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 behind the exclusions, and an honest note about where that reasoning holds up and where it doesn’t.

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.

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 actually 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.

Herbal teas

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

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.

Where the reasoning holds, and where it doesn’t

Most pages reproduce this list and stop. We think you’re better served knowing which parts of the framework are supported and which aren’t.

The hybrid reasoning is historically accurate but inconsistently applied. Broccoli genuinely is a product of human breeding from wild Brassica oleracea. So is kale — same wild plant, same process — and kale is approved. There is no published rule that explains why the criterion catches one and not the other.

Some specific claims are contradicted by measurement. The guide describes broccoli as “an acid based vegetable” with “no nutritional value”; its PRAL is −1.2, which is alkaline-forming, and it is a well-studied source of vitamins C and K. Shiitake is excluded as “a hybrid mushroom”; Lentinula edodes is a naturally occurring wild species that has been cultivated for about a thousand years, and cultivation is not hybridisation.

Several exclusions are well founded on other grounds. Cutting processed food, refined sugar, alcohol and most animal products is sound advice by almost any nutritional standard, whatever you make of the reasoning attached to it.

One thing worth being straight about

Eating from this list does not change the pH of your blood. Your body holds blood between 7.35 and 7.45 using your lungs and kidneys, and food does not move it — a reading outside that range is a medical emergency, not a dietary result. What food does change is urine pH, which reflects your kidneys processing the acid load from your meal.

A diet built on leafy greens, fruit, sea vegetables and whole grains is genuinely good for you. The reason is the potassium, magnesium, fibre and the absence of processed food. It isn’t your blood chemistry, and it isn’t a treatment for disease.

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, or type the name, and it tells you whether it’s approved and why. Free to download on iPhone and Android.

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.

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. Outside the framework, brown rice is more acid-forming than white by PRAL, which surprises most people.

How strict do I need to be?

That depends on what you’re following. The guide itself is a closed list and Rule 1 is that you eat what’s on it. If you’re eating alkaline more generally rather than following Dr. Sebi specifically, several excluded foods — broccoli, spinach, sweet potato — are alkaline-forming by measurement and there’s no evidence-based reason to avoid them.

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, not a requirement.

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.