Does avoiding certain foods or including more superfoods in your diet really show on your skin? Let’s look into it!
The effects of food on atopic dermatitis
Dry, itchy rashes on the skin, which doctors usually diagnose as atopic dermatitis, mostly flare up because of:
- Genetics
- Allergies
- Human “error”.
Let’s look at each of these causes separately.
Atopic dermatitis caused by genetics
Our skin is a mirror of our genetic makeup and changes over time.
You get beautiful skin as a baby, then all of a sudden there’s acne, followed by beautiful skin again and then the skin starts to dry out as you age.
Sound familiar?
The truth of the matter is that no one can change their genetic makeup, but skin regenerates with moisture and that we can change!
When it comes to your diet, it’s not so much about consuming foods that moisturize the skin, but more about avoiding foods that dry it out.
And here’s the sad part… sugar and saturated fats dry out your skin the most. It’s a truly painful fact – who can even imagine a life without sugar and saturated fats?
Well, there might be a way to have your cake and eat it too…
If you’d like to know how to still eat sugar and not have it dry out your skin and which fats to include in your diet to keep your skin moisturized, sign up for our newsletter below!
All signed up? Let’s continue …
Atopic dermatitis caused by allergies
Every once in a while we receive returns because our moisturizer doesn’t suit the client’s skin.
I always ask the client if they’re allergic to something.
Most of them reply with a resounding no, even after they’ve been tested.
Strangely enough, the rashes on their skin don’t quite look like atopic dermatitis.
People often don’t realize that they are allergic to something and tests are not always specific enough to reveal these ‘hidden’ allergies.
The best course of action is to completely eliminate a specific food for a certain period of time to see which food affects you negatively.
That’s why elimination diets are usually a good way to deal with atopic dermatitis caused by allergies, since topical corticosteroids and immunomodulators can’t do much.
People who have these ‘hidden’ allergies and develop atopic dermatitis are very rare and are in fact mostly children.
In most people allergies are much more obvious and easier to recognize.
Atopic dermatitis caused by human “error”
Atopic dermatitis is especially typical of vegetarians and vegans, since their diet is based on carbohydrates.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with being vegan or vegetarian; this is just to confirm the fact that sugar really does dry out the skin.
Veggies, on the other hand, are just about the only food that helps your skin stay moisturized.
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Another human ‘error’ is the use of probiotics, which the human skin needs… But they have to come from the right source!
Most people make the wrong choice about which probiotics to include in their diets and sometimes it’s a little hard to believe what people consume without thinking twice.
Nowadays, every other store sells these bogus capsules, which the young generations pop like candy without thinking about the consequences.
Some other mistakes that can cause atopic dermatitis are:
- using synthetic fabric softeners
- washing your skin with overly hot water
- overusing soaps
- using moisturizers that contain too many emulsifiers
We’ll discuss those next time, but just know for now that if we avoided all these things, most of our skin issues would essentially disappear.
Now let’s draw some conclusions…
Based on my own experiences and the abundance of studies I’ve read I can draw the conclusion that establishing a diet that works for you is a fantastic way to deal with atopic dermatitis.
However, a good diet can only make your symptoms milder, so having an appropriate skincare routine is just as important, if not more.
You can find one of the best skincare solutions by clicking below and browsing our website.
Thank you for hanging out with me today and until next time,
