Raw Foods to Consider Avoiding

This segment more than any other will probably earn me the most criticism, especially from those in the raw food world who are supporting the same mission that I am on — which is to spread this message of self-healing and get information out there on how people can alkalize their bodies and empower themselves to solve their own health problems.

The truth is, regardless of difference of opinions on certain fault lines, we are all on the same team if we are both successful in getting people to detoxify and regenerate their bodies. I don’t discount the work that others are doing if they have a different point of view on some of these details, and I definitely don’t doubt their intentions.

What concerns me the most are the facts, and the chemical reality of what we are talking about. Everything is made up of molecules and chemistry and physiology, and all foods have a chemical story that unfolds whenever it gets consumed inside of your body. And so as much as I would like to believe in the philosophy of ‘if it’s raw, it’s good’, I can’t — because I’ve studied the facts and they say otherwise.

My background professionally is in the investigation and report-writing business. I am trained to discover the truth about a specific thing, and deliver that truth in written word format. If the truth is unable to be ascertained, I’m trained to admit that and explain the context around the attempts to at least try and find it. And so, please allow me to do the same for you, regarding this subject.

What I have found is that, just because a food is raw, doesn’t mean it is suitable for humans to consume. After all, there are individuals out there who consume raw meat and raw fish, but there are numerous issues with doing that including major acidity, putrefaction inside the intestines, and an open invitation to all kinds of parasites. There are less extreme examples of raw ingredients in nature — like certain tree banks, roots and grasses — which are still disagreeable or could even be poisonous to humans.

These items I will list within this segment are the controversial characters in the raw food world — the so-called trouble-makers, which are infamous, cool, and whom everybody wants to hang out with. I invite you to contrast the ingredients I will list out in this chapter — the Raw Foods to Consider Avoiding — with your innocent angels of the raw food world. These benevolent whole foods on the other hand do nothing but help and benefit you, with no controversy, no side effects, no baggage, and no argument from me.

Your true friends:
— Bananas
— Grapes
— Tropical fruits like mangos, papayas
— Melons
— Oranges and citrus
— Kiwis
— Pineapple
— So many more fruits
— Herbs
— Vegetables
— Small portions of fat/protein, such as from superfood seeds like chia, hemp and flax seeds

With nearly all fruits being your best friends, plus vegetables, herbs, some certain seeds, and other nuts very occasionally, then we will now get into the other raw foods which people so often consume. It took me years — well over five years — to come to realize some of this information and start using it myself. In fact I wish that I had been taught this much earlier on, as I believe that it could have allowed me to make much more swift progress and achieve my health goals much faster.

This is not a law-book, where if you violate it, you’ll be arrested by the Raw Food Purist Police. But it is true that nature does have laws, like gravity and many others, and it is very difficult to argue with the laws of chemistry. And so, this is not to say that you can’t ever indulge or have these foods, or that you can’t enjoy a long, healthy life if you do treat yourselves sometimes from this list — just be aware of the actual balance of the universe and try not to get too out of balance with it.

Please don’t be mad at me for delivering to you this ‘naughty’ list of other raw food ingredients which come with certain issues that you may want to be aware of. I am just the messenger. Trust me — I get it. These are a lot of the ‘fun’ raw foods which can be used to make delicious meals, especially of the savory variety. I’m not saying you can never eat those things again, and I like those dishes too!

This is not necessarily a black and white issue, as some foods may exist within a grey area. However, as opposed to your straightforwards fruits, and many herbs and veggies, which offer no baggage and no strings attached, there are certain foods which do lurk around in a grey area and the liabilities around eating them are more shady.

My suggestion is simply to elevate your knowledge of these things, and make sure you have a complete understanding of the energy of these different foods. This will allow you to have a higher level of awareness about what is going on. Then, you can decide what to do, and whether you wish to avoid all of these foods or some of them. If you wish to eat some of these ingredients anyway, you can pair your experience of eating them with the knowledge of some of these adversarial qualities and consider whether it is still worthwhile for you to eat them anyway, stop eating them so frequently, just enjoy them occasionally, or avoid them altogether.

