The following substances (discussed below) need to be removed from your diet

However, it takes the body time to adjust and only after a couple of months will you get a true and fair picture of whether removing these foods is having an impact. Also, be disciplined if you want a true picture of whether these foods help to cause or aggravate your skin condition. It is no good following the diet for a week or two then eating the odd slice of pizza. You will be cheating yourself and remember the aim is to try improve your condition for 'your' benefit.

Yeast is the first of the potential food allergies I will explain. I will now list foods that we commonly eat which are high in yeast and that should be avoided

* Bread (Including Pastry, Pitta Bread and Naan Bread). There are yeast free alternatives to normal bread that are widely available, such as soda bread (which I now eat) and black rye bread.

* Beer

* Foods containing yeast extracts. Many foods that you would not expect to have yeast in them have yeast extracts in them. It is advisable to check whether a food has yeast on the food label. Although this can be tedious at first when buying food in a supermarket, I have now become used to it. A quick glance of the label of a certain type of food you are unsure about will show whether it contains yeast. As time progresses, due to a lot of 'label checking' you will build up knowledge of foods that contain yeast.

* Soy Sauce

* Some Frozen Foods

Not only must these foods mentioned above be avoided, the potential growth of yeast in our systems must be avoided.

Obviously most of the foods we eat contain some sugar. Apart from the following foods mentioned another common source where sugar enters our diet is in tea and coffee. Most people drink either tea, coffee or both and often think nothing of having two to three teaspoons of sugar in their tea/coffee. Sugar taken in this form (especially white sugar) can be very refined and processed which is not good for our systems. If you read any magazines or books with articles relating to dieting, de-toxing, skin problems etc. you will commonly find the advice to severely reduce the intake of sugary foods, as it not only greatly beneficial for your skin but your general health as well.

This means eliminating milk, cheese, yoghurt and other dairy products from the diet. There are a variety of replacements for cows milk, such as Goats Milk (which is easier to digest) and Soya Milk which also contain first class proteins that are found in cows milk.

Eggs are also another well documented source of food intolerance. You may find that if you suffer from a skin condition such as eczema you may unknowingly have an adverse reaction straight after eating an egg. If your condition is aggravated after this it would obviously be a good idea to stop eating eggs.

I have found that omitting these foods from my diet has helped to contribute to the improvement of my skin.

Also, note that many other drinks have high caffeine levels such as energy drinks. Tea has caffeine although in smaller amounts then coffee. Some people may think an alternative to coffee would be to have decaffeinated coffee. My friend who has psoriasis used to drink vast amounts of coffee every day, noticed a vast improvement in his condition after he stopped drinking coffee.

Part 2 will contain what other important things which have to be removed from your diet for you to get clear beautiful looking skin.