Farewell to Paleo?

For the past year, I have been dealing with this pesky (ugly and itchy!) eczema on my hands -- or, as I've learned my grandpa used to call it (referring to it on his own hands), "the creeping crud."

Here is a picture of it from today (it has morphed throughout the past year):

I've tried modifying my diet in a number of different ways to make it go away. It seemed that some of the most effective things to make it get smaller were to alkalize my body by doing things like stop drinking coffee, green smoothies for breakfast, juicing lots of green veggies for dinner, and eating less meat. This lady's website really helped me out: http://www.eczema-natural-healing.com/eczema-remedies.html

But I could never get my eczema to totally go away. Juicing every night in particular got to be a tough regimen to follow (and not very fun, as dinner is nice to share with family/friends).

So my interest was piqued when when I started reading a blog by a guy who has studied Eastern and Western medicine, used to have skin problems but now doesn't, and used to eat Paleo and now eats a whole foods, plant-based diet. Here is a link to his blog: http://donmatesz.blogspot.com/

He says that red meat and chicken aggravate eczema - and since he has switched to not eating meat his skin problems have gone away:

"In general, it is standard practice in Chinese medicine to recommend elimination of red meat and poultry from the diet of people with inflammatory skin conditions because long empirical experience as well as Chinese theory indicate that these foods create inflammation (we say that they create heat)."

Here is a link to his "Farewell to Paleo" blog post that got me re-considering my own diet: http://donmatesz.blogspot.com/2011/06/farewell-to-paleo.html

These are the things I am going to try over the next 1-2 month to see if they help clear up my eczema and overall health:

1. Become a "pescatarian": avoid meat (especially chicken and red meat), except for wild caught fish.
2. Keep my carbohydrate intake down by eating more vegetables than fruit or grains. I used to aim for 40 carbs or less per meal when I was Paleo. Now I may try for 60 carbs per meal.
3. Eat only gluten free grains (rice, corn), einkorn flour (which is low in gluten), or homemade sourdough bread (also low in gluten). 
4. Eat only fermented dairy (goat or sheep cheese/yogurt, no cows milk for me).

Also I need to think about sources of protein. Here will be some staples for me I think:

• Wild caught fish
• Hummus
• Tofu
• Peanut butter
• Almond butter
• Nuts
• Hemp
• Chia seeds
• Sesame, sunflower, and poppy seeds

Let me know if you have any other suggestions.