Nightshades: Tomatoes, Eggplants, Peppers

This is a toughie because this is such a versatile and wide-ranging ingredient (the tomato especially). I used to eat loads of tomatoes and at first protested at the idea of giving up a fruit that I thought was helping out my prostate and overall promoting good health in the body — but I did advance to a higher level of healing after moving on from eating frequently out of this category.

Tomatoes and bell peppers contain a chemical which can be considered toxic to our body called solanine which can also interfere with proper nerve activity because it blocks cholinesterase. Tomatoes also contain a lectin which creates an immune response and causes the body to produce anti-bodies which can create an inflammatory event inside the body.

The auspiciously named ‘nightshade’ fruits are very resistant to pests in the wild, but this can also result in some level of chemical toxicity that causes issues when consumed. Many professional athletes are aware of the risks of excessive inflammation when eating nightshades, including tomatoes, eggplants and peppers, and wish to reduce or eliminate this risk and so choose not to eat them.

Peppers / Hot / Spicy Foods

This is another challenging one because of its ubiquitous use in the culinary world. This one is difficult to avoid if you’re eating food that others prepared, because some of these ingredients like crushed peppercorns (black pepper) are a chef’s best friend. Definitely make sure to have an awareness and, if you can help it, don’t go out of your own way to irritate your own self by preparing meals using this.

Besides being a nightshade fruit, hot peppers, including black pepper and cayenne pepper, are irritating to the body’s system overall. This heat is overstimulating to the gastro-intestinal tract which creates excessive mucus creation. This excessive amount of mucus can cause all kinds of congestion, blockages, and prevention of a natural flow and ease to the body’s function. The hotter the peppers, the more overstimulating and irritating they are to the body.

While there are some benefits to peppers and the elements of heat, as evidenced with cayenne pepper with the cardiovascular system for example, and these gains are often recommended within the natural wellness community, just consider these short-term gains as a trade for long-term problems.

Ginger

Similar to hot peppers or garlic, ginger can be overstimulating and disruptive to the body, potentially causing mucus formation and harming colonies of good bacteria and probiotics in your gut’s microbiome. It is not really a natural food that we would eat in nature, but we seem to make it quite available nowadays to add to a juice or smoothie. There are no doubt benefits of ginger, but the liabilities seem enough to consider leaving it out of your next juice.

Onions, Leeks, Chives

These ingredients are savory and tangy and deliver a certain satiating flavor which is comforting, especially after giving up the standard modern diet full of synthetic and over-stimulating savory flavors. This was another one that was challenging for me to phase out of foods that I had been preparing for myself, and I couldn’t imagine life without this food. Honestly though I did not miss it much after it was gone. Occasionally nowadays I’ll consume some by happenstance while eating out or with friends and it will remind me how I really don’t miss this pungent taste.

These foods are part of the alliaceous plant family, which is notorious for millennia as being sort of ‘problem children’ of the food world. Historically, both Taoists from China and Hindus from India avoided these ingredients and cited all kinds of esoteric negative effects that these foods are purported to have on an individual, which according to them causes harm to the lungs, spleen, liver, heart, and kidneys, and in the bigger picture creates aggravation, agitation, anxiety and aggression in an individual.

From a more scientific point of view, it is true that these ingredients in the onion family are high in sulfenic acids, which are created when the flesh of the onion is torn apart. Your eyes don’t lie as they tear up in reaction to the harshness of this chemistry. You can also feel the onions, leeks and chives inside of you while they are being digested which feels like a bit of a burn. This is the same sensation as your eyes were feeling, except inside of your body — not good.

There are some benefits which can be felt and observed from onions and co., as it is a stimulating food much as hot peppers are. Ultimately, you are over-stimulating certain systems of the body, while overall causing chemical detriment over the long term.

Is the unique flavor really worth the chemical baggage? Try abstaining from this weird group of plants that taste so bitter and pungent when eaten in their raw form, and see if you actually feel better, sweeter, and more elevated without them.

Garlic

Garlic also belongs to the alliaceous plant family, so all of the above qualities for onions, chives and leeks also apply to garlic. Garlic gets its own category through because as a food it truly is in ‘a league of its own’. One of the most chef-y foods out there, garlic is used in the food world about as widely as any other ingredient.

