Hi 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 about keeping that up, I do make conscious food choices with anti-inflammatory foods in mind and have also made a concerted effort to reduce my intake of added sugars (not the natural stuff found in fruit, but the added stuff to sweeten products).
The result has been a lot of improvements in my skin but also in the way I feel overall, which I wasn’t expecting. I’m someone who has always had a “sensitive stomach,” but as long as I’ve been following this “rosacea diet” (which really isn’t a rosacea diet as much as just healthful eating), I’ve found digestion to be a lot friendlier, too.
While I could write a virtual novel about how I check ingredients, research foods online and am careful to avoid my rosacea triggers, I thought it might be fun to just show you what I eat in a day. So yesterday I tracked every food I ate and I took pictures…cuz pictures are fun 😉
Here’s what I ate yesterday to keep my rosacea symptoms under control
Breakfast
- two kinds of granola cereal mixed together
- chia seeds
- a banana
- blueberry kefir (I usually use plain but the plain stuff at the grocery store was too close to its expiry date for me to want to buy it).
- coffee (black)
- water
Lunch
- natural, unsalted almonds
- sprouted grain oat bread
- fresh tomato
- royal gala apple
- ground black pepper
- ground turmeric
- water
Dinner
- salmon (skin-on)
- chopped fresh kale
- white mushrooms
- beets
- black beans
- red pepper
- olive oil
- water
I tracked everything in a nutrition tracker to show you what the whole thing looked like for a day. (click the chart to make it bigger and easier to see)
So that’s what I ate yesterday. It’s certainly not any kind of formal rosacea diet, but it’s working very well for me. It keeps my symptoms down, my energy up, and it makes me feel very healthy.
What type of food do you find is best for keeping your rosacea symptoms under control? I’d love to know. Please share in the comments!
Living the "Rosy Life" 
Hey Julie! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on food and diet. Inspiration in this area is always welcome in the compat with rosacea, in which diet is alpha and omega.
Do you mix the chia seeds in the kefir?
Oh, and the kale dish looks delicious! Did you just fry the whole thing? I love kale, and fortunately, both my stomach and my face agree with me :). My family doesn’t, though (shocking, I know!), so finding good side dishes is the key with this vegetable. By the way, I remember wanting to try making kale chips, and now, seeing your post has encouraged me to do just that. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
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Hi Sue! Thank you for your comment 🙂
I’m glad you found my post a bit helpful.
To answer your question: Yes, I mix the chia seeds in the kefir. I know the picture didn’t do it justice, but I poured the granolas into the bowl and mixed the chia seeds in with it. I then poured kefir on top and added bananas. My next step (the part that didn’t make it into the picture haha) was to mix it all together and then wait for about 5 minutes. The chia seeds absorb a lot of the moisture from the kefir and that softens them up a lot. Otherwise, they’re hard like large poppy seeds. I personally prefer them in their expanded and softened state. They’re easier to eat and more filling. They do get stuck in my teeth a lot…ugh haha
About the kale dish: yup, I just fried up the whole thing in a touch of olive oil. I started with the veggies that take the longest to cook and then added more veggies over time. So the kale went in last because it takes a very short time to cook down. I like my veggies a bit on the al-dente side, but I know other people like them softer.
Ohhhh kale chips are YUMMY. They’re quick and easy to make, too. Curly-leaf Kale has always worked better for me than flat-leaf kale. The only problem is that it’s easy to over-indulge…or maybe I’m just piggy haha.
I hope you enjoy them, too!
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[…] been living the Rosy Life for 16 years. I eat foods to avoid rosacea triggers and boost skin health while keeping inflammation down. I sleep on sheets washed in rosacea-friendly […]
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have you tried a ‘candida diet’?….I read a blog called Candida Recovery by Karen Tripp and she minimized most of her health problems ( not rosacea) by eliminating sugars,adding a natural antifunga(undecenoic acid) and a probiotic…….just thought that if Halloween candy and booze( loaded with sugar) led to a flare up for you that maybe sugar feeds a fungus that likes living in the skin around your face
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Good question!
No, I haven’t tried a candida diet, but I do know someone who had a skin condition (not rosacea, but it did involve redness) that turned out to be a symptom of candida overgrowth. It was a very tough diet to follow, but she was able to effectively clear symptoms that had been plaguing her for quite some time.
I have definitely considered a candida diet, just in case, but I have to admit that the amount of work involved made me delay it over trying other easier things. I may try it one day, but I don’t feel ready for it yet.
That said, I have cut back on foods with added sugars to a huge extent simply out of trying to eat more healthfully. I feel that added sugars (that is, sugars that aren’t naturally occurring within foods and that are added to recipe ingredients) are not good for me, and I have made a strong effort to cut back on them. In fact, I even changed the kefir that I had been adding to my smoothies back when I made this “what I eat in a day” blog post. I use the natural kind now, not the flavoured, because I didn’t want the added sugar.
I will confess that my efforts went out the window over Christmas (cookies!!!), and I am currently working on clearing a flare-up that happened as a result. As of tomorrow, I’m back to eating my normal foods again.
I can definitely see why you’d be interested in candida diets for rosacea, though. It’s definitely something I’ve thought about. If I ever try it, I will be certain to write several posts about it! 🙂
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