Eczema Elimination Diet: What Research Shows
About one-third to two-thirds of children with moderate to severe eczema also have a food allergy, suggesting a link between food and eczema. But food and food allergies are rarely the root cause of eczema.
Still, many people who wonder whether their diet affects their skin turn to elimination diets to see whether a particular food is to blame. Research has examined whether it’s an effective strategy for reducing symptoms or flares.
One research review that included data from nearly 600 people who participated in randomized controlled trials found that dietary elimination led to slight improvements in eczema severity for people with mild to moderate eczema, but the certainty of the evidence was low. Fifty percent of those who eliminated foods saw improvement, compared with 41 percent of those who ate their usual diet.
Those findings seem to promote elimination diets as beneficial for those with eczema, but they should be taken with a grain of salt.
“The study found that while elimination diets may help some patients, the risks of elimination diets may outweigh the potential benefit,” says Alice Hoyt, MD, a food allergist with Hoyt Institute of Food Allergy in Metairie, Louisiana, who was not involved with the study.
An article from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology and the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Joint Task Force argued that this review’s data analysis showed that most people who try an elimination diet would see little to no benefit. They also noted that avoiding the potential harms related to the diet, like the development of a new food allergy, were something that most people with eczema would want to prioritize.
It’s also possible that you may be incorrectly attributing eczema symptoms to food. The authors of another research review wrote that elimination diets frequently cause inaccurate identifications of food allergies, which in turn lead to unnecessary testing, referrals to new doctors, and changes to diet, while neglecting the basics of eczema treatment. Researchers argued that instead, certain foods or dietary supplements might be added to the diet to help manage atopic dermatitis.
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