Foods Off the Menu

Jump to: Prohibited Foods

We want to approach food with confidence, reverence, and joy - never shame, guilt or fear. We want to be educated and know what we are putting in our bodies. There are some plants that the modern human has been mistakenly taught are safe to eat, some that we have been taught to eat incorrectly, and there are items being sold as food that are not food at all. Food is information that is used by our microbes to create certain by-products, (ATP, vitamins, amino acids, and so on). We chew and swallow our food, but it is our microbes that eat it. And we use what they make for us.

So just as we don’t feed our backyard chickens certain plants or chemicals, we likewise impose standards on what we feed our microbes. If we gave our chickens a diet that made them sick, we wouldn’t want to eat their eggs or meat. So just as we want healthy chickens, so we want healthy microbes.

Ideally, we want to stop buying produce from the grocery store. This may not be possible in the beginning but keep in mind that it is the ultimate landing place. We want to source a local, regenerative place to buy all our plants, and learn to forage and properly prepare our foods using methods that predate the early modern diet. If you are still using the grocery store, it is a good idea to use organic vegetables as they will have less pesticides.

We do not pressure can our food. Instead, we encourage fermentation and dry storage. Give yourself ample time to learn how to do all of this and do not worry about it in the beginning. There are certain foods that we must learn to prepare properly in order for them to be nutritious as they can be harmful otherwise. As we are simplifying our diet and lifestyle, we can learn these methods and practice them for when we are able to reintroduce certain foods. These foods include corn which should not be eaten without going through the process of nixtamilization, potatoes which should always be peeled and processed ancestrally, wheat which should be sprouted and made into flour, then into dough to be fermented for 72 hours. Learn to sprout, soak, ferment, use stone grinding, fat, earth, ash, clay, salt, smoke, and the sun. These are all traditional processing methods that will connect you to your food and bring you greater nutrition and health.

What We Don’t Eat

Ultra-Processed & Ultra-Refined Foods

Ultra-processed foods may be marketed as food, but they aren’t utilized by our bodies. They are often created to be hyper-palatable, have undergone extensive industrial processing, and can be more chemical in their content than food. If it did not exist 500 years ago, its probably not a food.

Ultra-refined foods have been industrially or genetically altered so that they no longer resemble what they would have historically.

Antinutrients

We avoid foods high in oxalates, lectins, and aquaporins, among other antinutrients.

Oxalates

Many modern humans have lost the ability to tolerate high-oxalate foods. Our ancestors would have eaten them in-season only, and sparingly. They would have been consumed with dairy, the calcium in which binds to the oxalates and moves them through the body.

We want to limit our oxalates as much as possible, keeping our intake below 50 mg/day. Please make your own extensive list of high-oxalate foods to avoid. Oxalate.org is a good resource. The following list is only a sampling of some of the greatest offenders.

High-Oxalate Foods:

• Almonds
• Beets
• Cacao
• Cashews
• Rhubarb
• Pine Nuts
• Potatoes
• Okra
• Spinach
• Sweet Potatoes
• Swiss Chard
• Soy
• Turmeric

Lectins

Some High-Lectin Foods:

• Legumes
• Nightshades
• Curcubits (i.e., squash and cucumbers)
• Grains & Pseudograins
• Seeds & Seed Oils

Prohibited Foods List

The following foods are not allowed for the first 104 weeks of ARP. A food gets on this list by feeding bacterial overgrowth, by containing excessive antinutrients, or by being anti-ketogenic.

The foods marked with an ⌛ contain either sugar or starch and thus feed bacterial overgrowth, so consuming them will cause you to have to start your two years over again from the beginning!

Milk & Dairy

Avoid the following:

• Unfermented milk ⌛
• Buttermilk ⌛
• All A1 dairy

Drinks

Avoid the following:

• Alcoholic:
  • Beer ⌛
  • Brandy ⌛
  • Cordials ⌛
  • Liqueurs ⌛
• Non-Alcoholic:
  • Instant tea ⌛
  • Tonic water ⌛
  • Fruit juice ⌛
  • Soft drinks ⌛

Cheeses

• All cheeses fermented less than 3 months ⌛, including:
  • Brie cheese ⌛
  • Camembert cheese ⌛
  • Cottage cheese ⌛
  • Feta cheese ⌛
  • Brunost/gjetost cheese ⌛
  • Gruyère cheese ⌛
  • Mozzarella cheese ⌛
  • Neufchâtel cheese ⌛
  • Ricotta cheese ⌛
  • Primost cheese ⌛
  • Cream cheese ⌛

Nuts & Seeds

• Chestnuts ⌛
• All nuts
• All nut flours
• All nut milks
• All seeds
• All seed oils
• All seed oil products
  • e.g., butter replacements

Curcubits

• All curcubits, including:
  • Summer squash
  • Winter squash
  • Pumpkin
  • Cucumber
  • Zucchini

Nightshades

• All nightshades, including:
  • Potato
  • Tomato
  • Eggplant
  • Chili peppers
  • Sweet peppers
  • Tomatillos
  • Goji berries
  • Ashwagandha

Sugar & Sugar Substitutes

• All sugars
  • Fructose ⌛
  • Sucrose ⌛
  • Dextrose ⌛
  • Coconut sugar ⌛
• All Nectars
  • Honey¹
  • Bee pollen ⌛
  • Agave ⌛
• All syrups
  • Maple syrup ⌛
  • Corn syrup ⌛
  • Molasses ⌛
• All artificial sweeteners
  • Saccharine ⌛
  • Nutra-sweet (Aspartame, Neotame) ⌛
• FOS (fructooligosaccharides) ⌛

Legumes

• All legumes ⌛
• All legume milks ⌛
  • e.g., soy milk, pea milk, peanut milk

Fruit

Avoid the following:

• Dates ⌛
• Preserved fruits ⌛
• Plantain ⌛
• Balsamic vinegar ⌛

Grains

• All cereal grains ⌛
• All pseudocereal grains ⌛
• All pasta ⌛

Roots & Tubers

Avoid the following:

• Sweet potato ⌛
• Yams ⌛
• Cassava ⌛
• Tapioca ⌛
• Jerusalem artichoke ⌛
• Arrowroot ⌛
• Burdock root ⌛
• Parsnips ⌛
• Turmeric

Polysaccharides

Avoid the following:

• Agar ⌛
• Pectin ⌛
• Cellulose gum ⌛
• Chewing gum ⌛
• Corn starch ⌛
• Starch ⌛
• Sago ⌛

Raising Agents

Avoid the following:

• Baker’s yeast ⌛
• Baking powder ⌛
• Cream of tartar ⌛
• All rising agents except baking soda ⌛

Herbs, Spices, Plants

Avoid the following:

• Mixed spices ⌛
• Mixed herbs ⌛
• Spinach
• Aloe vera ⌛
• Astralagus (milkvetch)

In-Store Items

Avoid the following:

• Store-bought drinks ⌛
• Store-bought sausages ⌛
• Sandwich and deli meats (unless made with our recipe) ⌛
• Prepared soup mixes of any kind ⌛
• Canned vegetables and fruits ⌛
• Processed or preserved meats ⌛
• Powdered collagen, gelatin or whey ⌛
• Store-bought condiments ⌛