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Articles, Mucus-free Lifestyle, Mucusless Diet, Writings about Arnold Ehret
Prof. Spira’s Mucusless Diet Food List
I’m often asked to create a practical Mucusless Diet Food List of the most frequently eaten foods. These lists are tricky, especially when referencing the Mucusless Diet, because it is hard to illustrate how the foods are to be used systematically within the Mucusless Diet. People sometimes want a “do not eat” or “you must eat” kind of food list, which just does not work with the Mucusless Diet as a Healing System.
There are not hard and fast “rules” for the “transition diet,” but rather guidelines and practices that have proven to work the best. The Transition Diet is the systematic approach developed by Arnold Ehret to safely evolve one’s eating habits away from mucus-forming foods toward a mucusless diet. Keep in mind that this is a personal list that is based upon my own experiences. Ultimately, each person will need to find transitional food items that work best for them based on their past eating habits, physiological type, levels of mucus/pus addiction, latent/chronic illness, etc.
Just because the item is listed does not mean that you should or need to eat it. If you are long-time advanced vegan or raw foodist, there may be no need to step back to processed mucuslean, that is moderately mucus-forming, items. The ones listed below are just things that helped me come from a very gluttonous Standard American Diet (SAD) (See HERE for before and after pictures).
It is okay to eat mucuslean foods, but what separates a Mucusless Diet practitioner from a ‘vegan’ or ‘rawist’ is how and why the mucus-forming foods are eaten. A Mucusless Diet practitioner knows that raw salads should always accompany steamed vegetables or mucuslean foods.To better understand how and why we eat mucuslean foods, read the Mucusless Diet Healing System.
In the following Mucusless Diet Foods List I first explore the most frequently used mucusless (mucus-free) food items, and then look at some mucuslean options.
ACID-BINDING, NON-MUCUS-FORMING, OR MUCUSLESS
(MUCUS-FREE) FOODS
RIPE FRUITS (MUCUSLESS)
Apples
Banana
Black Cherries
Blackberries
Blood Orange
Cantaloupe
Cherries
Grapefruit
Grapes
Honeybell Tangelos
Honeydew
Lemons
Mandarin
Mangos
Nectarine
Oranges
Peaches
Pears
Pineapple
Plums
Prunes
Raisins
Raspberries
Strawberries
Sweet Cherries
Tangerines
Watermelon
DRIED OR BAKED FRUITS (MUCUSLESS)
Apples
Apricots
Bananas (my favorite fruit to bake)
Cherries
Dates, (Dried)
Figs (Dried)
Grapes/raisins
Mango
Pineapple
Plums/prunes
Strawberries
100% FRUIT JELLIES, SYRUPS, AND HONEY
Coconut Water
Fruit Jellies (no sugar added)
GREEN LEAF VEGETABLES (MUCUSLESS)
Arugula
Cabbage (I used steamed cabbage frequently in the early days of my transition, but rarely eat it today. Instead, I use steamed collard greens. Raw chopped cabbage is also good on salads, although I rarely use it today).
Collard (steamed collard greens is one of my current ‘staples’ that I will frequently consume during periods of vegetable eating).
Dandelion Leaf
Kale
Leafy Herbs (Parsley, Dill, Basil, Thyme)
Lettuce (Green, Red, Romaine, Boston Bibb)
Mustard Greens
Spinach (the primary staple of every vegetable salad I eat)
RAW VEGETABLES/ROOT, STEM, FRUIT (ALL OR RELATIVELY STARCHLESS/MUCUSLESS)
Celery
Cucumbers
Dandelion (periodically will add to green vegetable juices)
Green Onions
Onions
Peppers (Green, Red, Yellow, or Orange)
Red Beets
Sea Vegetables (Dulse, Kelp)
Sprouts (Alfalfa)
Tomatoes
Zucchini
BAKED OR STEAMED VEGETABLES ROOT, STEM, FRUIT (ALL OR RELATIVELY STARCHLESS/MUCUSLESS)
Acorn Squash (Baked)
Asparagus
Broccoli (steamed broccoli remains one of my longest standing staples)Brussels
Sprouts
Butternut Squash (Baked)
Carrots (Steamed and eaten with raw salad)
Green Peas (I’ve eaten steamed peas quite a bit over the years)
Peppers (Green, Red, Yellow, or Orange)
Spaghetti Squash (Baked; not something I eat all the time, but it is good to eat when something heavy is craved)
Sweet Potato (Baked)
Zucchini (Steamed or Baked)
***
MUCUSLEAN (MODERATELY MUCUS-FORMING)
Below are foods that are mucus-forming, but I’ve found to be useful during the “transition diet.” When the following items are added to a meal, Arnold Ehret called the meal “mucuslean.” For clarification, hear are the definitions of mucuslean from my eBook Spira Speaks: Dialog and Essays on the Mucusless Diet Healing System:
mucuslean: refers to the period of dietary transition in the Mucusless Diet where mucus-forming foods are used along with mucusless ones. Mucuslean menus are generally less harmful than standard mucus-forming eating habits by non-practitioner, and are an important part of the overall transition and systematic healing methods employed in the Mucusless Diet Healing System.
