According to American Academy of Dermatology, foods do not directly cause eczema.
Research has shown time and again that there is no correlation between eczema and diet.
It is up for the individuals to decide whether such a finding is a "conspiracy" by medical and pharmaceutical industries to keep people dependent on drugs.
All you can do is to see if diet has an effect on your eczema.
For people with contact eczema, it is not so much the diet than what they actually come in contact with.
But for most people with eczema, looking at dietary changes is a worthwhile endeavor, especially if previous treatment plans have brought little or no relief.
The biggest problem with changing the diet is that it is extremely hard, without the right mindset.
There is a reason that the diet industry does so well and the bookstores are filled with books on how to succeed in this arena.
There also might be a complex relationship between food and eczema sufferers that needs to be overcome: people with chronic eczema are often told what they "cannot eat" from a young age that further telling them they need to restrict their diet might result in resentment.
The following three steps can get you started on making a relatively painless transition to eczema-friendly diet.
1.
Be honest with yourself Look at your existing eczema care protocol.
Are you following a disciplined skin care regimen that involves frequent daily moisturization and ways to reduce scratching? Are you avoiding all the foods that have previously known to cause flare-ups? Without establishing the proper baseline for what your skin looks like before the dietary change, it will be hard to keep track of what works.
2.
Start a diet journal Before attempting to make any changes in your diet, you can simply observe if certain foods make your skin worse.
The best way to do this is to keep a journal of everything you eat for the next 7 days.
Monitor the degree of itchiness throughout the day and make a note of that in your journal.
Also keep track of your water consumption.
3.
Eliminate slowly Never attempt to completely overhaul your diet at once, trying any "fad" diet you hear is good for your skin.
Eliminating all your favorite foods at once will burn you out for sure and you will give up too soon.
Look at the diet journal you keep and take out one thing that you think you can live without; this usually involves any kind of junk food or soda.
For some people, just eliminating sugar and caffeine can bring all the relief they need to reduce their eczema.