Plant Based Diet for for Contact Dermatitis

This is part two of a blog series focusing on the natural, functional ways I cured my own eczema. This blog covers how a plant-based diet aided in healing my eczema.

What I put in my body was the most important part of my natural eczema healing journey.

It isn't that I didn't care what went into my body, but I once had a distorted view of what healthy is. Unfortunately, that made my eczema worse. I didn't always have a healthy relationship with food. But that all started to change during my last semesters in college. As I learned more about my gut microbiome over the years, I grew to love my gut microbiome… and if you love something you take care of it…right?

I didn't just get a degree in microbiology, you guys… when I started to learn about the natural world of microbes I became a full-on microbiology nerd. Microbes became my passion, my love, my calling. I began to see how microbes related to EVERYTHING I did in a day. If I was eating, cooking, gardening, flossing my teeth, going for a walk, traveling, basically doing anything at all, I could tie the action back to microbes in some kind of way.

Microbiome centered health

A lot of science degrees are tailored to pre-med, so you end up learning a lot of anthropocentric views of microbes and mostly about pathogens (i.e. how microbes kill humans).

Luckily, I elected to take a few microbiology classes that taught me about microbes and food, microbes in nature, and how microbes are literally a part of everything good in life. Our lives, and the lives of all creatures and plants actually, depend on microbes. I'm here writing this blog because of microbes. You are here reading this, because of microbes.  I no longer have eczema because of microbes.

Focusing On Gut Health for Natural Eczema Healing

Long story short, I learned all about fermenting vegetables and the microbiology of fermentation in my Junior year of college. That made me fall down what I like to call a "research rabbit hole," learning more and more every day about the microbes involved in vegetable fermentation and how they impact gut health… which impacts all other areas of health, including skin and skin microbiome health.

The human microbiome

The human microbiome basically serves as a necessary, complex organ in and on our bodies. The functions of the microbiome govern your health on the same level as your heart, brain, and liver… and more so, because the health of your microbiome influences the health of all other organ systems in the body. The human microbiome produces many, many metabolic substances that direct a plethora of human bodily functions.  Thankfully, if you have a not-so-great microbiome it's relatively easy to adjust the makeup of your microbiome to be healthier and more beneficial.  This applies to the skin microbiome as well as the gut microbiome.

Skin Microbiome Health

Having balanced microbiomes can translate to having clearer skin, a healthier weight, and healthier bowel movements. A healthy microbiome is a key factor in the prevention and control of common ailments. Everything from allergies and eczema to anxiety, depression, cancer, and diabetes is all influenced by gut health. Basically, multitudes of research show that the microbiome should be factored into treatment plans for any and every type of ailment.

With this in mind, I started a journey into eating for my microbiome. I started eating with the goal of forming the healthiest thriving microbiome possible. I wanted to eat for my microbiome mainly because I have a respect for the microbial ecosystem in my gut. Also, I had a feeling that my gut microbiome was a key factor in finding a way to cure my own eczema. This all meant that I needed to switch to a dietary lifestyle focusing on an abundance of plant based foods and fermented vegetables.

My First Venture Into A Plant Based Diet

I decided to go vegan for the first time around August of 2015. However, I had no idea what I was doing. I was eating bagels for breakfast, the same vegetables every day at lunch, and homemade bean burritos every night. That's about it, I wasn't even taking any vitamins. Needless to say, I was a malnourished vegan. This way of eating only lasted about 5 months before I went back to eating cheese and sometimes meat… But I hated meat. Eating it always gave me heartburn and I was afraid to handle it and cook it.

Ever since I studied parasitology and bacterial disease in the same semester meat just isn't appetizing to me anymore. In microbiology labs when you want to grow pathogenic microbes on a petri dish, that petri dish is usually made with tissue, blood, or meat from animals. If I remember correctly, the broth we always used to grow Clostridium species  (a VERY bad type of bacteria) in the lab is called "chopped meat broth".  This led me to my own way of thinking about the benefits of a plant-based diet. If you use meats and animal tissues to isolate and grow bad, pathogenic microbes in a lab setting… then, maybe, animal proteins aren't the greatest thing for a healthy gut microbiome.

