Chapter 4
The Eczema Diet: how it works
The Eczema Diet is a holistic health program that incorporates both the avoidance of offending substances and the addition of eczema-safe foods and nutrients to boost the health of your liver, blood and gastrointestinal tract, and restore skin health.
Promote liver detoxification of chemicals
The Eczema Diet recipes supply nutrients required for Phase 2 liver detoxification and antioxidants vitamin C, vitamin E, quercetin and alpha-lipoic acid to increase protection against free radicals, which can be created during Phase 1 liver detoxification. Promoting proper liver detoxification can reverse or reduce multiple chemical sensitivities (this can take time to achieve). While foods can supply many of the nutrients required for liver detoxification, additional supplementation is beneficial, so also refer to Table 4, ‘Nutrients for liver detoxification’, and Chapter 6, ‘Eczema supplements’.
Restore acid–alkaline balance
While you are on the Eczema Diet you’ll learn how to create acid–alkaline balanced meals that are nutritious and beneficial for your eczema. There is a handy chart for quick reference that will help you identify alkalising and acidifying foods (see Eczema-safe food charts).
Reduce chemical load
The Eczema Diet consists of Stage 1 and Stage 2. These are not to be confused with Phase 1 and Phase 2 liver detoxification, which was discussed in Chapter 3. Stage 1 takes a range of problematic chemicals out of the diet to give your liver, gastrointestinal tract, kidneys and skin fewer chemicals to deal with, without suppressing liver function. This includes avoiding artificial chemicals and limiting the natural ones. Natural amines and salicylates are taken out of the diet for three days during the 3-day Alkalising Cleanse, then they are consumed in lower amounts during Stage 1 and increased in Stage 2. During the rest of Stage 1 you can eat moderate salicylate foods such as carrots, sweet potato, cos (romaine) lettuce and beetroot, and amine-containing foods such as banana. These have been specially selected as they have the added benefit of being alkalising (beetroot is strongly alkalising) and they offer important nutrients for skin protection and maintenance.
The Eczema Diet includes non-diet information because your environment affects your skin. Exposing your skin to irritating chemicals and soap products can affect your results so it’s important to have an eczema-safe skin care routine before you begin the program. Part 2 covers practical non-diet information, beginning see section entitled “Non-diet information”.
Everybody has a birthday and you might like to occasionally eat a treat or drink alcohol. The Eczema Diet covers eczema-safe party foods and special occasion treats. These foods, while containing acid-forming sugar, are low in chemicals that can trigger flare-ups so their occasional use should be well tolerated. (Read Chapter 15, ‘Party food guide + lolly bags’.)
Reduce anti-nutrients
During Stages 1 and 2 anti-nutrients are minimised. While it is impossible to totally eliminate anti-nutrients from your diet, high intakes of anti-nutrients can be problematic for eczema sufferers because they interfere with the absorption of skin-repairing minerals.
There are two main ways anti-nutrients lower nutrients in the body. First, anti-nutrients can require a range of vitamins and minerals in order for the body to digest and detoxify them, and they rob these nutrients from your body in the process. For example, packaged foods rich in sugar and white flour are low in nutrients so while they satisfy your hunger they do not supply the nutrients your body needs for healthy skin, plus they rob some of your body’s stores of vitamins and minerals during digestion and detoxification (which means fewer nutrients for skin repair and maintenance). Second, anti-nutrients can bind to nutrients so your body can’t use them. For example, avidin in raw egg whites is an anti-nutrient as it binds to biotin and frequent consumption causes a deficiency (and dermatitis is the first symptom to follow). Phytic acid is another anti-nutrient that binds to the minerals calcium, iron, zinc and copper. Most types of grains and legumes, while they are an important source of dietary fibre to cleanse the bowel of toxins and cancer-causing substances, contain phytic acid. It is for this reason that I recommend soaking your grains, legumes and nuts (if consuming cashews). This is easy to do and instructions can be found in individual recipes later in the book, and discussed further in the sections ‘How to soak grains’, and ‘Cooking guide for legumes’.
Supply antihistamine nutrients
As eczema sufferers can have elevated histamine levels, the Eczema Diet ensures you are consuming the antihistamine nutrients vitamin C, vitamin B6 and quercetin. While these are provided in foods such as papaya, pawpaw, mung bean sprouts, brussels sprouts and spring onions (scallions), it is necessary to take these nutrients in supplement form to help minimise allergic reactions and prevent histamine toxicity. Refer to Chapter 6, ‘Eczema supplements’.
