Chapter 19

Eczema-safe food charts

The food charts on the following pages are designed to show you what foods to favour if you have eczema. To avoid confusion, the first time you look at the food charts, just notice the headings ‘Strongly Alkalising’, ‘Alkalising’, ‘Acidifying’ and ‘Strongly Acidifying’ and familiarise yourself with the foods in each column. The ‘Strongly Alkalising’ foods are the best ones for balancing the body’s pH. Keep in mind that many of the ‘Acidifying’ foods, such as fish, beans and wholegrains, are an important part of a healthy diet so you do not need to avoid all of the acidifying foods, just the ones written in grey, which are not eczema-safe.

The next step when looking at the food charts is to note which foods are written in bold type. These are the foods you should favour during Stage 1 or while you suffer from eczema. As you can see in the charts, some of the best ‘Strongly alkalising’ foods (such as broccoli and dark leafy greens) are also rich in irritating chemicals so while they are very healthy foods, they are not eczema-safe (but they may be slowly introduced to the diet once your eczema has healed).

These charts are particularly useful if you’ve identified a food that causes your eczema to flare up. For example, if you react to beetroot you can look on the vegetable chart and you’ll see it’s marked with the letter S: this means it contains moderate salicylates and it can indicate you may be sensitive to salicylates. If this occurs, look at the table ‘Nutrients for liver detoxification, and see which nutrients you need to take to help your liver process salicylates.

Eczema-safe food charts: Stage 1

Symbols and abbreviations

bold Stage 1 eczema-safe ingredient to enjoy (allergy permitting)

grey ingredients to avoid while you have eczema

S moderate salicylate content

SS high to very high salicylate content

Su contains sulfites

A contains amines (or is histamine producing)

AA high to very high amine content

M natural flavour enhancer or artificial MSG

GI food with a high glycemic index (use chromium to balance blood sugar)

G contains gluten

? alkalising/acidifying status unconfirmed

! may cause severe reactions (avoid it!)

P may contain preservatives and/or artificial sweetener/flavours/colours