It is also touted by many mainstream foodies as well as health and wellness experts as containing many beneficial properties. Garlic is stimulating to the cardiovascular system, which people notice a benefit from, although you could argue it is actually over-stimulating. Garlic also is a natural anti-biotic, anti-fungal, anti-septic, and so forth.

While this could be considered a good thing if you are full of parasites and very toxic, once you are cleaned out and have a healthy, balanced micro-biome of probiotics, then garlic can be considered actually too harsh in its ability to kill bacteria of both good and bad variety, which it does indiscriminately — so it can jeopardize your colonies of good probiotic bacteria. Ultimately, your immune system, if working properly, is the best candidate to kill harmful organisms because it can discriminate between good and bad bacteria while the garlic you ingest does not.

There are other issues concerning toxicity to the powerful, pungent plant that is garlic. Chemically speaking, garlic contains sulphone hydroxyl ion which actually penetrates the blood-brain barrier. It also contains allicin, causing excessive permeability in certain tissues which allows molecules to penetrate where they otherwise wouldn’t. Also, garlic can interfere with liver functions including the ability to efficiently process lipids and create cholesterol.

As you can see, garlic is a disruptive entity which can be quite disharmonious with our body’s natural ease of functioning. Trust me — this was not an easy one for me to let go. I used to love the stuff and couldn’t get enough of it. A lot of people can’t handle raw garlic but I really grew to stomach it, so much so that my mom used to complain about the smell coming out of my skin! After having cut it out, I must say I feel much better overall, and have a longer-lasting more dynamic energy, as opposed to a stimulated satiation from the savory indulgence of garlic.

Did I mention that my dating life much improved as well after going ‘off the clove’?

Cacao / Chocolate

The chemistry of this food is highly acidic, even in its raw form. Cacao and raw chocolate contain high amounts of oxalic acids, which creates over-calcification inside of the body, as a reaction to over-acidity, and which can even lead to calcium stones — need I say more?

Cruciferous Vegetables

Sorry if this is a bummer because I agree that these are tasty foods, especially when steamed or cooked. I am not trying to rain on your parade — I am just trying to enlighten you about some of this lesser known raw food information so you can achieve your health goals. This category includes broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collard greens, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, turnips, mustard seeds, radish, arugula, and watercress, among other vegetables which are more obscure.

These foods contain goitrogen substances. These compounds are shown to interfere with the thyroid gland and its ability to regulate iodine, other hormones, and maintain metabolic and overall balance within the body. More specifically, these plants contain isothiocyanate which are known for decreasing thyroid function by blocking peroxidase and interfering with communication being sent back and forth within thyroid cells.

These are also heavy vegetable foods which are more fit for a herbivore-type animal to be chewing and digesting them. There do exist some benefits, as these are nutritious raw foods and have good qualities to be rendered to you when you consume them and their vitamins and minerals. However, their interference with your body’s nature harmony is likely to outweigh the good qualities that you may get.

It is this uncertainty and potential for issues that can cause a food like cruciferous vegetables to be recommended as avoidable rather than consumable due to being a ‘mixed bag’ and not a simple, straightforward healthy food.

Excessive Salt & Salty Foods

We know that the body needs sodium as an essential mineral, and we must consume it to survive. The type of sodium that I like to consume — in the form of a green powder which is dried barley grass juice — is in the ‘post-plant’ form, meaning that the sodium from the natural elements has been bonded with a plant and is delivered in a more balanced, synergistic way.

Processed salt products would be considered ‘pre-plant’ sodium. Consuming the isolated mineral itself, such as sea salt or Himalayan pink salt, etc., is not an ideal way to obtain enough sodium, and comes with its own controversy. Consuming minerals in an inorganic form means that they are not balanced out as they are in plant form for maximum absorption and utilization.

As much as it is touted as natural, keep in mind that sea salt is processed heavily, using industrial machinery, heating (making it not a raw food), and the addition of chemicals added to it in many cases — this process also can cause it to be stripped of other synergistic trace minerals.

Although both are mostly made of sodium chloride, sea salt is not as bad as normal processed salt, which is also known as table salt. This concoction is cooked at high temperatures, and as a result all supportive and balancing trace minerals are removed. In addition, chemicals are added to it to preserve it and/or give it that snowflake-like texture, such as aluminum hydroxide which can be considered neurotoxic!

