such as frozen pizza, ready-to-eat meals, instant noodles, and many store-bought breads may be at greater risk for active psoriasis, according to a research letter in JAMA Dermatology.
For the study, researchers examined records for more than 18,500 people in a French health database. Of these, 1,825 had psoriasis, and 802 had “active” psoriasis. Participants were asked about their daily intake of ultraprocessed foods in grams.
People with active disease were 36% more likely be in the highest third of daily ultraprocessed food intake, compared to people who did not have psoriasis, the study showed.
The study wasn’t designed to determine cause and effect. The findings held even after researchers controlled for other factors known to affect psoriasis risk including age, BMI, alcohol intake, and comorbidities, suggesting that ultraprocessed food intake has a proinflammatory action separate from high BMI.
“More large-scale studies are needed to investigate the role of ultraprocessed food intake in psoriasis onset,” the study authors conclude.
