This is the approved list reorganised the way a supermarket is, so you can walk it rather than cross-reference it. Everything here is on Dr. Sebi's nutritional guide. Nothing here is a substitution or an interpretation.
Print it, screenshot it, or bring it up on your phone in the aisle. The first shop is the one that decides whether the next two weeks happen.
Produce: fruit
This is the easiest aisle and the one to load up on.
Berries — all varieties except cranberries. Melons — seeded melons, cantaloupe, watermelon. Apples. Pears. Peaches. Plums. Apricots. Cherries. Figs. Grapes (seeded). Mango. Papaya. Soursop. Tamarind. Prickly pear. Currants. Raisins (seeded). Dates. Elderberries. Soft jelly coconuts. Seville or sour oranges. Key limes.
Bananas: burro or baby only. Not the standard supermarket Cavendish. Latin American, Caribbean and Asian grocers stock burros routinely; larger supermarkets sometimes have baby bananas near the plantains. Where to buy them, what they taste like and how to use them.
Not on the list, despite what you'd assume: lemons, regular oranges, pineapple, cranberries, seedless grapes of any kind, seedless watermelon.
One genuine grey area: the guide says berries, all varieties, no cranberries. Read literally, that includes strawberries. Plenty of reproductions of the list exclude them on hybrid grounds. Both readings are in circulation, the written list supports the first and common practice often follows the second, so this is one to decide for yourself.
Produce: vegetables
Amaranth greens. Avocado. Bell peppers. Chayote. Cucumber. Dandelion greens. Garbanzo beans. Green banana. Izote. Kale. Lettuce (all but iceberg). Mushrooms (all but shiitake). Nopales. Okra. Olives. Onions. Poke salad. Sea vegetables — wakame, dulse, arame, hijiki, nori. Squash. Tomato — cherry and plum only. Tomatillo. Turnip greens. Watercress. Wild arugula. Zucchini.
Not on the list: garlic, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, spinach, cauliflower, beets, corn, shiitake, iceberg lettuce, beefsteak tomatoes.
That set of exclusions is the one that surprises people most, and it is worth knowing before you're standing in front of a bag of carrots wondering.
Grains
Dry goods aisle, or a health food shop for the less common ones.
Amaranth. Fonio. Kamut. Quinoa. Rye. Spelt. Teff. Wild rice — the genuine black grain, not brown rice, and not a wild rice blend, which is usually mostly brown rice.
Not on the list: wheat, white or brown rice, oats, barley, corn, buckwheat, millet.
Spelt and kamut flour, spelt pasta and quinoa pasta all exist and are worth finding early — they are what make this survivable for anyone who eats bread or pasta normally.
Nuts and seeds
Raw sesame seeds. Raw tahini butter. Walnuts. Brazil nuts. Hemp seeds.
Not on the list: peanuts, cashews, almonds, pistachios, sunflower seeds, chia.
Almonds being out catches nearly everyone, and it takes almond milk with it.
Oils
Olive oil (do not cook with it). Coconut oil (do not cook with it). Grapeseed oil. Sesame oil. Hempseed oil. Avocado oil.
The instruction not to cook with olive and coconut oil is on the guide itself, not an addition.
Herbal teas
Seven, and only seven: burdock, chamomile, elderberry, fennel, ginger, raspberry, tila.
Buy ginger and burdock as root rather than teabags if you can — both are rhizomes or roots and need simmering rather than steeping, and the difference in strength is not subtle.
Not on the list: green tea, matcha, peppermint, rooibos, hibiscus, dandelion root tea, chicory, and coffee in any form.
Spices and seasonings
Mild: basil, bay leaf, cloves, dill, oregano, savory, sweet basil, tarragon, thyme.
Pungent and spicy: achiote, cayenne or African bird pepper, coriander (cilantro), onion powder, habanero, sage.
Salty: pure sea salt, powdered granulated seaweed.
Sweet: date sugar, 100% pure agave syrup from cactus.
Not on the list: black pepper, garlic powder, cumin, paprika, turmeric, ginger as a named seasoning, table salt, honey, maple syrup, any commercial spice blend.
Check the label on spice blends. Almost all of them carry garlic powder, and most carry anti-caking agents.
Water
Natural spring water. The guide specifies spring water rather than distilled, filtered or alkaline-ionised. Read the bottle — a lot of what is sold as spring water is treated municipal supply, and the label is legally required to say which it is.
The first shop, condensed
If you want to walk out with a working week rather than a complete pantry, this is the short version:
- A bag of kale and a bag of mixed leaves
- Two avocados, one cucumber, one courgette, a punnet of cherry tomatoes, an onion, a pack of mushrooms
- Berries, a melon, apples, and burro or baby bananas
- Quinoa and wild rice
- Key limes — a lot of them, they do the work of both lemon and vinegar
- Sea salt, cayenne, oregano, onion powder
- Grapeseed oil for cooking, olive oil for dressing
- Walnuts and a jar of tahini
- Ginger root and burdock root
- Spring water
That is one trolley and about four days of good eating without repeating yourself.
Reading labels
Three things account for most accidental breaches, and all three are on the back of the packet:
- Garlic and onion powder are not the same thing. Onion powder is approved; garlic powder is not, and it is in nearly every seasoning mix, stock cube and sauce.
- "Wild rice" on a bag is usually a blend. Check the ingredients — if brown rice is listed first, that is what you are buying.
- Agave is routinely cut. The guide specifies 100% pure agave from cactus. Plenty of supermarket agave is blended with other syrups.
Common questions
Where do I buy the unusual items?
Caribbean, Latin American, West African and South Asian grocers carry burro bananas, soursop, nopales, key limes and fresh burdock far more cheaply than health food shops. Spelt, kamut, teff and fonio are usually health food shops or online.
Is this list expensive?
The base of it — greens, onions, mushrooms, quinoa, seasonal fruit — is not. The cost comes from the speciality grains and the out-of-season fruit. Buy the base weekly and the speciality items occasionally.
What about frozen?
Frozen fruit and vegetables are fine and often better value; check that nothing has been added. Frozen berries and mango are what make smoothies affordable.
Can I eat out on this?
With difficulty, and mostly by ordering a plain salad and dressing it yourself. Garlic is the obstacle, not the vegetables.
Is there anything not on the list that's still fine?
The guide is a closed list by design — if something isn't named, it isn't approved, regardless of how healthy it is. That is the rule as written. What you do with it is your call, but the list doesn't have grey areas built into it.
Next
- New to this? Start with the beginner's guide
- The complete approved food list, with the reasoning
- The 7-day start, and where it leads
- A 7-day meal plan built from this list
- The mucus-forming foods, and what that claim actually means
Scan it in the aisle instead. The Ackaline app checks any product against the list and tells you whether it's approved and why — which is faster than reading a label and better than guessing. Free to start. The full list with the reasoning behind every exclusion is in The Alkaline Healing Blueprint.
For education, not medical advice. Restrictive lists can leave gaps — vitamin B12 in particular is not reliably available from this list, and iron, calcium and omega-3 are worth attention. Talk to your doctor or a dietitian before following it long-term.