Regular salt is used so ubiquitously in the food world that it is really quite difficult to avoid completely if you ever eat in restaurants or eat food prepared by friends or family. If or when this happens, you may feel an unfortunate, negative affect on your overall body and energy after consuming this chemical powder.

Chemical-heavy mainstream table salt aside, many individuals who are enthusiastic about raw foods end up consuming excessive amounts of salt in its not-as-bad form such as sea salt or Himalayan salt. It is difficult to gauge how to consume just the right amount of sodium in this fashion while tolerating the downsides of isolated ‘pre-plant’ sodium.

Too much sodium overall is dehydrating, creates water retention, and causes a dilution in the body’s natural chemistry. If you are trying to really elevate your results of detox, cleaning out the body or healing, eating salt would be a great way to slow down or halt your detoxification, or dilute the alkalization of your body chemistry.

Also keep in mind that there is a special sodium / potassium ratio that is essential for nervous system balance and function optimally. If you get too much of either element, this throws off the function of the cells and can cause your entire nervous system to function below capacity.

Salt is also incredibly addicting, and I know you know the food industry knows this. It can throw off a good balance and a good progression of momentum for somebody who is on a good kick with their healthy foods and their alkalizing lifestyle, but then eats a really salty meal. This can be the catalyst for cravings to come creeping in the following day, and then a 2nd ‘cheat meal’ ensues, followed by a 3rd cheat meal the next day — this can be a vicious cycle to break because of the addictive, habit-forming pull of the white powder. In my experience, after an individual is not really consuming added salt, he or she rarely misses or craves it.

Once again, sodium consumption is not a black and white issue, and there are shades of grey involved. But to summarize the best balance I have found, the best route is to avoid processed, isolated forms of sodium as much as possible. If you absolutely are going to add salt, it would be much better to add a natural product like sea salt as compared with table salt. Ideally, it is recommended to consume a plant-paired form of sodium, which should help with both body chemistry, sufficient mineral intake, and cravings for salty foods, like the one here:

RapidRegeneration.com/GreenPowder

Do tread carefully, because overconsumption of sodium via processed salts is where a lot of people sabotage themselves, willingly or not, after they have discovered the power of raw foods but then reach a plateau. It is upon this plateau that many men and women stand and wonder why they are not progressing any further towards their health goals.

Fermented Foods

This category includes things like pickled vegetables (pickled cucumber, okra, cabbage), sauerkraut, kimchi, vinegars, and I’m sure I am forgetting some other examples. There are upsides and downsides to consuming this type of food, in which case the sugars have fermented and turned into sugar alcohol. Since these products have not been pasteurized, the microbes living in and around the food have proliferated.

The benefit of eating these foods is that they offer an abundance of bacteria, many of which are beneficial (AKA probiotics). The other benefit is that these foods are savory, tasty, salty, and delicious. This taste can provide a satiating sensation especially for somebody who is trying to transition to eating healthier foods and so this can be a good transition food.

The downsides are that, due to the fermented sugars in these foods which have already turned, this is an acid-forming food for the body to digest. You should be able to feel the acidity in your mouth — for example if you take a spoonful of vinegar that would show you right there. Ultimately, for this reason this is not a vital food which will promote alkaline chemistry in your body.

Also, it is possible to overstimulate too much bacterial activity in the body. Any time you are eating fermented foods, this is essentially providing your body with an abundance of sugar alcohol, which is difficult and acid-forming for your body to digest. Not only that, but your body will need serious help to completely decompose the resulting chemistry from colonies of bacteria. Your small intestine absorbs sugar alcohol at about half the rate as regular sugar, meaning that much of it will be left to ferment and be processed by bacterial decomposition instead.

The more of these types of foods you eat, the more your body will become colonized by bacteria which thrive on sugar alcohol. This can include an overgrowth of things like candida (which many people have negative experiences with), fungus and yeast. These things are all fine within balance and moderation, but if you have an overgrowth of these bacterial and fungal forces in the body — trust me — this is a recipe for you not having a good time. The overgrowth of these life forces can sap somebody’s energy, cause mood swings, even create psychic effects, and of course can affect an individual’s appetite and craving for more foods which are acidic and unnatural but which will continue to feed these colonies — thus perpetuating the cycle.