In the Muculess Diet Healing System, Arnold Ehret teaches how best to eat mucuslean items so that they do the least amount of damage and leave behind the least amount of waste. Most items, except nuts, should always be eating with a raw “combination salad” to help with digestion and elimination. See the Mucusless Diet for more on how to combine and eat mucuslean options properly.
STARCHY OR FATTY VEGETABLES AND FRUITS (SLIGHTLY MUCUS-FORMING)
Carrots (Raw; some people view carrots as mucus-forming. They have a little bit of starch content, but mostly eliminate well and function relatively mucusless in the body. Although I don’t juice them as much as I did in the past, they are fine to chop up and add to a salad).
*I advise against eating avocados because they are ‘fatty’ and mucus-forming. However, I did use them to make sauces during the earlier parts of my transition and still eat them two or three times a year (when you can eat certain mucuslean item only a few times per year, you know that you are advancing along with the Mucusless Diet).
BEANS (MODERATELY MUCUS-FORMING)
Beans (Black Beans, Black-eyed peas Kidney Beans, Lima Beans, Navy Beans, Pinto Beans, etc.; Beans are my most steadfast mucuslean item. They are starchy, heavy, addictive, and mucus-forming, but I’ve found that they eliminate well if combined properly with raw salads and steamed vegetables. But, when it is time to be mucusless or fast, steer clear of them).
NUTS AND SEEDS (MILDLY MUCUS-FORMING)
Nuts (Cashews, Almonds, Brazil Nuts, Peanuts, Pecans, Walnuts, etc.; I’ve always been very good about combining nuts with raisins and/or figs to aid elimination. Also, I learned early on to never eat nuts with juicy fruits. I ate a lot of nuts during the first couple years of my transition, and seem to eat them less and less every year. I might eat nuts three of four times a year now).
CEREALS (MODERATELY MUCUS-FORMING)
Well toasted 100% grain bread (toasting helps neutralize the sticky properties. Toast should always be combined with a raw salad to promote an broom-like effect within the intestines.)
100% wheat or quinoa pasta (this is mucus-forming, but I found 100% wheat spaghetti combined with steamed vegetables and a large raw salad to be very helpful in the early stages of the transition).
OILS (FATTY AND MILDLY MUCUS FORMING)
My favorite and most used oils include:
Olive oil
Grapeseed oil
SEASONINGS (POTENTIALLY ACID-FORMING)
Some seasonings are potentially acid-forming, however Ehret says that it is okay to use many of your favorite condiments during the transition. Some of my favorite seasonings include:
Onion powder
Garlic Powder
Dulse Flakes
Kelp Granules
Oregano Granules
Thyme Granules
Basal Granules
PROCESSED FOODS, CONFECTIONERIES, FERMENTED, OR DISTILLED DRINKS (ACID/PUS/MUCUS-FORMING)
Overall, I stayed away from most processed foods, non-vegan sweets, and fermented beverages from the beginning of my transition. Exceptions would include some processed vegan foods and confectioneries that I used periodically, but I will mention those in the next section.
VEGETARIAN/VEGAN PROCESSED FOODS (MODERATELY MUCUS FORMING OR POTENTIAL ACID-FORMING)
Chips (corn, plantain; stay away from them if you can. Corn chips may be my worst addiction and I do my best to not eat them).
Hummus (processed chickpeas)
Soy Butter (I used it for several years in the beginning and then quit when I started to connect some of the negative symptoms I was having to the high oil content and soy lecithin, which really should be avoided altogether).
