Dr. Sebi Food List: Every Approved Food, Free & Complete

This is the complete approved food list from Dr. Sebi's nutritional guide, free and in full. No download, no email. Below it you'll find what's excluded, the reasoning the guide gives for the exclusions, and a practical section on how to actually run your week from the list — the swaps, the shopping, and the foods that catch people out. If you are just starting out, the beginner's guide walks through the first shop and the first week.

The rules the list comes with

The list is closed. That's the thing to understand before anything else, and it's why people get caught out by foods that seem obviously healthy. If a food isn't named on the guide, it isn't approved — there is no category rule you can reason from, no "well, it's a green vegetable, so it must be fine." Spinach is a green vegetable. It isn't on the list.

Three other rules travel with it. Nothing is eaten from an animal, including honey. Nothing described as a hybrid is eaten, which is the stated reason for most of the surprising exclusions — on the guide, the criterion is whether a food reproduces from its own seed and exists in nature in that form. And the guide asks you to drink a gallon of spring water a day, not tap water, which it excludes by name.

Read the list the way you'd read a shopping list rather than a set of principles. The names on it are the answer. Everything below is how to live with them.

Vegetables

Amaranth greens (callaloo), avocado, bell peppers, chayote (Mexican squash), cucumber, dandelion greens, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), green banana, izote (cactus flower and cactus leaf), kale, lettuce (all except iceberg), mushrooms (all except shiitake), nopales (Mexican cactus), okra, olives, onions, poke salad greens, purslane (verdolaga), squash, tomato (cherry and plum only), tomatillo, turnip greens, zucchini, watercress.

Two of those are narrower than they look. Only cherry and plum tomatoes are approved — the large beefsteak tomato is excluded as a hybrid. And every mushroom is allowed except shiitake. We go through the mushroom question here.

Sea vegetables: arame, dulse, hijiki, nori, wakame, sea moss (Irish moss), kelp.

Fruits

Apples, bananas (burro and baby banana only), berries (all varieties except cranberries), cantaloupe, cherries, currants, dates, figs, grapes (seeded), limes (key limes preferred), mango, melons (seeded), orange (Seville or sour only), papayas, peaches, pears, plums, prickly pear, prunes, raisins (seeded), soft jelly coconuts, soursops, tamarind.

The banana entry is the one people misread most often. The guide lists burro and baby (mini burro) bananas. The ordinary Cavendish banana in every supermarket is not on it. The burro is an older, squatter Caribbean cultivar with squared-off edges and a slight lemon note when ripe; Latin American and Caribbean grocers carry it far more reliably than a chain supermarket does.

Grains

Amaranth, fonio, kamut, quinoa, rye, spelt, tef, wild rice.

Note that wild rice is the only rice on the list. Brown and white rice are both excluded — we cover why, and what the measurements say, here.

Nuts and seeds

Brazil nuts, hemp seeds, raw sesame seeds, raw sesame tahini butter, walnuts.

Oils

Avocado oil, coconut oil, grapeseed oil, hempseed oil, olive oil, sesame oil.

Olive and coconut oil are for uncooked use — the guide specifies they shouldn't be heated. Grapeseed oil is the one with a high enough smoke point to cook with comfortably, which is why it ends up being the workhorse in most kitchens following this list.

Herbal teas

Burdock, chamomile, elderberry, fennel, ginger, raspberry, tila.

Those seven are the only teas the guide names — no green tea, no peppermint, no hibiscus. The much longer set of herbs Dr. Sebi worked with is a separate list that doesn't appear on the nutritional guide; we set out all three herb lists, with preparation and safety notes.

Spices and seasonings

Mild: basil, bay leaf, cloves, dill, oregano, savory, sweet basil, tarragon, thyme.

Pungent and spicy: achiote, cayenne, coriander (cilantro), habanero, onion powder, sage.

Salty: pure sea salt, powdered granulated seaweed (kelp, dulse or nori).