Make sure you do a parasite / harmful organism cleanse to make sure cravings for fermented foods are not coming form outside of own volition. If you’re looking to grow the good bacteria in your body, rather than eating these fermented foods, I think a much better and more balanced way to do this would be — in addition to eating fresh, ripe foods which are full of good bacteria — to use a good quality probiotic supplement.

RapidRegeneration.com/ParasiteCleanse
&
RapidRegeneration.com/Probiotic

Refined Sugar

Be careful of refined sugars, because their use in food products and restaurants is very common. This complex sugar product from sucrose creates an acidic condition when ingested and calls upon the body to create excessive mucus as a response.

Many processed cane sugars are processed using bone char, which is used as a decolourising filter to change the color from brown to white, which means you are consuming bone powder from cows. Some brands don’t use bone char and instead use granular carbon or an ion-exchange system — this is still highly unnatural and adds additional chemical processing to the food.

If you must add sugar into a home-based recipe, some alternatives to refined sugar would be date sugar or coconut sugar. Definitely avoid this other pernicious artificial white powder (processed sugar) because it keeps many people in a condition of poor health — don’t let that happen to you!

Grains, Beans, Starches, Overly Starchy Vegetables and Fruits

The recommendation of not eating grains, beans and starches should be apparent at this point, and is covered more extensively in another segment. In summary, all of these foods cause excessive acidity inside the body during and after digestion.

This category can include foods like butternut squash, pumpkin, jicama, palm starch, cauliflower, carrots, beets, underripe plantain, and of course your standard starchy foods, like potatoes, sweet potatoes and corn, as well as grains that somebody might eat raw like sprouted grains (such as buckwheat or millet) and beans like garbanzo beans.

So let’s say you eat a fruit or vegetable which is high in starch, meaning that this food is high in complex sugars. When you consume complex sugars, it creates a lot of work, stress, and acidity in your body to digest and process that food. When you eat a piece of sweet fruit and digest the simple sugars in it, you enjoy an electrical, alkaline, harmonious connection with that food. When you eat a raw food which is starchy and full of complex sugars, you are eating an electrical, raw food, but the result on your body is still acidic.

Peanuts

The peanut is not even a nut. It is a legume (a bean). Therefore, consider it a bean, and consider all the things you have learned about beans/legumes within Rapid Regeneration and the harmful dangers of the chemistry of beans, whether they are consumed cooked or raw. So it’s almost redundant to put this in a separate category, but I still see people interested in health consuming this food haphazardly thinking it is a nut.

Please don’t ever forget — the peanut is an imposter, posing as a nut. I am sad to say that because it is delicious. If you’re craving nuts or nut butter, then reach for a real nut or proper nut butter and leave the peanuts alone!

Oils

Oils are a processed substance and fractionated, meaning their molecules have been significantly interfered with — it is no longer a ‘whole’ food. An oil is a rather unnatural thing for your body to encounter. Although it’s normal to consume a certain amount of fats and oils within other foods, in the realm of nature, it really wouldn’t happen to ever consume oil by itself in an isolated form.

Oils which are heated are much worse, because the chemistry completely changes when exposed to heat. This becomes harmful once consumed, although you can find ‘extra-virgin’ or raw versions of oils which are processed without heat.

The liver gets overworked when a high amount of oil or fat is consumed, and also there is an effect on the lymphatic system which is a lipid-based system in itself. The lymphatic cleansing process can be diluted and slowed down due to overconsumption of fats or eating oil. This, in effect, is a way to slow down your body’s speed of detoxification, cleansing and healing.

Also, there is an issue with the Omega 6:3 ratios in the ingredients used to make different oils. This can lead ultimately to a deficit of Omega 3 anti-inflammatory fatty acids, if too many Omega 6 inflammatory fatty acids are consumed.

Ultimately, oils have benefits, especially certain ones like virgin flaxseed oil, but this can cause an unnatural imbalance within the body and this ingredient would better serve you if you consumed it in its whole form while still attached to the matrices of the food.