Pasteurized 100% Fruit Juices (potentially acid-forming)
Plant milks (soy milk; I used soy milks with cereal for about a year and a half. As bad as my previous diet was, it was an improvement. But it did not take long for soy milk and cereal to start irritating my stomach causing me to get rid of it).
Plant-based butters (peanut and cashew; something I only used for a couple years. As I became clean, nut butters started to really irritate my system).
Texturized Vegetable Protein (‘mock’ meats including soy, etc.; Ehret discusses the use of protose–meat substitute made out of wheat gluten, in early versions of the Mucusless Diet in the “vegetarian options” section. Such items are not ‘forbidden,’ but should only be used for short periods of time. It should never be thought that such foods can be a long-term staple for a Mucusless Diet practitioner. The key is always combining such items with raw salads that help it to eliminate/digest.)
Vegan Baked Goods and Confections (I ate these things very sparingly, but every once in a while if I got a craving, I would not be hard on myself or try to force myself not to eat them. The Mucusless Diet is not about forcing yourself not to eat mucus, but transitioning away from it so that you can no longer crave or tolerate it).
Nature/Veggie Patties (periodically you can find some veggie patties that are relatively ‘clean’ and will help you overcome bad cravings. They are much better to eat then going back to fast foods when the going gets tough. Just be sure to look at the ingredients on the label to make sure they did not sneak egg or dairy into it.
Canned/Jars or Tomoto Sauce (I would sometimes combined canned tomato sauce with freshly cooked tomotos, etc., to make a sauce to put over vegetables/salad. Avoid sauces that contain sugar or corn-syrup. If you are strongly against all packaged foods, simply stay away from it).
Vinegar Free Store-bought salad dressing (Obviously, it is best to make your own raw dressings, but there are a couple vinegar free dressings that Mucusless Diet practitioners have found and like to use over salads. Ehret strongly advises against using items that contain vinegar. Lemon juice is a much better alternative).
PUS-FORMING
No pus-forming foods, i.e. dairy or dead animal flesh.
Mucusless Diet Food List Video Playlist
I like the way you shared what you did early on in using the foods. This method lends itself to a moment of pause and thinking about how I am using the foods listed. This is great information.
I appreciate the acknowledgement of what ti takes to transition. Suggestions are made keeping the challenges of transitioning in mind.
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First of all thank you for your work. It’s greatly appreciated by many!
I didn’t find the fallowing ones in your list:
cauliflower
all kind of melon
cinnamon
honey
egg-plant
rhubarb
Could you please elaborate on these. Tkanks
Greetings Llze! This is my personal, practice list, and therefore is not exhaustive. The foods in this list are the ones I found most useful on my own transition. View the following lists to see a more exhaustive list: List of Mucus-forming Foods, List of Non-Mucus-forming foods. Peace, Love, and Breath!
What about proteins?
Im a newbee here but wery sick from Aspergillus fungus and other parasits.
Hello prof. Spira,
Thanks for your work !
It would be very nice to find in your next book about transition diet informations on climacteric fruits and how to get ripe fruits and good quality and to develop the skills to pick it and to help it ripen.
I know a lot of stuff from supermarket are artificially ripened with gas, irradiated so I think it is really important to learn all that.
Thank you for the feedback. I will keep those ideas in mind as I work on the book.
Love the site and your work is fab !! 🙂 I just want to know is the diet ok if im trying to gain weight? im 5ft7 and weigh 42kgs, im really scared of losing even more weight if i go mucusfree. What do you think ?
Hey!
I’ve been eatinf only fruits for the last month and before that a mucus lean diet for 1 month without having read Arnold’s book ( i just wanted to lose weight). After reading the book I gave up on eating only raw fruits ( they were great and i would have continued eating them even though they gave me a bit of gas ) because I understood I hadn’t had a good transition diet. But I miss eating fruits so much.. And the vegetables don’t satisfy my hunger.. I am also eating twice a day – at 13:00 pm and at 18:00 pm and try to fast at least 36 h in a week.. I understand that I should wait a bit before eating only fruits as I haven’t eliminated all the mucus from my system and the fruit acid would only mix with the waste and ferment… What should I do? I miss my fruits .. The glucose … I don’t even enjoy eating vegetables and I tend to overeat whereas the fruita would full me up quickly and nicely..
Sigh.
I hope you can help me. Thank u!
