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Dear Vegetarians,
In many ways a vegetarian diet can cure and prevent many common health ailments. Maintaining a vegetarian diet may significantly lower your chances of heart disease, many forms of cancer and osteoperosis.
But the question remains, is a vegetarian diet healthy for eczema-sufferers?
A few problems present themselves. While vegetarianism can not create or cause eczema, vegetarians who already suffer from eczema may be at a disadvantage due to vitamin deficiencies and dietary surplus.
Often, meat-less diets are very low in B vitamins and Fatty Acids. The B Vitamin complex is crucial to both maintaining healthy skin and damaged skin repair. B-6 and B-12 are particularly low in vegetarian diets and both, collectively, may significantly improve the condition of eczema-prone skin.
The metabolism of poly unsaturated fats takes place in the epithelial layer of the skin. The metabolites help form a semi-permiable layer of skin. Dietary dificiency of linolic acid (of Omega 6) often results in epidermal water loss. Omega 3 is known to have anti-inflammatory properties. Increasing Omega 3 oils in one's diet may help regulate immune responses in one's skin.
Also, there are several staples in a vegetarian's diet which may actually serve as allergens or irritants to the eczema prone person:
-----Soy (The vegetarian's dream, may be one of the largest problems of them all)
-----Lactose
-----Eggs
-----Nuts (Great for protein, great for allergies)
-----Citrus (Geez, what fruits don't have a little citrus acid in them?)
-----Gluten (Wheat, Rye, Barley)
So if you are vegetarian with eczema... your biggest concern isn't whether or not you are getting enough protein. You've got quite a few things to think about.
Love,
Lhea J.
