If you have read my previous posts, then you will know about my struggles with eczema. I have had eczema since really little. I know in the past that the wild rose cleanse has helped control my eczema.  Diet plays such an important role when it comes to skin.  A little while ago I purchased the book “the Eczema diet” by Karen Fischer.  My hope with this book, is to find a cure that suites my life style. (I just love to eat too much).  I have in the past gone to my doctor to get cortisone cream. This is just a quick cure for the surface of your skin. It helps to reduce the inflammation and control the spread of dry skin.  I wouldn’t say I am an expert on eczema but I have been reading articles on it for a long time now.  To be able to cure your eczema you need to go to the source. I believe mine is my diet.

This book is very helpful as it tells you why your skin might be the way it is, why you need to eat certain foods, why we have reactions… There is so much information in this book.

A little background info about our skin. Our skin is the organ where we can see what is going on in the inside of our bodies.  Our liver is the organ that removes toxins from our body. If it is overworked, the toxins have no where else to go but through our skin. One side effect could be us developing eczema. When  I talk about toxins, I don’t just mean pesticides and man made chemicals. It also means things our body is allergic to: gluten, salicylates, amines, etc.  Anything that causes our body to produce histamines.  To help cure ourselves we need to heal our insides. We do this by removing food sensitivities.  This is the hard part.  Each of us are different and have different sensitivities.  Some of us are sensitive to gluten, others are onions, or dairy.  To be able to identify what we are sensitive to we need to eliminate everything from our diet and slowly introduce different foods one at a time and wait to see our results.  Another cause for eczema is not having balanced pH.  Cooked food, meat, dairy, fats are examples of foods that are acidifying.  We balance this out by eating foods that are basic or alkaline: celery, vegetables, fruit, etc.  Eczema sufferers could also have problems absorbing essential vitamins and minerals. They sometimes have problems with their flora in their gut. By balancing out our gut flora by eating foods high in probiotics can help us have a better digestive system and allow us to absorb the minerals and vitamins in our foods.  The eczema diet focuses on all of these. It identifies the foods that we are sensitive to, helps to balance our pH and promotes us healing our liver and insides by nutritious foods high is vitamins and minerals that we are lacking.

I wouldn’t say my eczema is really bad, but is bothers me. It is itchy and dry.  Because I am a teacher, I use my hands a lot.  Students often ask about my hands. HAHA I tell them it is from all the stress they cause me! That could be partly true as stress does trigger eczema.  The picture below was taken on the first day of the cleanse.

This week I have started with the Stage 1 of the eczema diet.  I have to eliminate all types of foods and allow my skin to heal. During this stage I am balancing out my pH by eating lots of alkalizing foods.  You are also supposed to take supplements but I am not going to yet.

I am allowed to eat pears (peeled),

white or new potato, (haha these are yellow potatoes…. shhh hope it is ok)

brussel sprouts (or cabbage),

sprouted mung beans, chickpeas,

green onion, garlic

iceberg lettuce (or romaine), leeks (only white part),

homemade broth, carrots, beets, celery etc.

You continue with Stage 1 of the detox until your eczema has cleared up. Or you notice a change in your skin. This first stage allows your toxins to clear up as this part of the diet is low in chemicals.  Stage 2 is where you slowly introduce foods and allow a couple days to see if there are any reactions.  I started it three days after the start of my detox. It was very hard since I am limited to only certain foods and spices.  I am not allowed wheat, dairy, Kombucha, or eggs, which will make it hard for me.  Eventually on this diet you can slowly introduce other foods as your liver and skin gets stronger.

Day 1: Feeling tired. I am not allowed any coffee.  I ate potato and sprouts with Tarzan Juice in the morning. For lunch, I ate iceberg lettuce and mung bean sprouts with Tarzan Juice. I snacked on banana and papaya (which is also good for eczema suffers). For dinner I had the chickpea casserole and salad and Tarzan juice.  By the end of the day I had a huge head ache I think from caffeine withdrawal.

Day 2: My skin on my hands doesn’t seem like it is getting better. Food is ok but lacking flavor from spices.  I miss coffee and meat.  I ate a bowl of salad made from iceberg lettuce, green onion, celery and mung beans with almost every meal. I ate chickpea casserole and broth for dinner.

Day 3: More flare ups. I am not sure if it is something I am eating or detox symptoms. I hope it is not from eating fruit.

On the first day of the detox you make a chickpea casserole. It last for a couple days so that you can eat the same thing… the same thing 😦  It was tasty but by the third day everything tastes like celery.

So far the detox has been good.  I find the wild rose detox more manageable.  There are lots of recipes that  you can try on this detox.  There is a list of stage one and stage two foods.  I am going to continue to eat stage one foods for a while to see how that helps my eczema. This also means no more dairy or sugar or wheat for a while.

One thing I didn’t like about this book is that the information seems like it is all over the place.  There isn’t a clear idea of what stage one is or what the liver detox is. So hopefully I am following this book carefully enough.  I did find the 14 day meal plan helpful as it lays out the meals that you should eat everyday, including snacks and recipes.

I am going to continue this eczema series on this blog and update you on how it goes.

Here is the Tarzan juice recipe. It is my savior.  Because I don’t have a juicer, I have been making a smoothie out of it.

Tarzan juice– very alkalizing which helps with liver detoxing (thumbs up to this smoothie!)

• 1/4 cup sprouted Mung Beans
• 4 stalks celery
• 2 ripe pears peeled
• filtered water

Blend everything together and enjoy throughout the day.  I have been putting it in mason jars so that I can take one with me if I go out.  I tend to make a big batch each morning which lasts me until dinner time.  It is great when you are hungry during this detox and need a quick snack.

Check out other recipes on our blog https://eatitnoworeatitlater.com/recipe-list/