Avocado, in Excess

The ideal ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 seems to be 1:1, or close to it. The ratio in avocados is 17:1. The body needs to have a good balance of the two in order to thrive. Avocado is also high in fat and protein. This can result in an overworked digestive system if this is consumed in excess, compared with your fruit and vegetable intake which are simple sugars and very easy for your body to consume. The digestion of high amounts of fat and protein can also slow down the potency of the body’s lymphatic system. As you get further and further into your regenerative journey, you will surely notice that protein and fats being consumed will pump the brakes on your body’s detoxification process and natural healing velocity.

This is not to say never eat avocados, and I am not a purist or some monk who lives up on a hill and abstains 100% from certain pleasures of life. But simply, if you are going to consume fat and protein regularly, you would be better off consuming a more balanced ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6, like chia seeds, flax seeds, and hemp seeds, or perhaps ideally a combination of these for a good balance.

When I transitioned away from avocados in spring of 2021, and began instead consuming a moderate amount of these seeds, my life changed pretty dramatically. Prior to that, I always felt a bit sluggish after a meal with avocado and felt I was being dampened in terms of energy or that I was riding out some kind of plateau which had been going on for a couple of years.

When I changed up where and how I was consuming fat and protein, my energy levels exploded. I no longer had any dip in energy after a meal, and my days were more filled with a long-lasting, dynamic energy. My focus and drive were heightened to new levels of performance. I have to give credit where credit is due. I had had an instinctual feeling that avocados were not ultimately serving me at that point — as much as they had helped me over the years — and that intuition was right on, because it was validated once I made this switch.

I love avocado and still eat it. This list and this segment in general is not to create some rule like a Catholic nun banning you from ever indulging in something. But, while I will have it as a treat sometimes, it’s no longer a main food source for me.

Many wellness individuals who promote raw foods are missing this piece of data. Just having the level of awareness about what this food does will give you great power in whatever you which to decide to do for yourself over the next many years.

Coconut, in Excess

Coconut is a beautiful, unique, sweet and sumptuous tropical fruit unlike any other. It is a delicious treat and there are many benefits derived from its properties. With all that in mind, let’s consider why it can be detrimental to consume excessive amounts of this food.

On the note of the Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio, the ratio for coconut is actually Infinity / Zero. This is because coconut does not contain any Omega 3 fatty acids. This can be problematic in terms of creating an imbalance with the body’s fatty acids.

Coconut is a strange food, in that it is fatty, but also is a fibrous food with almost a very chewy consistency. It creates a slowdown for sure in the body’s natural detoxification efforts due to the high amount of fats and lipids being absorbed and digested when consumed. My personal experience is that I will feel a bit bloated and my energy gets devoted or re-directed in my body to digest this complex food.

Enjoy it sometimes, and it is a great food as a buffer when you are transitioning or really getting overwhelmed with intense cravings that you just can’t stave off. In terms of fun, there are a lot of neat raw food creations which use coconut as an ingredient, which are sweet and delicious and creative. Just be careful not to overdo it with portion size, and be aware of potential food combining issues when mixing your sweet sugary ingredients with coconut because it is high in fat and contains a moderate amount of protein.

Nuts and Seeds, in Excess

Nuts and seeds are a delightful food, and bring their own unique energy to the world of raw foods which really wouldn’t be complete without them. These are very dense foods, which have their own genetic intelligence just as you would get from the raw electrical transfer when you eat any raw food.

For somebody transitioning to eating healthier foods, nuts and seeds are your friends for sure, as are nut and seed butters, and raw sauces, toppings, dressings and dips which are made from nuts and seeds. This will satiate that craving for something fatty and protein-rich.

All things considered, these are acid-forming foods. When digested, due to the nature of how these proteins get processed, it leaves behind a wake of acidic chemistry in the body. As delicious as they are, and while I’m sure we could survive on eating them for a long time in many cases, they fall on the acid side of chemistry and that’s the side which compounds all these health problems that we’re trying to eliminate and stay away from in the first place.