Balance fat ratios
The Eczema Diet shows you how to eat the correct ratios of fats by limiting omega-6 oils (no margarine and restricted use of vegetable oils) and increasing omega-3 in the diet by encouraging fish, flaxseed oil and linseed consumption. Saturated fat intake is lowered to decrease the amount of arachidonic acid you are consuming, so the omega-3 fats you consume can be more easily taken up by your cells. For more information, refer to ‘Abnormal fat metabolism’.
Improve gastrointestinal health
The Eczema Diet is designed to be gentle on your gastrointestinal tract. During Stage 1, foods and drinks that can cause intestinal permeability are taken out of the diet and a probiotic supplement can be taken if desired. Once your gastrointestinal health has strengthened, you can slowly reintroduce a wider range of foods into your diet in Stage 2. If during Stage 2 you find you are still sensitive to a particular food, you should avoid it for a further 2 months and then try eating it again if desired. When reintroducing these foods, introduce one new food every 3 days so you can clearly identify problematic foods. There is an ‘unofficial’ Stage 3 that shows you how to introduce wheat and dairy products into your diet if you choose to consume them. Intestinal permeability information is in Table 2: Causes of intestinal permeability and probiotic information in section entitled “Probiotics”.
Symbols and abbreviations
The following is a guide to the symbols and abbreviations used throughout this book:
recipe or vegetable with alkalising properties
recipe or vegetable with strongly alkalising properties
recipe or fruit rich in vitamin C and/or potassium
recipe or wholegrain containing dietary fibre for gastrointestinal health
recipe or ingredient rich in protein and may contain iron
recipe contains 1 serve of hydrating liquid
S moderate salicylate content
SS high to very high salicylate content
A moderate amine content
AA high to very high amine content
M contains monosodium glutamate (MSG—natural or artificial flavour enhancer)
G contains gluten
GF gluten-free ingredient
GI ingredient with a high glycaemic index which affects blood sugar2
The Eczema Diet points system
The Eczema Diet has a simple points system to help you follow the program and meet the body’s nutritional needs. Beside the name of a recipe you’ll note there are a range of symbols. These are to help you quickly identify what the recipe offers you in the way of nutrition. You have five goals each day:
Each recipe has a star rating, being no stars, one star or two stars. Your goal is to consume five or more stars each day to meet your vegetable, antioxidant and alkalising requirements for good health. This is an important step in preventing eczema.
Recipes containing fruit have an apple symbol beside them (this does not mean the recipe contains apple or that you should eat an apple). You need to consume two each day to meet your daily vitamin C and potassium requirements. Do not eat too much fruit, especially if you have signs of fungal overgrowth, dandruff or candida albicans. If you are craving sweets, an extra piece of fruit is allowed.
Recipes containing wholegrain or wholemeal dietary fibre have beside it a ‘roughage’ symbol (that looks a bit like a grass prickle). You must eat at least two daily to ensure you are consuming sufficient dietary fibre to promote healthy microflora and to cleanse the bowel of toxins and carcinogens. Note that pears are a valuable source of soluble fibre so they may be marked with this symbol.
You must eat two protein ingredients each day to ensure you are consuming enough protein for skin repair and maintenance. Protein-rich foods are usually good sources of iron, which is vital for healthy skin. If you are vegan you may require an iron supplement (refer to vegetarian and vegan information in section entitled “Vegetarians and vegans”).
The fifth goal is to drink plenty of liquids to hydrate the gastrointestinal tract and your skin (goal of five to a maximum of eight). Each glass of filtered water, eczema-safe vegetable juice (such as Tarzan Juice), organic rice milk, Therapeutic Broth, or soup counts for liquid intake.
Simple rules to follow
You can follow the Eczema Diet points system without looking at the recipes, simply by remembering the following rules:
1. Eat five serves of eczema-safe vegies daily
2. Eat two pieces of eczema-safe fruit daily
3. Eat at least two serves of eczema-safe grains daily
4. Eat two serves of eczema-safe protein daily
5. Drink five to eight glasses of filtered water daily (including eczema-safe vegetable juices and soups).
(A serve equals 1/2 a cup, so five serves of vegetables is approximately 2 1/2 cups.)
For easy reference you can photocopy this page and keep it on your refrigerator. Note: You may choose to not follow the points system if you wish, but doing so may affect your results. Alternatively, you might want to follow it for the first two weeks (the menus will show you how, so you don’t have to work it out by yourself). By then, you should have a good idea of how to follow the program.