The Eczema Diet

If you have eczema, you might be wondering whether the food you eat plays a part in not only triggering a flare up, but also plays a part in healing. Do you need an eczema diet?

The answer would be a definitive YES to both. Food can definitely play a part in setting off a flare up and is a huge part of the healing process.

As eczema is a highly inflammatory skin condition, you want to remove the highest inflammation causing foods to reduce the body burden and allow the body and skin to repair.

Possible Food triggers for Eczema:

Removing these foods will not cure the eczema in you or your child, but it will alleviate the symptoms and reduce flare ups.

• Gluten

• Dairy

• Refined Sugar

• Nuts

• Soy

• Corn

• Eggs

• Shellfish

• Possibly Fish

The first step would be to remove GLUTEN, DAIRY & SUGAR as these are the HIGHEST inflammation causing foods and remove the other foods as secondary if symptoms still remain.

Sometimes, even after you have removed ALL of the above foods, symptoms still persist.

If that is happening for you, then the intolerance may lie deeper and may be caused by naturally occurring food chemicals, which include:

• Histamine or Amine

• Salicylates

• Fodmap

This is where food elimination diets can get really tricky and complicated – unless you are working with someone that can help you navigate nutrition and identify the best starting point for you and your family.

So looking at the above list, you may be thinking, what on earth can I eat???? Let’s focus on that instead.

 The eczema diet food list

Without a shadow of a doubt, the diet must be rich in whole and real food and free from any additives, preservatives or colours.

The specific beneficial foods to include are:

• Fatty Fish- Such as salmon, cod and herring which are high in essential fatty acids, omega 3 and said to be ant-inflammatory

• Foods high in quercetin which is a natural powerful antioxidant and anti-histamine (great if you are avoiding high histamine and amine foods)

• Probiotic containing foods – these will greatly support the immune system as well as aid healing the gut.

• Quality sources of pastured protein - meat and quality dairy (if not removing)

Your Eczema Diet Shopping List:

• Salmon, Herring, sardines or cod

• Organic pastured grass-fed meat or grass fed at a minimum

• Apples

• Blueberries

• Cherries

• Broccoli

• Spinach

• Kale

• Avocado

• Olive oil

• Seeds

• Good quality yoghurt

• Sourdough bread sparingly

• Miso soup

• Naturally fermented pickles

• Sauerkraut

• Fermented drinks and tonics

• Tempeh

• Good quality grass-fed bones to make bone broth

Where to from here?

Any food that triggers eczema that you choose to eliminate from your diet, should NOT be long term. The purpose of the elimination serves purely as a window of healing to provide the body the right environment to heal whilst you treat the root causes.

While all this information is useful, I have to stress that the food is not the problem, it is merely a trigger and the problem lies much deeper in a root cause such as:

1. nutritional deficiencies,

2. gut microbiome imbalance,

3. high levels of toxicity and

4. high stress levels and toxic mindset.

This is where your focus needs to be.

Rather than micro managing a food elimination diet that can be rather tricky and overwhelming, you need to get help to navigate this journey with the right level of support.

If you are interested in how I can support you during this journey, please email me at info@chantalkhoury.com.au or head to my contact page and leave me a message there.

Chantal is a Certified and Accredited Nutriton & Wellness Coach with a special interest helping stressed and overwhelmed mums create robust and thriving families using healing nutrition and transformational wellness practices.