Sweeteners

There are exactly two: date sugar (or date syrup) and 100% pure agave syrup from cactus.

Honey is excluded — it's an animal product. Honey is also the clearest case of a food being acidic in the jar and alkaline-forming in the body, which we explain here.

What's not on the list

Because the list is closed, everything else is excluded by default. But some exclusions surprise people enough to be worth naming:

  • Vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, spinach, celery, garlic, cabbage, collard greens, eggplant, radishes, sweet potato, parsley, leek, beets, corn.
  • Fruits: cranberries, seedless grapes, seedless watermelon, pineapple, most bananas, most oranges.
  • Grains: wheat, white and brown rice, oats, barley, corn.
  • Everything animal: meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, dairy, eggs, honey.
  • Also excluded: soy, alcohol, yeast, baking powder, vinegar (all types), tap water, and anything with added sugar.

Garlic and spinach catch the most people out. Both are widely considered health foods; neither appears on any reproduction of the guide. More on garlic and where it sits.

Swaps for the things you'll miss

Most people don't fall off this because of willpower. They fall off because they open the fridge on day four and every familiar thing in it is excluded. The substitutions that actually get used:

  • Onion and garlic — onions are approved, garlic isn't. For the savoury depth garlic was doing, use onion, onion powder and a bay leaf together. Cook the onion longer than feels necessary: twenty minutes on a low heat gets you most of the way to what garlic was providing.
  • Rice — wild rice, or quinoa, which cooks in fifteen minutes. Wild rice takes closer to forty-five and is worth cooking in a big batch on a Sunday.
  • Pasta and bread — spelt and kamut versions exist and are approved grains, but read the label for yeast.
  • Potatoes — squash or chayote roast to roughly the same place. Chayote holds its shape better; squash goes sweeter.
  • Sugar and honey — date sugar in baking, agave in drinks. Date sugar doesn't dissolve, so it behaves like a soft brown sugar rather than a syrup.
  • Spinach — kale, watercress, turnip greens, amaranth greens, dandelion greens. This is the easiest swap on the list; the approved greens are if anything more mineral-dense.
  • Coffee — not on the list. Ginger or burdock tea is the usual replacement, and it isn't a like-for-like one; expect a rough few days if you drink a lot of coffee.
  • Vinegar — key lime juice does the acid job in a dressing, and does it better than people expect. Lime, olive oil, sea salt, a little oregano.

How to use the list day to day

The list is long enough that reading it front to back is not how you'll use it. What works is turning it into a handful of shapes you can cook without thinking.

Build meals from four slots, not from recipes. A green, an approved grain, a fat, and something with flavour in it. Kale, quinoa, olive oil, onion and cayenne is a meal. Watercress, wild rice, avocado, lime and sea salt is a meal. Once the four slots are habit, you stop checking the list for dinner and only check it for the unusual things.

Cook the slow things once a week. Wild rice, spelt, chickpeas and a big tray of roast squash and chayote all keep for four or five days. If those four are in the fridge on Monday, the rest of the week is assembly rather than cooking, and assembly is what survives a bad day.

Keep a flavour shelf. The spice list is short and the approved seasonings do a lot of the work of making this sustainable. Sea salt, cayenne, oregano, thyme, bay leaf, onion powder, achiote and a bag of dried habanero will carry almost anything. Powdered kelp or dulse is the one most people skip and then find they use daily — it adds a savoury depth that's hard to get otherwise once animal products and vinegar are out.

Front-load the fruit. Most people following this eat fruit early and cooked food later, largely because it's easier on digestion and because the approved fruits are the easiest thing to eat without preparation. Dates, figs, berries and a soft jelly coconut make a breakfast that requires nothing of you.

Water is a schedule, not a total. A gallon of spring water is the guide's figure and it is a lot — roughly sixteen cups. Spread it across the day rather than catching up in the evening. A word of caution that sits outside the framework and matters anyway: drinking very large volumes of water in a short window can dilute blood sodium dangerously. Spread it out, and don't force it if you feel unwell, headachy or confused — stop and speak to a doctor.