Learning what healthy really means

So I tried eating vegan again, and this time I did better. I started intuitively eating and incorporating more varieties of legumes, eating lots of sprouted beans and seeds, eating fermented and/or sprouted soy, and eating a larger variety of seasonal and local vegetables. I began my life long love affair with potatoes, avocados, and rice. If I had to put a label on the way I currently eat I would say that I am "Plant-Based." Occasionally I do consume broths made from animal bones, and about once a month (during my period)  I crave salmon, so I eat it salmon.

I've come to this place in my eating where the label isn't important. I don't need to call myself vegan to be my healthiest self or to be classified as eco-friendly.  I eat for my gut microbiome and my skin health in the most sustainable, eco-friendly way possible. It's called balance. I don't count macros, or calories or anything at all really. Instead, I listen to my body and feed myself with the best foods that I can afford.

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Fermented Vegetables Are The Best Thing For Gut Health.

The major change in my skin health came after we started Cultured Guru. About half a year into business owning, we started eating our own fermented food products every day with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We wanted to create recipes with our own food products so we had to start getting creative with ways to incorporate fermented foods into almost every meal. I was fully vegan and about 75% raw vegan for a year, while Jon was mostly vegetarian.

My intake of fermented foods and raw plants increased tenfold, and my skin health improved tenfold. Being mostly-vegan and eating fermented foods every day allowed my intestines and gut microbiome to heal from the damage I inflicted upon them in college ( I ate a lot of cheese and bread in college). Since fermented foods contain bacteria from nature that are more adapt to survive the digestive journey, they made a huge positive impact on my gut health.

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Check out how far I've come in my skin healing journey. ??

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  The facial eczema I suffered with for approximately 8 years. This picture was taken 3 days after discontinuing the use of steroid cream. The inflammation and facial swelling was due to steroid withdrawal.

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  After 1 year of an extremely gut-health focused diet, elimination of inflammatory foods, elimination of steroid cream, an all natural skin care routine, proper daily hydration and exercise. Now I just have light scarring on my eyelids.

The facial eczema I suffered with for approximately 8 years. This picture was taken 3 days after discontinuing the use of steroid cream. The inflammation and facial swelling were due to steroid withdrawal.

After 1 year of an extremely gut-health focused diet, elimination of inflammatory foods, elimination of steroid cream, an all-natural skincare routine, proper daily hydration and exercise I am eczema free!

I'll go over what I eat in a day, what I do not eat and why, and some foods that I'm always sure to eat daily/weekly to boost skin health below!

PLEASE READ PART ONE OF MY ECZEMA BLOG SERIES BY CLICKING HERE

Encouraging a Healthy Gut Microbiome for Natural Eczema Healing

Gut health is not as simple as just popping a probiotic pill. It's about forming a dietary lifestyle based around fresh plant foods, eating a variety of seasonal and local fruits and vegetables, and consuming natural sources of probiotic bacteria. Natural Sources of Probiotic Bacteria = fermented vegetables from a reliable source.

Where I refuse to get my daily dose of probiotic bacteria from:

Pills, capsules, powders, powders with probiotic added pure cultures, and foods with added cultures or "probiotics".

Where I do get my daily dose of natural probiotic bacteria:

Our Cultured Guru Fermented Vegetables along with the occasional water kefir or kombucha and homemade vegan yogurt made with heirloom cultures. These substances contain natural probiotics that originated in nature/ on the raw ingredients used in the production process… (For instance, the bacteria that ferment our sauerkraut live on cabbage leaves, no cultures are added to transform the cabbage into kraut). I also eat vegetables I ferment for fun in our home kitchen.

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Why am I picky about where my probiotics come from?

Reason 1

• The digestive journey is tough. Digestion starts in the mouth and takes foods and substances on a harsh journey. Since the cultures that are being grown in labs are never exposed to harsh conditions, they are not adapt to survive. Cultures that are added to foods or capsules are commercially grown in huge vats in laboratories underperfect living conditions for the bacteria. This optimizes growth times and profit margins. These bacteria are also exposed to cryoprotectant sprays and materials to coat the bacteria in protective chemicals before they are freeze-dried. These chemicals do not have to be disclosed to consumers.
• The microorganisms never have to compete with pathogenic species for living space, and they never have to survive at low pH or other stressful conditions while being grown in a lab. So the bacteria are not as adapted to survive stressful conditions as bacteria from the natural world are. The bacteria in naturally fermented vegetables come from nature. Specifically, they originate in the soil in which the vegetables are grown. In that soil these microbes compete for space and for their lives. During fermentation, only bacteria that can survive in a very low pH environment, with no oxygen and some salt continue to thrive. These bacteria are natural, strong, and are adapted to harsh conditions that are very similar to the terrain of the human digestive tract! (Here's some reference material on this subject). This makes fermented vegetables the best probiotic for gut health.

