Rosacea Diet/Trigger Foods

bkate24

Hi, I have rosacea and my dermatologist recommended a bunch of diet changes to see if that can decrease my rosacea. She recommended this a while ago and it worked but I started ignoring it and hey, my rosacea is back. Unfortunately, there are SO MANY foods that can trigger rosacea. And yes, if I had a little bit of one of the foods it might not be a disaster (although fermented foods do trigger my rosacea immediately and make me go bright red), but I really want to get my rosacea under control so I want to do my best to follow the instructions. Every time the rosacea flares up, it damages the blood vessels a bit and makes the condition worse, so I really am willing to do what I need to do to avoid every single flare-up, especially when it's summer and it's so hot outside that my rosacea is more likely to flare anyway because of the heat.

However, this list is so restrictive that I'm just bored trying to follow it and I need help with recipes. I'm also concerned about getting adequate nutrition overall, particularly in the area of protein.

Key foods I have to avoid:
***Most of all, anything fermented (cheese, yogurt, soy sauce, alcohol, any vinegar containing product)
Caffeine
Anything high in salt
Anything with lots of preservatives (NO sausages)
Any meat/fish except SUPER fresh meat (so no canned tuna, no smoked salmon, no cooking a whole package of chicken and eating the leftovers for a few days)
Beans, pulses, tofu
Nuts
Wheat/whole grain apparently
Hot spices (which I don't eat anyway)

Foods that are okay:
Low salt cottage cheese
Olive oil
Eggs
Rice, quinoa, etc
Fresh vegetables except tomato, spinach, avocado, eggplant
Fresh milk/cream
Fresh fruit but no citrus or banana
Very very fresh meat (eg bought at farmer's market and cooked and eaten the same day - but I can't do that every day!)

Can anyone help with recipe ideas? Or any other people with rosacea who've tried this and have advice?

RodaRose

Here is a recipe for Egg and Cottage Cheese Muffins with Quinoa Flour that you would modify (take out the hot pepper, ham, feta, and spinach, and add a different green or vegetable to take the place of the spinach).
http://blog.sigsiv.com/2009/01/egg-and-cottage-cheese-breakfast-muffins-with-spinach-mushrooms-and-quinoa-flour.html


1 If you can have Quinoa and Rice, you can probably have Buckwheat and Amaranth. Check about that. It would be convenient to be able to cook with those and the fours made out of them.

2 Instead of focusing on what you cannot have, make lists of what you CAN have.
List all the veggies that you can have.
List all the fruits you can have.
Make an account on Pinterest and put those foods for search terms.

3 Build meals around eggs and cottage cheese so that you are getting protein -- although your other foods have protein too.

4 The Gluten Free sites will have recipes for Quinoa and Rice flours.

bkate24

Thanks! All this is really helpful. That muffin recipe looks great - I will definitely try that. I didn't really think cottage cheese could be used in a recipe other than just being eaten with fruit.

I looked up buckwheat and amaranth and I think they'd be okay, since it's only wheat germ that I should avoid. The gluten free sites are a great idea too. I guess I have to learn to use other types of flour!

rainbowbow

I have the same! And my trigger foods are tomatoes, spicy foods, red wine, and certain dairy products.

I simply refuse to stop eating these foods though. =/

Although, i'll mention that i've had some pretty great success with a pulse dye laser (V BEAM). In addition to a topical, i have very little redness now.

NOTE: you will look like this after V-Beam (this is not me, i looked worse)

Lasts for atleast 10 days. But afterwards, man, feels and looks awesome.

If you wish to cut out those specific foods and can find success, i wish you luck! It can only be managed, not cured, so it'll have to be a lifelong thing. As stated above, i couldn't stick to the diet long term.

bkate24

rainbowbow wrote: »

I have the same! And my trigger foods are tomatoes, spicy foods, red wine, and certain dairy products.

I simply refuse to stop eating these foods though. =/

Although, i'll mention that i've had some pretty great success with a pulse dye laser (V BEAM). In addition to a topical, i have very little redness now.

I also basically refused to stop eating my trigger foods (especially my olives, vinaigrette, and blue cheese . . . ahh, the blue cheese) and it was okay but I recently started taking medication for an unrelated problem that is a vasodilator. I can't give up the medication but it's made the rosacea worse, so I figured I have to try harder with lifestyle changes. : (

Thanks for the tip about the laser! I will ask my dermatologist about it. That's awesome that it worked so well for you.

JudithNYC

I have rosacea too and I can eat most of the foods that can be triggers. I just have to avoid salty, too spicy, preservatives, strawberries (I make 99% of my food from scratch.) It was mostly a matter of trial and error. My main triggers are the weather extremes, but mostly the heat.

bkate24

JudithNYC wrote: »

I have rosacea too and I can eat most of the foods that can be triggers. I just have to avoid salty, too spicy, preservatives (I make 99% of my food from scratch.) It was mostly a matter of trial and error.

Right! I know that a lot of food does trigger for me, especially all the fermented stuff, but I'm hoping to eliminate all possible triggers this time and then gradually re-introduce foods one by one to see what I can have. I know I'll have to avoid all the cheeses/vinegars/soy sauce though, and the salty or spicy stuff, and the preserved meats, because those are all serious triggers for me. I'm hoping with this method it'll turn out that beans aren't a trigger for me, because that will open up a lot of recipes.

bkate24

I'm interested in this Onreltea - what is it?

I've experimented with reintroducing trigger foods and I don't think eggs or wheat trigger my rosacea, but I think milk actually does (or at least it gives me zits). Did your doctor recommend avoiding eggs? Mine didn't, but there is so much conflicting advice out there and it seems like basically anything can be a trigger food. Fermented foods DEFINITELY do. My skin has improved since I cut out almost all milk products (with the exception of a tablespoon of butter here and there, because I love butter on collard greens).

I have really changed my diet over the past 2 months and have gone from mostly eating processed foods to mostly eating fresh stuff from the farmer's market, and I think that helped. I think I've seen a change in my skin - for one thing, when I work out my face is normal person pink, not boiled lobster red.

BinaryPulsar

Do not ever use Onreltea or Mirvaso or Brimonodine. I developed a life altering chronic pain condition because of it and that's what caused the "histamine intolerance", and worse.