Eczema, or atopic dermatitis (AD), causes chronic inflammation in your skin. Your diet can directly affect your eczema, although your diet doesn’t usually cause eczema.
If you have eczema, what you eat can affect inflammation in many ways. For example, eating a food that you are allergic to can trigger inflammation as part of your body’s immune response.
How Does Your Diet Affect Eczema?
Only a small percentage of people with eczema have food allergies. Dermatologist Ross Levy, MD, estimates that only 2%-5% of people with eczema have an allergy to a specific food or foods that may contribute to inflammation that can trigger flares.
“Food allergies coexist in a small subset of AD patients — usually those with moderate-to-severe disease — and the true frequency of food allergies causing an isolated eczema flare is probably low,” says dermatologist Alina Bridges, DO, the director of Dermatopathology and Cutaneous Immunopathology at Northwell Health in Lake Success, New York.
Food allergies are one thing. But what about your overall eating habits?
There’s no specific eating plan that dermatologists suggest for eczema, according to the National Eczema Association. But following an anti-inflammatory diet may help lower inflammation and — along with your treatment plan — help keep your eczema in check.
What does an ‘anti-inflammatory diet’ mean?
Anti-inflammatory diets have two main components:
- Focusing on foods that lower inflammation, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fish
- Limiting or removing foods that boost inflammation, including highly processed foods, red meat, fried foods, and sugary foods and drinks
Potential Benefits of an Anti-Inflammatory Diet for Eczema
The idea sounds pretty simple: If you eat foods known to ease inflammation and avoid foods that add to inflammation, you’ll be less likely to have an eczema flare.
But while food can influence your eczema, the link between what you eat and atopic dermatitis is complex and not well understood yet, says Bridges.
“AD is driven by inflammation, so dietary patterns that reduce systemic inflammation could theoretically complement standard treatment,” Bridges says. “However, direct evidence for anti-inflammatory diets specifically improving AD is very limited.”
Anti-inflammatory diets, such as the Mediterranean diet, offer numerous benefits beyond their potential to improve eczema. That’s because chronic inflammation has been tied to a long list of health problems, including:
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Arthritis
- Heart disease
- Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
- Obesity
- Prediabetes and type 2 diabetes
- Some types of cancer
“If a patient of mine wants to try the Mediterranean diet, I’d be fully supportive and encouraging,” Levy says. “We’d hope that the eczema would improve, but there’s no guarantee. Still, avoiding inflammatory foods will be helpful, if not for your skin, then for your heart and every other organ.”
What Does the Science Say?
The short answer: nothing conclusive.
A 2026 review says that there isn’t enough evidence to support diet changes as standard eczema treatment. In other words, more research needs to be done before experts can say whether these diets can help improve eczema.
Another recent review also notes that more studies are needed to understand how diet affects eczema and to provide personalized diet advice. But its authors do consider the evidence strong enough to include anti-inflammatory foods among general dietary recommendations for managing eczema.
Studies suggest that people who focus on anti-inflammatory foods typically have lower levels of chronic inflammation and better health overall, says Katrina Stechler, MS, RDN, a dietitian at Northwell’s Northern Westchester Hospital. Some research indicates that such diets, including the Mediterranean diet, may offer some protection against inflammatory conditions and how serious they are.
“But the evidence, specifically for eczema, remains limited and inconsistent,” Stechler says.
We still have lots of unanswered questions about the link between diet and eczema. Some of the most pressing questions, Bridges says, include:
Best Anti-Inflammatory Foods When You Have Eczema
Anti-inflammatory diets don’t focus on specific foods to eat and to avoid. Instead, it’s more like a “style” of eating — broad eating patterns that involve including a variety of nutritious foods in your daily meals, while limiting or avoiding foods known to increase inflammation.
The foods that have the strongest evidence behind them for supporting your overall health and keeping inflammation in check include:
Fatty fish. Fish such as salmon, sardines, trout, and mackerel boast omega-3 fatty acids that help fight inflammation.
Colorful fruits and vegetables. A few examples of fruits and veggies that offer inflammation-fighting nutrients include:
High-fiber foods. Fiber supports good gut health, and a healthy gut protects against inflammation. Get your fiber from the following nutritious foods:
- Whole grains, such as oats, quinoa, and brown rice
- Legumes such as beans, lentils, and peas
- Nuts such as walnuts and almonds
- Seeds such as pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds
Fermented foods. Such foods may provide anti-inflammatory benefits by supporting the good bacteria in your gut. But there’s little evidence right now that fermented foods will help ease eczema symptoms, Stechler says. Fermented foods include:
Extra virgin olive oil. A key part of the Mediterranean diet, it contains anti-inflammatory chemicals called polyphenols as well as healthy monounsaturated fats.
Foods to Limit or Avoid on an Anti-Inflammatory Diet
Most anti-inflammatory diets, such as the Mediterranean diet, don’t require you to give up any foods entirely — except meatless vegetarian and vegan diets. But you should plan to limit the “foods most consistently associated with chronic low-grade inflammation,” Stechler says. Such foods include:
- Sugar-sweetened beverages
- Ultraprocessed snack foods
- Refined grains, such as white flour, and desserts high in added sugars
- Processed meats such as bacon, sausage, and hot dogs
- Fried foods, particularly when eaten frequently
- Foods high in saturated fat, such as red meat, butter, full-fat dairy, and other animal products
“These foods can promote inflammation indirectly by contributing to obesity, insulin resistance, and changes in the gut microbiome,” Stechler says.
Is It Worth Trying an Elimination Diet?
Elimination diets can help identify specific foods that may trigger things such as diarrhea and bloating. An elimination diet works like this: You remove one or more foods from your diet for a few weeks and take note of any changes. Then, you add those foods back one at a time and note what you experience as a result.
By paying close attention to how your body reacts to specific foods, you can find out if you’re allergic or have sensitivity to certain foods in your diet. Avoiding such troublesome foods may help you feel better.
But doctors don’t generally recommend elimination diets for eczema.
These diets may lead to malnutrition and, possibly, the development of food allergies, especially in infants and young children, according to treatment guidelines from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology and American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Elimination diets also require a great deal of effort.
And the result?
“Most patients experience little to no benefit,” Bridges says.
If your symptoms do seem to worsen whenever you eat a particular food, cutting that food from your diet for four to six weeks may be worth a try to see if your symptoms get better, Bridges says. If they do, an allergist can test you to confirm if that food is truly to blame. Common foods that may prove to be culprits include:
- Eggs
- Cow’s milk
- Wheat
- Soy
- Peanuts
- Tree nuts
Talk to your doctor before removing foods from your diet. Your doctor can help you identify the prime suspects in your diet.
“Unsupervised, broad elimination diets should be strongly discouraged,” Bridges says.
When to Talk to a Doctor
If you think that something in your diet may be making your eczema worse, discuss it with your doctor.
“Patients should feel comfortable raising dietary questions at any visit, particularly if they notice consistent patterns between food intake and flares,” Bridges says.
Can a dietitian help?
Yes. If you and your doctor are considering an elimination diet, you should talk to a dietitian to make a plan to help get adequate nutrition.
Takeaways
Right now, experts can’t be certain that following an anti-inflammatory diet will lead to major improvements in your eczema, though such eating plans do support your overall health. If you think some foods in your diet may worsen your eczema symptoms, talk to your doctor to develop a safe and effective plan for identifying troublesome foods.