Reason 2

• Genetic modification of probiotic bacteria aka "pharmacobiotics."Pharmaceutical companies and big food companies have their eyes set on the profit potential inpatenting particular strains of probiotic bacteria. They are specifically interested in patenting particular strains of bacteria for the treatment of certain diagnosed diseases. How might they do this you ask? They have the resources to genetically modify species of bacteria to make them perform a specific function. When they genetically modify the bacteria, the bacteria contain unique gene sequences that can be registered with the US Patent Office. Meaning only they canprofit from it. And where was the microbial species that they genetically modify originally isolated from? Fermented foods. Sounds to me like we should just stick to the fermented food bacteria that haven't been genetically altered. There's never been a magic pill for health. Probiotic pills are no different. They are not effective and have unknown repercussions.

Reason 3

• Adding probiotic bacteria to unhealthy, refined and processed foods doesn't make that food healthy at all. The food products labeled as "probiotic" are a marketing ploy. These foods are normally unhealthy, full of sugar and refined ingredients. So these foods are not considered foods that are good for gut health. Before you grab that ice cream with probiotic cultures added, remember that healthy gut microbes don't thrive on ice cream.

To summarize:

I do not want genetically modified microorganisms in my gut, so I stick to eating our wild fermented vegetables that NEVER contain commercially produced microbial cultures.

I like my probiotics free of cryoprotectants and chemicals used for freeze-drying. The process of manufacturing pills is unnatural and streamlined for profitability, not for health. There is also the case of survivability with pills. Bacterial species in capsules are grown separately isolated, in pure cultures, in perfect living conditions in large vats in manufacturing facilities. This means that the microbes put into pills have never been exposed to harsh living conditions, and most important have never lived in mixed-species ecosystems. Unlike capsules, the microorganisms in fermented vegetables live in complex mixed ecosystems, they come from the surface of vegetables, they are exposed to MANY other species, they are exposed to harsh acidic conditions, they can survive the digestive journey, and they are well adapted to live with multitudes of other microbes, such as those in the gut.

The microbes in our wild fermented vegetables  come only from the soil microbiome. They come from the fields in which the cabbages and other vegetables were grown. They're natural and from nature.

What I Do Not Eat

During My Eczema Healing Journey: I was quite intolerant to gluten-containing products, peanuts, and especially dairy. All of these foods gave me diarrhea, bloating, cramps, and pimples… which means they inflamed my gut and disrupted my gut and skin microbiomes. An Inflamed gut exacerbates skin issues like eczema because when your gut is inflamed you cannot properly digest food, absorb nutrients, and expel waste.

Update: I eat sourdough products now, and the occasional regular serving of wheat pasta and I'm doing great! I reintroduced these food slowly after being gluten free for almost two years.

I also stay away from cane sugar. Sometimes I'll have a piece of organic chocolate or a GF vegan muffin from my favorite vegan place in Baton Rouge, but when I eat things sweetened with cane sugar I get pimples all over my chest and back… so I don't eat it on a regular basis. I stay away from processed foods, and I always remember to just eat real food.

No meat

I do not eat red meat, pork or chicken. The only animal products I eat in extreme moderation (as in maybe once a month) are bone broth, salmon, and sardines. I mentioned this earlier, but I sometimes crave fish during my period, so I occasionally eat fish during my period. I'm vegan about 98% of the time.

Water is a Main Component of a Healthy Gut Microbiome

In order to get the full benefits of a healthy diet and to have hydrated skin, you MUST stay hydrated with good ole'water. If your urine is any shade of yellow you need to drink more water. Thus, I like to start my day with a quart of lemon water before my first cup of green tea and before eating anything. If you don't have a reusable water bottle, GET ONE NOW! Having a S'well bottle has changed my life.

