How Eczema and Diet are Related
This may or may not come as a surprise to some of you, but some of the things that you eat could actually be a factor in what causes eczema! To clarify, there aren’t any foods that will give you eczema just by eating it, but they may aggravate it if you already have a history of eczema conditions such as atopic dermatitis and contact dermatitis. If you’ve read or heard something like this before from your doctor, or even from a news source, then you may have a general idea of what foods are known to cause a reaction. But did you know there are foods and supplements that can actually prevent eczema from breaking out? If you knew that treating your eczema could be as simple as changing what you eat, wouldn’t you do it?
How eczema relates to your diet is what this article is all about. You will find that eczema treatments or “eczema cures” don’t always require expensive gels and creams, but can start at home just by watching what you eat. As you read on, you will learn about which foods to eat and which ones to avoid in a relatively simplistic eczema diet. Remember that each individual is different, and that common trigger foods that cause a breakout in one person may not cause one in another. This is why we highly recommend keeping a food diary, and taking notes on a daily basis on what you eat, and how it effects your body.
Common Food Triggers
Although everyone is different, in most cases, the following foods and substances are identified with causing a breakout of the skin:
Dairy products, usually from cow’s milk, including various cheeses.- Wheat products, including anything and everything that contains wheat, such as foods baked with wheat flour.
- Acidic fruits such as oranges, cranberries and blueberries.
- Seafood, which usually pertains to shellfish like oysters and mussels, but may also include scaly fish.
- Eggs, and anything that is cooked with eggs.
- Corn, and any corn based product such as corn sugar or corn syrup.
- Soy and soy products are also known to be a trigger of eczema.
- Nuts, such as cashews and almonds, and foods casually grouped with nuts, such as the peanut.
- Food additives, such as MSG and sodium glutamate, food preservatives, and artificial colorings can also trigger a breakout.
Elimination of Trigger Foods
The next step to take is to start your own personal eczema diet by eliminating the foods that may contain one or more of these products. When a trigger food is consumed, some people may experience an immediate breakout of eczema within two hours. A delayed response may as long as a full day. This makes finding the foods that trigger eczema in you based on a lot of trial and error. If you notice an aggravation in your eczema, take out your food diary, and begin to list the foods that you have consumed within the past 24 hours. Keep in mind that they may have been a different cause of inflammation during this time, such as contact with an irritant or even the weather, and if you know these things to cause breakouts on your skin, be sure to make a note of it.
After you have made your list, compare it to the list of common food triggers above. Do any of the them match? Or have you had any products what were prepared with one ingredient or the other? Now is the time to start to cut out the trigger foods one by one, and keep a record of your progress. After a certain time, you will have to reintroduce the foods you have cut out back into your diet to clarify if it was your personal food trigger. If you notice your body recovering from the breakout, or breakouts, and after reintroducing a particular trigger food, conditions begin to worsen, then you have found your trigger food, and it is necessary to cut this out of your diet.
Natural Eczema Treatment In Your Diet
We brought you the bad news, or which foods can cause an aggravation of your eczema. Now it’s time to bring up some good news. There are some foods and supplements you can find at your grocery store, whole foods store or even health food store that can act as a natural remedy for your eczema. One such product is probiotic yogurt, or yogurt with active cultures. These cultures found in yogurt boost your immune system, and help cleanse your body of toxins. Fruits and vegetables that are rich in vitamin C (but are not acidic fruits), such as cantaloupe, tomatoes, broccoli, and sweet potatoes, are known to work much like an antihistamine that reduces the irritants found in eczema.
Foods high in essential fatty acids help prevent breakouts of food related eczema. A common supplement that people take for their eczema is fish oil, which has the essential fatty acids people need. However, it is clinically proven that people who are deficient in essential fatty acids tend to have more problems with eczema than those who are not, so it is better to include these foods into your diet overall, as opposed to a single supplement. When shopping for your typical groceries, you should also buy organic. You may have been told this for numerous other reasons, but when it comes to eczema specifically, by buying organic, you reduce the risk of outbreak by eating foods with additives or synthetic compounds. Along with your essential fatty acids, it would be a good habit to continue to buy fresh organic foods where you can, and foods that have been minimally modified otherwise.
Tags: eczema diet, eczema treatment, what causes eczema
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