Mind the gaps. A list built entirely on plants, with no animal products at all, does not supply vitamin B12, and it's worth paying attention to iron, calcium and omega-3 as well. Hemp seeds and walnuts cover some of the omega-3 question; the approved greens and sesame cover a fair amount of calcium and iron. B12 is the one that needs a deliberate answer — raise it with your doctor rather than assuming it's handled.

The exclusions that catch people out most, and what to use instead

These are the five that end weeks. Each of them has a straightforward answer on the list.

Garlic. The most missed thing on this way of eating, by a distance. Onion cooked slowly, onion powder, bay leaf and a little achiote together give you a savoury base that reads as complete. Add the onion powder at the end rather than the start — it burns fast.

Spinach. Straight swap to kale, watercress, amaranth greens or turnip greens. Watercress is the closest in texture for a raw salad; amaranth greens (callaloo) are the closest for anything wilted or stewed. Worth noting for anyone who has had kidney stones: several dark greens are high in oxalates, and that's a question for your doctor rather than a list.

Ordinary bananas. Burro and baby burro bananas are the approved ones and they are genuinely findable — Caribbean, West African and Latin American grocers stock them, as do most large markets. Green banana is separately approved and is treated as a vegetable: boiled and eaten like a potato, it's one of the more filling things on the list.

Rice and oats. Wild rice and quinoa cover rice. For the oats-shaped hole at breakfast, amaranth and tef both cook into a porridge in about twenty minutes, and tef in particular goes creamy in a way that surprises people. Date sugar and a chopped fig finish it.

Standard tomatoes. Cherry and plum only. Plum tomatoes cook down into a sauce perfectly well, and passata made from plum tomatoes with nothing added is usually fine on ingredients — read the label for added sugar and for vinegar, which the guide excludes in every form.

Shopping notes

Where to actually buy this. A single supermarket shop will get you maybe two thirds of it. Caribbean, West African and Latin American grocers are where burro bananas, green banana, callaloo, chayote, nopales, tamarind, soursop and key limes stop being difficult and become cheap. Health food shops and online suppliers cover the grains — fonio, tef, kamut and amaranth are rarely on a supermarket shelf. Sea vegetables are almost always better bought online or from an East Asian grocer than from a supermarket's health aisle.

Label traps. Four things to check, every time. Yeast in any bread or pasta product, including ones marked spelt. Vinegar, which hides in almost every sauce, pickle and prepared dressing. Added sugar under any of its names. And "agave syrup" that has been blended or cut — the guide specifies 100% pure agave from cactus.

Where the money goes. The expensive parts of this list are sea moss, the unusual grains, and out-of-season fruit. The cheap parts are onions, squash, chayote, green banana, chickpeas, kale and whichever greens are in season. A week built on the cheap parts with a small amount of the expensive parts is both more affordable and more sustainable than the reverse. Buying grains in a kilo bag rather than a small packet roughly halves the price.

Seasonality is worth following. The greens on this list are at their best and cheapest in cool months; the melons, berries, mango and prickly pear in warm ones. Cooking with the season rather than against it is the difference between this being a pleasure and being a chore.

We've put a full shop-ready version of all this — organised by aisle, with quantities for a first week — in the alkaline grocery list.

Alkaline and Sebi-approved are two different questions

This is the distinction that makes the whole list make sense.

"Alkaline" in the measured sense usually means PRAL — potential renal acid load, the acid or alkali your kidneys deal with after a food is digested. It's a real number with a sign: negative is alkaline-forming, positive is acid-forming. It has nothing to do with whether a food tastes acidic.