Ultimately, after you have transitioned to a healthier lifestyle, you may want to consider consuming more of the raw foods which are creating alkaline chemistry, which are more your fruits and vegetables. I will point out one exception to this, which is including a regular dosage of flax, hemp, and/or chia seeds in a moderate portion size.

If you are really feeling a sense of urgency about solving your health problems ASAP, do not delay — don’t keep one foot in the alkaline world of fruits and the other in the acid world of nuts and high proteins. Press your foot on the gas and turn up the alkalinity because that is what your body needs to purge out acids, toxins, wastes, and to create an environment where your body, mind and spirit can regenerate at a rapid pace.

There’s no need to make this a black and white issue, or be abstinent completely from this category. Just be aware of the double-edge sword that nuts and seeds represent. Be aware of the nuances between the different types because they’re not all made equal. Definitely be aware of food combining which can compound the acidic blowback of eating nuts if improperly combined with other types of foods.

In addition to the acidic nature of high protein content being digested, you may also find yourself stumbling over roadblocks because you are consuming too many nuts containing too much Omega 6s and not enough Omega 3s. Different nuts and seeds have differing amounts of Omega 6 to Omega 3, and so you can still achieve a pretty balanced ratio, depending on the nuts and seeds that you choose to eat which can create balance and a major benefit within the body.

Definitely enjoy the bountiful gifts of nature with nuts and seeds, and the delicious, nutritional and intelligent qualities they give us — just be aware of the nuances of what you are eating.

Alcohol

This could technically be a raw food — while many alcoholic beverages are cooked and brewed and so forth, there are alcohols out there which are basically raw, and are simply fermented sugars. Obviously there are many reasons why this particular item could be considered one to avoid.

For sure, you would want to avoid alcohol which is made from foods that would be considered acidic harmful foods containing complex sugars — things like barley, grains, rye, and potatoes. But what about alcohol made from foods which would be beneficial to eat in their original form? Like wine from grapes? What about tequila from agave? Or how about other alcohols made from different fruits which are out there, like oranges, lemons, strawberries, and many others?

When simple sugars ferment, they turn into sugar alcohol. This is simply Mother Nature’s process if you leave something out unattended and uneaten for a period of time. So in essence, you could even make your own alcohol when you let something sit for awhile in your fridge or pantry and let it go past its time and keep fermenting.

Just keep in mind that once the simple sugar has turned into sugar alcohol, the result on the body is an acidic one, rather than an alkaline result that would have been produced if that simple sugar had been eaten while ripe. The small intestines cannot properly digest sugar alcohol, and so you are therefore depending on that ingredient to rot throughout the intestines and let bacteria decompose this food. By the end of this process, this would be considered an acid-forming food.

I am not an expert on the process by which most mainstream alcohols are made. I suspect there are other synthetic ingredients, additives, and/or preservatives added, which would definitely be recommended to avoid. However, even if you find a product which is made from ingredients like fruits, and made without being heated or without other harmful ingredients being added to it, just keep in mind you’re still playing around with the acidic side of chemistry and there is likely to be blowback on the body’s tissues.

The harmful effects of alcohol are shown to be detrimental to the mouth, esophagus, stomach and stomach lining, gastrointestinal tract, liver, heart, cardiovascular system, nervous system and brain. As much fun as alcohol is, there is a price to be paid in terms of health, wellness, and longevity (for more on this issue, please see the segment entitled ‘Caffeine, Alcohol, Marijuana and Other Stimulants’), so this would be one beverage that you may want to consider avoiding.

Kombucha

Kombucha is a milder form of alcoholic beverages basically. This is not a raw food, because it is brewed, but it is worth mentioning because it’s so commonplace and I see many people consuming it who are interested in natural wellness.

Although I can see how it would be thought to be beneficial to consume a beverage which can provide many probiotics, this drink is full of fermented sugars. Like any fermented foods, it will require extra help to be digested and processed beyond your body’s natural ability to digest ripe foods. And so, this will stimulate an overgrowth of fungus, yeast and candida in your body. This can lead to many issues and problems which are not fun at all and many people’s lives are very negatively impacted by being taken over by these microorganisms.