Greetings Alexa! I certainly think that you can keep eating fruit, but learn how to apply the entire system. The system includes fruit eating, veggies, fasting, internal baths (enemas), etc. As you get cleaner, you will be able to ascend to greater heights. For some more advice and support, you should check out our free support forum on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/arnoldehret/. Also, you may enjoy my book Spira Speaks (if you do not already have it), which discusses some practical transitional approaches and information for 21st century practitioners. (http://www.mucusfreelife.com/devalina/spira-speaks-ebook/) Peace, Love, and Breath!
Hi Spira, what about salt? And arent avocados better than nuts? Nuts are fatty too. Also, are quinoa/millet/rice less mucus-forming than nuts/avocados?
Greetings Drew,
I’m not a fan of salt. I was able to eliminate salt as a condiment for food very early on in my transition. I much prefer onion/garlic powder, oregano, etc. And I’m not an advocate of salt-water flushes. I’d much rather see someone use a lemon-juice enema to irrigate the colon and eliminate excess waste. I find nuts combined with a lot dried fruit (like raisins) to be much better than avocados. The raisins help the fatty nuts eliminate fairly well and they tend to leave behind less slime in the system. The slime left behind in the intestines from avocados are very hard to eliminate, even if eaten with a big raw salad. Also, for me, nuts were much less addictive than avocados. The addictive nature of a mucus-forming food items plays a large role in how I rate the effectiveness of an item as a transitional tool.
Peace, Love, and Breath!
Greeling Prof. Spira!
Peace and Blessings to you.
I am transitioning from mucus to mucus-free diet and sometimes get a craving for “tortilla chips and hummus. I just read how you too would crave the corn chips and how you wouldn’t beat yourself up but would gratify that craving.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THESE WORDS!!!
Once a vegan, there were many food facts that I was unaware of. I am ordering your books today!
What types of enema should I use? I’d like to do this correctly (I’m not sure if this is in your book)
Thank you
Greetings Queen!
Sorry for the delayed response. My book Spira Speaks has quite a bit of detailed info on enemas. I have a few enema bags that I recommend here in my Amazon store: http://www.mucusfreelife.com/devalina/store/Topics/affiliate-products/amazon-store/
But, you can find a less expensive bag at some drug stores like CVS. They are fine to use when you get started. And in general, I highly recommend lemon juice and distilled water enemas. Very powerful way to irrigate the colon.
Peace, Love, and Breath!
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Hi Professor Spira,
I have a question regarding lemon enemas. I understand that they are an incredible helpful tool which can be used to accelerate the cleansing process. I started doing the lemon enemas recently, but have found that I cant hold that much of the lemon enema solution. Did you also have the same experience when you first started doing the enemas? Did you find that it became easier with time to increase the amount of lemon enema solution you could take in?
Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks!
Morris
Yes. In Spira Speaks: Dialogs and Essays on the the Mucusless Diet I get very detailed about my experiences with lemon enemas, as well as a step-by-step overview on doing them. Check out more info on Spira Speaks HERE. But yes, it can take some time to get used to the lemon juice. If it is too strong, use less lemon juice or none at all. But I also mention that you don’t have to worry too much about holding it for long periods of time in the beginning if you cannot. Peace, Love, and Breath!
Love your work and purchased your book which i recieved yesterday, I would really appreciate an example of a fast for a beginner i am a vegan but i used to consume alot! of bread and I overstand that its mucus forming, an example also of a typical daily intake to completely elimate mucus xxx
Greetings Sade! I might discuss this further for you in a future live Youtube Q&A video, but I’d say first start getting more mucus-free foods in your diet. Develop habits like having a fruit meal every day, and a vegetable meal that always has a raw salad involved. Before doing a short fast it is really good to be more mucus-free for a week or so. Also, if you are down, doing a some lemon juice and distilled water enemas before your fast can be very helpful for starting to get things moving. After a bit of transition, then I’d do Ehret’s “two to three day fast” protocol, which is a fruit juice fast (lemon juice being the most aggressive option).
Hope this helps. Peace, Love, and Breath!
what are your thoughts/observations on raw, apple cider vinegar?
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“Coconut water” is listed here, how about “coconut milk”? For example, my local store sells organic coconut milk with these ingredients: coconut extract from pressed pul of coconut (60%), water, stabilizer (guar gum).