Dr. Sebi's list isn't built on PRAL. It's built on the hybrid criterion — whether a food is judged to exist in nature in that form. The two often point the same way, which is why people assume they're the same question. Some figures worth having, offered as data rather than as a ruling:

  • Spinach measures a PRAL around −14, among the most alkaline-forming figures recorded for any food. It isn't on the guide.
  • Oatmeal measures about +10.7, firmly acid-forming. It isn't on the guide either.
  • Quinoa is on the guide and measures mildly acid-forming.

If you're following Dr. Sebi, the list is the thing to follow — it answers the question it was written to answer. The PRAL figures are useful context for anyone who also wants to know how a meal lands on that separate measure, and the app below scores meals on exactly that.

Where it fits

This is food. It is not a treatment for any condition. If you have symptoms or a diagnosis, see your doctor — eating well sits alongside medical care, not instead of it, and nothing here is a reason to stop or delay treatment you've been prescribed.

What the list gives you is a defined way of eating built on leafy greens, fruit, sea vegetables, whole grains and no processed food, with a set of names you can check rather than a set of principles you have to interpret. That's the practical value of a closed list: on a Tuesday evening, in a shop, it answers.

Checking a food that isn't listed here

Lists vary slightly between reproductions, and no list covers every food you'll meet in a shop. The Ackaline app answers it in a second — point your camera at the food, pick a photo you already took, or just type the name, and it tells you whether it's approved and why. Free to start on iPhone and Android. More on how the scanner works.

For the full system — the list with the reasoning, a first week that doesn't depend on willpower, and what to do when you're eating out — see The Alkaline Healing Blueprint.

Common questions

Is this the official Dr. Sebi nutritional guide?

It's the approved food list as reproduced consistently across published versions of the guide. The authoritative PDF is distributed by Dr. Sebi's Cell Food, the company that holds his materials. We've cross-checked this list against multiple independent reproductions and they agree; where versions differ, we've said so.

Why isn't garlic on the list?

Garlic appears on no reproduction of the guide. No itemised reason is published for it specifically — it's excluded by the closed-list rule, like everything else not named. Onion, onion powder and bay leaf are the usual replacement.

Can I eat oats or brown rice?

Not within this framework. The approved grains are amaranth, fonio, kamut, quinoa, rye, spelt, tef and wild rice. As a point of reference outside the framework, brown rice measures more acid-forming than white by PRAL, which surprises most people.

How strict do I need to be?

The guide is a closed list and Rule 1 is that you eat what's on it. In practice most people start by clearing out the obvious — animal products, processed food, added sugar, alcohol — and then work through the specific exclusions week by week as they find replacements they actually like. Starting somewhere and deepening is a real start, not a compromise.

Is sea moss really required?

It's approved and heavily associated with this way of eating, but nothing in the list makes any single food mandatory. It's a mineral-rich sea vegetable. If you do take it regularly, note that sea moss is iodine-dense and the amount varies a lot between batches and species — worth knowing if you have a thyroid condition or take thyroid medication.

Do versions of the list disagree?

Slightly. The commonest differences are whether chickpeas appear under vegetables or on their own, whether "lettuce" is qualified as all except iceberg, and whether wild rice is listed with the grains or separately. Nothing that changes what you'd actually put in your basket.

What does a normal day look like?

Fruit and a herbal tea in the morning. A large salad or a grain bowl in the middle of the day — greens, an approved grain, avocado or olive oil, lime and sea salt. Something cooked in the evening: a stew of chickpeas, squash, onion and callaloo over wild rice is the archetype. Spring water through all of it.

Can I fast on this?

Fasting is often paired with this way of eating, and a shorter eating window is the usual form — 12:12 or 16:8 rather than anything dramatic. It isn't part of the food list itself, and it's worth a conversation with your doctor before you try it, particularly if you take medication. We cover alkaline fasting in full here, including what Dr. Sebi taught about it.

Food by food

For education, not medical advice. This way of eating is not a treatment for any disease. Talk to your doctor before making significant changes to how you eat, particularly if you take medication or have a diagnosed condition.