“This diet tweak freed me from eczema!”

Having dealt with painful eczema for as long as she could remember, Ananda Sarita was surprised to find that avoiding processed sugar helped reduce flare-ups and inflammation

- Katie Smith

My eczema is getting so bad, I want to jump out of my skin, Ananda Sarita, 69, thought one day while looking at her swollen, cracked, bleeding hands.

Ananda had been struggling her whole life with the common, chronic inflammatory skin condition. When she was 20, her flareups were so severe that she sought the help of doctors and prescription medications—but nothing had helped. Desperate, she contacted a homeopath, who suggested that her eczema might be linked to sugar.

I've never heard that before. Sugar can't be the cause, Ananda thought at the time, brushing off the advice. But over the years, her skin continued to get worse.

By the time she was 36, red, inflamed patches covered almost her entire body, and she had constant itching, bleeding and oozing sores she tried to keep hidden.