The fat content makes the “milk” mucus-forming. I think it’s find during the transition periods and every once in a while, but not something I’d want to make a daily habit for many years. Peace, Love, and Breath!
Thank you Prof. Spira for the vast content of information you so readily share. I have a question about a skin issue.. . . called seborrheic (sp?) keratoses. I have this skin condition and no one ever speaks about it. I’m wondering if its possible to eliminate this condition via the mucusless diet. I’m already long term vegan, live foodist. .. (but I do eat lots of nuts) and the condition persists. If you have or can provide any information regarding this horrible skin condition I would greatly appreciate it. . Many thanks, peace and blessings to you and yours,
Chris
I noticed key limes or figs weren’t on your list of fruits
Getting Spiral, I’m not one who follows any type of diet or eating plan, but I do think that you provide brilliant information. One of the things that made me smile, is that prior to coming across you, my body and spirit (through meditation), have been forcing/instructing me to eat this way minus most of the nuts. Whenever I slip up and eat something I shouldn’t, I pay for it dearly.
Keep inspiring people the way you do. Peace and blessings to you.
Thank you for sharing your experiences and kind words. Peace, Love, and Breath!
Hey Professor Spira, I’m glad I found your site while browsing healthy eating! I am working on moving away from all the bad recipes containing meat soon. I do a lot of sausage making recipes from scratch, and I’d like to start formulating healthy ones to replace them. Any suggestions that you or anyone in the group have to share would be greatly appreciated. Cooking is my biggest hobby, and anything I can make will be shared. Thank you, Kenny
I would certainly check out some of the “mucuslean” recipes found in the Annotated Mucusless Diet Healing System book. They should spark your transitional cooking creativity: http://bit.ly/prof-spira-amazon-author.
Peace, Love, and Breath!
So Ripe Bananas are still good? How about spinach?
P.s. Is this still still the most updated food list?
P.s. again lol… Ive found that rice is the absolutely most mucus producing food for me.. Rice and whenever bread is combined with cheese. Cayenne on the other hand (which some say is mucus forming) seems to actually help me eliminate mucus rather than produce.
Sorry for posting twice back to back like that.
Love ya Spira. You da man
Amazing!! I stumbled upon your website as I was trying to correlate my recent stuffy nose episode with an overindulgence in rice the past few days. I’m a high-raw vegan, occasionally eat steamed/roasted veggies and trying to stay away from grains (especially gluten). Everything you mention here makes so much sense, e’re practically on the same page 😀
My body has now been giving me all the signs to avoid certain foods! I think fasting also helped me a lot with tuning into what my body trying to tell me 🙂
So happy to have discovered you! Looking forwards to seeing more posts,
Love,
Yasmine
I dont know if you have answered this question before, but I am wondering about juicing or making smoothies while eating mucusless?
Juicing is wonderful to use on the Mucusless Diet. Smoothies can be good occasionally, but I’m not a fan of consuming them daily. The reason Ehret says he does not recommend soup is why I don’t recommend daily smoothies. I’d go for the whole fruits or vegetables when possible over smoothies all the time. I do consume some smoothies, but usually only a few times a year. Peace, Love, and Breath!
Hello Dr. Spyra,
What about Cinnamon?
And why no Garbanzo Beans? They are electric.
Cinnamon could be used, although I personally did not use it for my transition so it did not make it on this list. And in our opinion, garbanzo beans are not “electric” but mucus-forming. All beans are starchy and mucus-forming. However, they can be used for transitional purposes to get off of worse foods.
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Greetings, my question is about protein, I am transitioning to a mucus free eating habit, and my protein levels are extremely low. I am losing significant muscle mass (post menopausal), and I have to eat about 150 grams of protein a day. I understand that plants, etc. have protein, but that’s a lot of eating, and that’s not feasible or realistic for me. What would you recommend? Plant base protein shakes?
When I see people unable to hold muscle, it is often due to excessive amounts of acid in their systems. Arnold Ehret divided humans into two body types, lean & fat. The lean type is one with more acid waste in the system, and tends to be people who lose weight, and muscles, easily. I’ve seen people who are more alkaline actually put on weight during a fasting period. So, the more alkaline you can become, the more your body will hold muscle and the appropriate amount of fat.
Here is a video exploring the protein theory, which you might find interesting: https://youtu.be/CcKzhlAL4yE
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