I’ve decided to take a new tack in my approach to natural rosacea treatment. I’m keeping up my red light therapy and amber light therapy (can’t wait for the rosacea light therapy prototype product that combines the two to be mailed to me. Won’t be long!), and I’m still using the Rocia treatment Provar product and hydration oil, but I want to make my efforts more complete.
It’s all well and good to avoid trigger foods, to use topical treatments and even to use amber and red light therapy, but what I’m eating is having a big impact on my body as a whole, not to mention my skin. So it’s time for me to really crack down and start paying attention to food.
To be honest, I’m already a relatively healthful eater, but I’ve wanted to take on an anti-inflammatory diet for a while, since a number of inflammation-related health issues run in my family and I’d really rather prevent/slow them if at all possible. Since many rosacea symptoms are also inflammation-based, it’s my hope that I’ll be able to boost the control I have over the condition and prevent flare-ups even more than the light therapy and topical treatments on their own.
So here’s the plan: I’m going to follow my own unique form of anti-inflammatory rosacea diet that is somewhat of a combination of the MIND Diet and Dr. Weil’s Anti-Inflammatory Diet. At the same time, I’m tweaking the strategy so that it will exclude (or limit) foods that are known rosacea triggers for me.
For instance, while the MIND Diet typically suggests a small glass of red wine nearly daily, I’ll be skipping out on that option because it worsens my skin condition. However, to keep up with the benefits of that rosacea diet, I may try eating red grapes or see if I can find another option that will provide similar health benefits to those of red wine, without having to drink red wine (at least not every day).
Accountability for my anti-inflammatory rosacea diet strategy
To make sure I stick to this rosacea diet idea, I’m going to track my food consumption. I’ll be using a free site called ShareFit. You’ll be able to follow me at my ShareFit account called JulieBC. I’m not sure if you’ll need to sign up to track my progress, but if you do, it’s free, so don’t worry, nobody will be asking you for money haha.
In fact, if you sign up to track your own progress in a similar effort, or if you want to make it easier to follow what I’m doing, feel free to request to be my “friend”, there. I’ll be sure to accept 🙂 (side note, I’m not paid to advertise/endorse/build sign-ups at ShareFit. That’s just the program I decided to use because it’s free and simple).
Grocery shopping for my rosacea diet
After doing a ton of research into anti-inflammatory foods that would fit into my rosacea diet strategy, I came home with an amazing haul from the grocery store. I have to admit that I felt very proud of myself as I loaded everything onto the checkout counter. I secretly imagined that the cashier was impressed with how healthful my foods were haha.
I focused on a lot of veggies and fruits, particularly those that are nutritionally dense, high in antioxidants and that are filling. I have a huge appetite. Salads, no matter how big, just don’t cut it for me.
Fortunately, this is a fantastic time of year to decide to choose a rosacea diet based on anti-inflammatory foods, because there are so many types of brightly coloured foods that are local, fresh and cheap. I bought different types of squash (88 cents, each!!!), sweet potatoes, and other filling yummies.
I’m hoping that this will provide even more benefit to the techniques I’m already using. That’s the goal, at least. We’ll see!
If you have any advice about eating for anti-inflammatory purposes, if you have great recipes that fall into that category, or if you’ve already tried a rosacea diet of your own, please share! I need all the help I can get haha.
I’m not a nutritionist, dietitian, health expert or skin expert, so I’m really winging it and hoping it works out. Wish me luck!
I’ll keep things up to date on this blog, at ShareFit, and on my Twitter account (@treat_rosacea).
See you next time!
PS – Thank you to everyone who requested a copy of my yummy rosacea-friendly morning smoothie in the blog comments and through my contact form. I ran out of time, this weekend, but I’ll be sure to share the recipe and (hopefully) film it very soon.
Living the "Rosy Life" 
Good luck with your new diet Julie!!!
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Thank you, Romeo! I hope you’ve been doing well with your own efforts to beat rosacea symptoms 🙂
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Hi Julie! Warm Greetings from the Black Sea! The only good think that happend to me in the last two months is the thing that I have finally a moisturiser I can use daily. Also I take a pill of 0.15 mg of clonidine daily. I have tried to use the polarized light of Bioptron from Zepter but no results. I have not tried an anti-inflammatory diet yet. In the past I have done tests for helicobacter pilori, worms, fungi and bacteria and also the ALCAT 100 test for food alergies and nothing was found. The conclusion in my case is that the food I eat does not influence my rosacea( of course I am not drinking alchool and not eating spicy food). I hope the diet will work for you. I await to hear the results. My fingers are crossed for you.
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I do so hope that an anti-inflammatory diet will help you with your rosacea.
I’ve had to follow a careful, 5-day rotating diet to control my many food allergies, so I know how challenging it can be to control one’s intake of healthful ingredients.
Good luck!
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[…] just realized that I promised to share my anti-inflammatory diet-friendly rosacea smoothie if anyone showed interest. I received lots of requests and then […]
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Hi Julie, for recipe ideas, check out the food by these fantastic women: Julie Daniluk, Joy McCarthy, Meghan Telpner, Angela Liddon and Kris Carr. For example, I was gifted Angela’s “Oh She Glows” cookbook over the holidays and reeeeally appreciate everything I’ve made – some are available for free online to try out (the taste of them withstands any substitution I needed to make if an ingredient wasn’t available, or if I didn’t want to use one). You’re on a tasty strategy!
