Feed your skin: the nutrition–eczema connection

Eczema is a common inflammatory skin condition that can cause dry, itchy and sometimes cracked skin. While no single diet can cure eczema, nutrition can support both skin health and overall wellbeing.

A well-balanced diet can provide the vitamins, minerals, essential fats, and protein needed to support the skin barrier, healing and repair, and more balanced immune function.

As a nutritionist, I encourage people to look at the bigger picture rather than focusing only on the skin condition. Food can be one piece of the puzzle, but it’s also important to consider other possible triggers such as stress, poor sleep, and digestive problems.

What causes eczema?

Eczema is associated with a combination of genetic, immune and environmental factors. People with eczema often have a compromised skin barrier, which can make the skin more susceptible to dryness, irritation and inflammation.

Flare-ups can be triggered by a range of factors such as soaps, detergents, cleaning products, temperature changes, allergens, stress, infections and for some people, certain foods can trigger a flare, especially if there’s an underlying food allergy.

Can diet affect eczema?

Food is not always the cause of eczema, and unnecessarily removing foods from the diet can create nutritional deficiencies if the diet becomes too restricted. Instead, it's better to start by rebalancing the diet to support the body’s normal inflammatory and immune responses and contribute to overall better health.

Eating well for skin health

Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables

Eating lots of different fruits and vegetables provides a diverse range of vitamins, minerals, fibre and antioxidants for healthy skin, and can contribute to a reduction in inflammation and improve gut health, which has been associated with eczema in some people via the gut-skin axis.

Fibre may influence the gut-skin axis by providing a food source for the microbiome, which produces short-chain fatty acids that can affect immune regulation and inflammation. Whether increasing dietary fibre directly improves eczema remains an important area for further research.

Include sources of omega-3 fats

Omega-3s are essential fatty acids involved in numerous processes in the body, including normal inflammatory responses and skin moisture. Good sources include oily fish such as sardines, salmon and mackerel. Plant sources include walnuts, flax, chia and hemp seeds. 

The importance of protein

Protein provides the building blocks needed to build and repair the skin barrier. Include a palm-sized portion of protein with every meal, or 2 tbsp of nuts and seeds. Examples of healthy protein are eggs, fish, poultry, beans, lentils, tofu, tempeh, Greek yoghurt, nuts and seeds.

Support your gut health with fibre

The gut and immune system are closely connected. One practical way to support a diverse gut microbiome is to eat a variety of fibre-rich plant foods, which provide food for healthy gut bacteria and encourage their growth.

Include plenty of:

• whole grains such as oats, brown bread and brown rice
• beans and lentils
• different types of vegetables
• different coloured fruits
• nuts and seeds.

If you currently don’t eat much fibre, then it’s important to introduce it slowly so the body has time to adjust. Try adding 1 or 2 new fruits and vegetables every week.

It’s also important to drink plenty of water too. This can include herbal teas, which can also play a supportive role. One of my favourite herbal teas is nettle; it’s very nutritive, with minerals that the body can easily absorb when taken as an infusion.

Are probiotics helpful?

The relationship between probiotics, the gut microbiome and eczema is an area of ongoing research, with some studies showing benefits and others being inconsistent. As a nutritionist, I prefer to focus on feeding the microbiome that’s resident in the gut with prebiotic foods, but some research trials have found promise in moderating skin symptoms with probiotics, especially in children.

What about vitamins?

While vitamins can help bridge dietary gaps for some people, vitamin D has been found to be one of the stronger nutrients for supporting eczema in both adults and children. A meta-analysis found that vitamin D supplementation reduced skin-condition severity, but this was observed only in mild to moderate cases and lacked data on more severe eczema. Supplementation is not suitable for everyone, and dosages should be assessed based on age and current testing levels.

Can food allergies contribute to eczema? 

Sometimes food allergies or intolerances can drive an immune reaction that contributes to eczema flare-ups, but not all eczema is connected to food.

Broad elimination diets are not appropriate for everyone, and removing multiple foods without professional guidance can increase the risk of nutrient deficiencies. Keeping a food diary can help when symptoms occur, but also note other relevant factors such as stress, sleep, and changes to any skincare or cleaning products.

Rather than focusing on what to remove from the diet, it can sometimes be more beneficial to focus on what you can add instead.

Nutrition is only part of eczema management

Good eczema management also includes regular use of emollients, stress management and optimising sleep. Taking a holistic approach can be more helpful than searching for one food or supplement to solve the problem.

There is no one-size-fits-all diet for eczema, and food should not replace medical treatment. However, a varied diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fibre, protein and healthy fats can provide important nutrients to support general health and normal skin function.

If you suspect that a particular food is triggering your eczema, then professional assessment is preferable to starting a restrictive elimination diet yourself, especially with children.

Good nutrition isn’t about finding the perfect eczema diet; it’s about giving the body what it needs, understanding your individual triggers and finding an approach that you can maintain for the long term.

References

Nielsen, A.Y. et al. (2024). Vitamin D supplementation for treating atopic dermatitis in children and adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Vassilopoulou, E. et al. (2024). A systematic review and meta-analysis of nutritional and dietary interventions in randomized controlled trials for skin symptoms in children with atopic dermatitis and without food allergy.

Oykhman, P. et al. (2022). Dietary elimination for the treatment of atopic dermatitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Fehr, D. et al. (2026). Dietary habits and atopic dermatitis significantly influence the fecal microbiome.

Mann, E.R. et al. (2024). Short-chain fatty acids: Linking diet, the microbiome and immunity.