Nutritional Yeast

Nutritional yeast is not really a raw food, but this fungus-turned-food-product is worth a mention. This is made by culturing a yeast and then cooking it with heat to kill the yeast before it is made ready for consuming. Aside from being cooked, be careful with this product especially because so many nutritional yeasts have an ingredient added which is a synthetic form of B12 that is extremely toxic known as cyanocobalamin.

Certain Teas

This is not really a raw food either but needs to be addressed too because of its widespread use. Many teas like your classic English teas, and unsweet tea here in the US can contain high amounts of tannins, alkaloids and acidic compounds which can be toxic and harmful to the body, overwhelming the liver and kidneys.

There are herbal teas that are much gentler and do not contain nearly as much of these harmful compounds. I personally have enjoyed certain herbals teas which use certain healing herbs and have experienced their therapeutic properties firsthand. Just be careful and discerning with what you choose to consume among all the different concoctions which are available and know that there could be some downside.

Mushrooms

The overall takeaway on mushrooms is mostly agnostic — they don’t seem terrible but may have some issues. Mushrooms don’t really possess any nutritional benefit and provide no traditional nutrition to the body — they are a calorically empty food. There are some observed benefits from mushrooms which can’t be ignored so I will note that for sure and I have experienced the benefits firsthand.

However, the presence of mycotoxins from fungi consumed can result in inhibition of protein synthesis, interference with the immune system and white blood cells, and blockage of the respiratory system and other systems in the body. There is potential risk of some issues and creating dis-harmony in the body when you consume mushrooms. Overall, I’m not too worried about them but my approach would be to consider airing on the side of avoidance if in doubt.

Carbonated Water

This is a toughie because I love a cool, refreshing glass of sparkling mineral water. However, consider not sucking these down on a regular basis because the carbon monoxide which is pumped into the H2O does create an overall acid hit when consumed — you should even be able to feel this in your mouth, throat, chest and belly.

I’m not saying you can’t ever have it and I’ve been known to still drink it from time to time such as at a bar. There was a time when I was enjoying a glass bottle of sparkling mineral water so much that I started drinking it every day. I did notice a negative effect and at this point started looking into this — sure enough, the mineral water itself is extremely beneficial but the carbon monoxide chemistry is acidic and not a health-promoting combination.

Honey

Honey is a sweet treat that we get quite easily in the modern world but would have been slightly insane to harvest back in a natural anthropological setting. Intuitively, honey wouldn’t really make sense to eat without modern equipment to prevent ourselves from getting stung so it is a bit unnatural on some level.

There are certainly some benefits touted about honey which are worth noting. However, honey often contains bacteria which can be toxic and cause the immune system to be overworked.

I went through a big honey phase but really lost my taste for it over the years, and don’t seek it out or crave it much anymore. Overall, it’s not terrible, and there are some upsides, but it also has some issues that could affect you if you eat it.

In Conclusion

I want to be clear that this chapter is all about extra credit — everything is relative, after all. If you were just recently eating burgers, French Fries, pasta, cookies and sweets, then going to any version of eating more raw foods is going to be a zillion times better and you should expect to see massive improvements in alleviating your heath problems and promoting your overall wellness.

If you are transitioning from a diet of cooked, acid-forming foods, then please do not worry too much about all these nuances for now — consider it for a later time, after you have swung much closer to the alkaline side of chemistry and transitioned into more of a healthy lifestyle, eating many fruits, raw foods, and herbs.

The higher up you go in terms of achieving your goals and elevating your vibrations, you will likely find that you’ll feel bottlenecked or roadblocked from some direction, or like you’re slowed down to some degree in achieving your wellness goals. If you are experiencing that, then this would be a good time to actually heighten your level of awareness about the different consciousness and qualities that exist within different raw ingredients.

Try playing around with this knowledge. Remove an item from the menu of what you are eating, substitute in something else, and just see how that feels for you. If you are feeling extra ambitious and want to earn some extra credit — and are ready to throw more fuel on the fire of your own success in achieving amazing wellness and eliminating health problems within your body — then go ahead and be very discerning and selective about which raw foods you wish to cut down on or avoid.

I have put much effort and I thank God for the discernment to be able to distill this information and bring it to you, as I am confident in this refined list. The path that it will put you on is the highest-possible velocity to connect you with your health goals!

Good luck!