Foods to avoid if you have an autoimmune disease

Key takeaways

• While diet doesn’t directly cause autoimmune diseases, certain foods may trigger inflammation and, in turn, worsen some symptoms of autoimmune conditions.
• Avoiding specific foods, such as legumes, refined grains, nightshade vegetables, and dairy, may help manage inflammation and reduce flare-ups.
• Incorporating foods like non-nightshade vegetables, whole grains, fermented foods, and minimally processed meats, along with appropriate medications, can aid in managing autoimmune diseases and minimizing symptom flare-ups.

Overview

Inflammation occurs when the immune system responds to an external trigger, such as bacteria or a virus. But with autoimmune diseases, your immune system recognizes parts of your body as an external threat, leading to a chronic inflammatory response.

Autoimmune disease can affect different parts of your body. Some examples include:

• psoriasis, which affects the skin
• inflammatory bowel disease, which affects your digestive system
• rheumatoid arthritis, which affects your joints

Many lifestyle factors, including nutrition, can cause additional inflammation and trigger a flare-up of an autoimmune disease. Eating particular types of foods can increase the symptoms of your autoimmune condition. These include greasy and deep-fried fast food, certain vegetables, and foods high in sugar, gluten, and dairy.

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How can food affect autoimmune conditions?

While your diet does not typically cause the development of an autoimmune disease (such as celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, or psoriasis), what you eat can affect the levels of inflammation in your body and the onset and severity of your symptoms. Foods that are rich in salt, fats, and sugars may increase inflammation.

Eating refined and highly processed foods can disrupt the regular function of your gastrointestinal system and affect the bacterial flora in your gut. The change in bacteria in your gut can interact with your immune system, leading to more inflammation that can trigger a flare-up of the symptoms of your autoimmune condition.

Foods to avoid with autoimmune diseases

If you have an autoimmune disease, you may want to avoid certain foods, including:

• Legumes: These include beans, lentils, peanuts, soybeans, and peas and their derived foods, including tofu, plant-based mock meats, tempeh, and peanut butter.
• Refined grains: This includes wheat, rice, rye, barley, and oats, along with the foods derived from them, such as crackers, bread, pasta, and breakfast cereals.
• Nuts and seeds: This includes any type of seed and nut, as well as foods derived from them, such as butter and oils, or spices like cumin, anise, nutmeg, mustard, or coriander.
• Eggs: You may want to avoid eggs and any foods that contain them.
• Dairy: People with autoimmune diseases may want to stop drinking or eating any type of animal milk, such as cow’s, sheep’s, and goat’s milk, and foods that derive from them, such as cheese, butter, cream, and dairy-based protein powders and supplements.
• Nightshade vegetables: Potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, tomatillos, and peppers or spices derived from them, like paprika, can make immune diseases worse.
• Beverages: Certain drinks containing alcohol, caffeine, or added refined sugars may worsen inflammation.
• Refined or processed sugars: Products such as corn syrup, brown rice syrup, beet or cane sugar, soda, candy, sweets, chocolate, and processed frozen desserts can cause inflammation.
• Processed vegetable oils: These include rapeseed, sunflower, canola, corn, safflower, soybean, palm kernel, and cottonseed oils.
• Artificial sweeteners and food additives: This includes artificial sweeteners, such as stevia or xylitol, food colorings, trans fats, thickeners, and emulsifiers.

Foods to try with autoimmune diseases

Foods that people with autoimmune diseases may consider trying include:

• Vegetables: Apart from nightshade vegetables and algae, which you may want to avoid, vegetables are usually beneficial for people with autoimmune diseases.
• Whole grains: Including barley, bulgur, farro, quinoa, and black or brown rice. Favor whole grains over refined grains as they can provide you with fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients.
• Tubers: This includes artichokes, sweet potatoes, taro, and yams.
• Fresh fruit: Eating fruit in moderation can provide vitamins and other important nutrients.
• Fermented, probiotic-rich foods: Fermented food, including kombucha, pickles, coconut kefir, or sauerkraut, can provide probiotics that can help your gut. However, avoid consuming dairy-based fermented foods.
• Minimally processed meat: Fish, seafood, wild game, and organic meats and poultry can be good sources of nutrients. If possible, favor grass-fed, pasture-raised, or wild meats.
• Bone broth: This is packed with nutrients, such as minerals, vitamins, proteins, and collagen.
• Minimally processed vegetable oils: This includes olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil.
• Vinegar: Such as balsamic, apple cider, or red wine vinegar. Make sure they do not contain any added sugars.
• Herbs and spices: These are usually safe for people with autoimmune diseases as long as they are not chili- or seed-derived.
• Natural sweeteners: Using maple syrup or honey in moderation does not typically trigger flare-ups.
• Certain teas: These can be a great alternative to caffeinated or alcoholic drinks. Herbal teas also have several beneficial effects on your health.

Medications for autoimmune diseases

While there is no cure for autoimmune diseases, you can try several treatment options to manage your symptoms and reduce the activity of your immune system. The treatment typically depends on the type of autoimmune disease you have and the severity of your symptoms.

The medications for autoimmune diseases may include:

• over-the-counter (OTC) pain relief medications, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol)
• OTC nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen (Advil)
• corticosteroids to suppress the activity of the immune system, including:
  • prednisolone (Millipred)
  • prednisone (Prelone)
  • budesonide (Entocort EC)
• biologic drugs to reduce and prevent inflammation, including:
  • adalimumab (Humira)
  • golimumab (Simponi)
  • vedolizumab (Entyvio)

However, taking certain types of drugs, such as corticosteroids, for a long period of time may cause serious side effects, such as:

• high blood pressure
• reduced blood sugar management
• increased risk of infections
• bone loss (osteoporosis)
• cataracts

For this reason, doctors may prescribe you a combination of different types of drugs to manage your autoimmune disease, recommending the use of corticosteroids only for certain restricted periods, like during a flare-up.

It may take some time to find the appropriate combination of drugs, and you should always speak with a doctor if your symptoms do not improve.

However, medications alone may not be enough to manage autoimmune diseases. Doctors can discuss with you what dietary and lifestyle changes can be beneficial for improving your health conditions and reducing the chance of symptom flare-ups.

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Summary

Eating certain types of foods, such as highly processed foods, refined sugars, and dairy products, can increase inflammation in your body.

This is because these foods can interact with the bacterial flora in your gut and disrupt its function. When this occurs, your immune system may activate and cause inflammation. If you have an autoimmune disease, this can worsen your symptoms.

A combination of good nutrition, a healthy lifestyle, and medications can help you manage your autoimmune disease and reduce the chance of symptom flare-ups.

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