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Hi Monakowski & Julie: I checked, and my local library carries “Oh She Glows,” so I’m going to check it out. From what I read at Amazon.ca, Angela Lidden’s book would help a *lot* of people with sensitive digestive systems. Thanks for sharing this information, because every ort of knowledge helps us all….
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Gotta love the library! I put down my recipe favs in a comment below, so when you get around to trying out the book, let us know if you liked it. I will continue to work my way through it.
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Thanks for the great suggestions. I like the idea of recipe books that lend themselves to substitutions. I tend to use recipes when I’m first trying a dish but it doesn’t take long for me to start tinkering with it to change it for my own tastes/requirements. When a recipe doesn’t have to be followed as though it were set in stone, that’s very appealing to me.
Any specific recipe you’d recommend from “Oh She Glows”?
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Yes! Here are a few (hopefully 1 might be available online so you can test it out). I really like the ‘Soul-soothing african peanut stew’, the ‘indian lentil-cauliflower soup’, the ‘cream of tomato soup with roasted italian chickpea croutons’… All of which are soup recommendations, but hey it’s cold where we live, right? 😉 Oh, and my sister-in-law really likes her ‘classic glo bars’.
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Hi Julia almost a year ago my Rosacea journey started and it took a good 4 months before I found someone who told me it was rosacea not a staph outbreak. I discovered a naturopathic skin specialist who lives his own life with 4 different skin diseases (including rosacea) . In the first 5 minutes of sitting in his practice the first thing he said to me was “This is not about what I can do for you but what you must do for yourself “. He followed up by saying that most of these issues start with poor gut health and immune issues. Basically he handed me a book which is a blood/gene type diet which is a comprehensive chart of all the foods which aggrivate or compliment how we metabolise food. This food chart also outlines the high histamine (inflammatory) foods to avoid in the diet. I was also put on a course of supplements high in minerals etc plus a natural skin mix he provides. The trick to this type of skin treatment is it is a slower and persistent process. I have now been living with this food protocol for almost 8 months. In the first few months all the heat flushing experiences stopped and over the months my skin calmed right down. I stopped taking the supplements but remain with the use of the skin cream and I have subtle skin blotch areas which are more obvious at different times of the day, monthly cycle, sleep, stress etc. In general my skin is good if I keep to the diet. When I am having a crap day I call it my ‘no life diet’. A few of my sacrifices have been no coffee and no chocolate due to my blood type.. Instead I find many alternatives including carob as my new best friend.
In saying all of that I refuse to believe that I can not get my skin even better. I know I am dealing with a few new things in my life which also contribute to the health and wellbeing of our immune health. I have just found out I have pyroluria which is a metabolic disorder generally not tested for by most health practitioners and yet it causes many chronic illnesses due to a lack of zinc and b6 absorbtion. Also I am peri menopausal which is giving me an increase in cortisol and active adrenals..
Like many of us who have found our selves dictated by rosacea I am determined to get to the gut of it and was really happy to find your blog. I live in Australia Byron Bay and thankfully have allot of natural alternatives at hand however I am over waisting my time on this and that and rather find a useful management plan. I will remain on the diet as it is great for many reasons but I am very keen on the Red Ledlight treatment. I am sure you have a constant stream of people you need to reply to but I wanted to say thanks for shining the light (led) into my journey. I hope I can share with you my knowledge about the food as the true success of the anti-inflamatory food is to be very clear on what individually suits your body type as well.
If you do get a chance to reply or blog next I would love your 1- 20 list of what you have found the best treatments so far. Will you be managing the light treatment as part of your weekly regime?
Thanks again for sharing.
Tiffany
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Hi Tiffany,
Thank you so much for sharing your experience in reaching a rosacea diagnosis and trying to find a way to clear your skin. It is definitely a journey, for many of us. I can relate to the misdiagnosis you received when you were told you had a staph infection. I was told I had acne and was given a prescription cream that caused my skin to peel off in hardened sheets. Bleh!
For me, light therapy has been a central component to getting my symptoms under control, but I do rely on proper skin care and eating anti-inflammatory foods (while avoiding trigger foods and inflammatory foods, when I can).
Thank you for the recommendation for the blog post. That’s a great idea! I don’t know if I’ll be able to work it into my next one (because that will be a lot of writing), but I will start compiling it, now, so that I can share a solid list once I have it all together. Hopefully, it won’t take too long.
I genuinely appreciate your request, Tiffany. This blog is here to try to share what I think will be helpful. With your request, I’ll know exactly the type of thing you want me to share, the most 🙂
To answer your question about light therapy treatments, I try to do them daily (I miss a session every now and again) and I plan to keep them up until, by some miracle, there is an actual cure for rosacea. That might mean that I’ll be using light therapy for the rest of my life, but it takes under 5 minutes per day, with no side effects, so I don’t mind one bit. The light I use has a lifetime warranty, anyway, so it means I won’t have to make any more purchases for it. I already have a lifetime’s supply of treatments, so why not use it?
Thanks again, Tiffany. I appreciate your sharing info about anti-inflammatory dieting, about what you’d like to see in this blog, your question, and your kudos.
Best of luck with whatever anti-rosacea strategy you try next. If something works, I hope you’ll share again! 🙂
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[…] Rosy Friends! A while back, I shared my intention to keep up an anti-inflammatory diet to try to help to keep my rosacea symptoms under control. While I haven’t been super-rigid […]
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