What I eat in a Day: for Natural Eczema Healing

The Morning

My morning food routine starts at about 6:45 am before going to the gym.

I start every morning with a quart of lemon water.

Sometimes I drink it warm, sometimes cold with fresh-squeezed juice from 1/2 a lemon. Drinking water before ingesting anything else in the morning promotes great hydration and proper digestion throughout the whole day!

Since I started drinking lemon water every morning my skin is more hydrated, I have tons more energy, my digestion is better than ever, and I perform better at the gym. This is partly thanks to the water and partly thanks to my hydrated microbiome!! Staying hydrated greatly impacts your gut microbiome because hydrating your whole body includes hydrating your gut mucosal cells. Keeping the cells in the mucosal barrier of your digestive tract fully hydrated is proven to encourage a healthier, thriving microbiome. Hydration is definitely a key factor in healing eczema naturally.

After my quart of lemon water, I make breakfast.

Also known as the best meal of the day, I love breakfast. My breakfasts always have three main components: a healthy source of complex carbs, a whole avocado, and a lot of our Cultured Guru kimchi. I eat our kimchi every single morning, and my life is better for it. Honestly, let's normalize poop talk. My daily morning bowel movements are perfect because of my morning dose of kimchi. I know this because sometimes we've run out of kimchi, and my perfect bowel movements aren't as perfect without my kimchi.

Breakfast options

Usually, I choose between three breakfasts

• a sourdough bagel or rice cakes topped with avocado and kimchi
• Miso Oats or brown rice with kale, arugula, avocado, and kimchi
• This Green Smoothie

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After breakfast

We get to work, I drink a cup of green tea or a green tea latte. I make my green tea lattes in my blender with hot organic sencha, flax oil, oat milk, a dash of maple syrup, and 1/2 teaspoon of spirulina! I prefer to use brewed green tea to make my lattes because matcha is too expensive for me.

Lunch

I usually hit the gym around 10 or 11 am after breakfast and completing the usual morning business to-do list. If you read part three of this blog series already you know that sweating regularly is important for skin barrier health and healing eczema.

After the gym, it's lunchtime

After the gym, I like to eat lunch right away. I do intense HIIT workouts at the gym, and I leave the gym in a pang of ravenous hunger. For lunch most days I have sriracha tofu with pasta salad. I pretty much eat the same thing for lunch every day and I'm okay with that. The key to my healthy lunch is all in the salad.

You can find my favorite pasta salad recipes here:

• Cheesy Broccoli Pasta Salad with Buffalo Chickpeas
• Vegan Pasta Salad with Creamy Tahini Dressing

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Snacks on Snacks + More Tea

After lunch, I sit down to do a lot more business work. So the first thing I need is a cup of green tea. I like organic sencha and gunpowder green tea to be exact. No sweetener or anything added, just plain green tea!

Go to snacks

My go-to snack is the fruit and nut mix I make myself! I make it with just roasted salted sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, raisins and this paleo granola from the Whole Foods bulk section. It's delicious. Might post a recipe on our blog for this one day!

Other snacks I enjoy: Grapes, sliced peaches, sliced apples with sunflower seed butter, summer rolls, veggie sushi, kale chips, and crunchy roasted chickpeas.

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Dinner Time!

Dinner time is where it varies for Jon and I. This is when we mix it up, try new things, and develop recipes for our blog and Instagram. We just always remember to eat real food. All of our meals are based around fresh vegetables. To explore some of the things I like to eat for dinner just visit the recipe portion of our blog! Some mentionable favorites that we frequently make: Tempeh Reubens, Thai Curry Soup, Beet Burgers, Pasta Salad, Sushi Bowls, and Ma Po Tofu!

• Vegan Mapo Tofu
• Easy Vegan Beet Burgers
• Thai Curry Soup Recipe
• Cheesy Broccoli Pasta Salad with Buffalo Chickpeas
• Veggie Burgers with Turmeric, Chickpeas, and Sweet Potato
• Easy Recipe for Instant Pot Roasted Carrot and Turmeric Soup
• Tempeh Reuben Sandwiches with Sauerkraut

Some Things I keep around to help keep my microbiome nourished

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Plant Based Diet for for Contact Dermatitis

Source: https://cultured.guru/blog/curing-eczema-naturally-plant-based-diet-for-skin-microbiome-health

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