Food Quality

@Source

🥩 MEAT

Mandatory

RAW

🌡️ Temperature rules for storage:

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

FREEZING
Frozen meat is quite damaged
Freezing destroys 80% of nutrients in meat according to Aajonus, and generates some toxins.
It is best to avoid it.

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

ORGANIC LABEL
Organic meat is better, but non-organic lean cuts of meat can be fine
Toxins store in the fat, so lean cut from non-organic animals (except pig, which should be truly organic) could be of acceptable quality.

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

100% grass-fed grass-finished meat is better
An animal fed too much grain will make less nutritious meat.

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

Freshly-slaughtered meat is ideal
The meat is more vibrant with nutrition if the animal was alive just a few moments prior.
Over the days the meat can lose enzymes and overall nutrition.
Freshly-killed meat is about 2x better.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

Beware of cheap meat
Depending on where you live, some unscrupulous sellers might inject water or add coloring on the meat.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

Beware of conventional, and all meat
In the USA, by law, the meat has to be sprayed with citric acid (GMO) or frozen.
Few places manage to provide fresh non-treated meat.

💡 TIP: Private food clubs should be able to circumvent that, but do make sure still.
Amos Miller for example won a court case against that.

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

ORGANIC LABEL
Non-organic lean meat could be fine
Toxins store in the fat, so lean cut from non-organic animals (except pig, which should be truly organic) could be of acceptable quality.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

ORGANIC LABEL
Organs must be top quality
Avoid organs from non-organic sources, as toxins tend to store there as well.
On top of organic, the animal should be completely unvaccinated.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

Ground meat is of lesser quality
It is better to take whole cuts:

⚠️ WARNING: Meat grinders can leech metals into the meat.
⚠️ WARNING: Meat that is grinded only once can be fine, but twice ground “homogenizes” it too much and makes it harder to digest.

💡 TIP: Prefer using a food processor to make chopped meat or pâté, superior in every way,
and can be made to have a chunky texture as well (see the guides for pâté and deli pâté / marinated pâté towards the end of this guide).

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

DRYING
Dried meat is much less digestible
Drying, the removal of moisture, kills bacteria which disables the enzymes and prevents digestion of most of the meat.
Prefer raw unsalted cheese for dry food cravings.

🚫 Very undesirable

STORAGE
Avoid saran wrap
Unlike regular plastic, saran wrap has chemicals that go deep into the item and cannot be scraped off.

🥚 EGG

Mandatory

RAW

⚠️ WARNING: They can be pasteurized even if sold in their shell, in the USA at least, so be careful that they are still raw.

🌡️ Temperature rules for storage:

Mandatory

Maximum of 15% of soy in the feed
Aajonus wouldn't eat eggs from hens fed too much soy.

💡 TIP: Ask the farmers what is in the feed of the hens, to see if they mention soy, and then even if they don't, ask them how much % of soy there is.

Mandatory

Free range
They must be able to eat some insects and not only be grain-fed.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

Refrigerated eggs are less digestible
Eggs are a sensitive food, with some of its bacteria dying at cool temperatures, hindering their digestion.

💡 TIP: If the egg was refrigerated, leave it at room temperature so that its bacteria can grow again.

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

ORGANIC LABEL
It is rather important the egg be organic, or equivalent, to ensure the chickens have not been fed GMOs and antibiotics.

⚠️ WARNING: They can be pasteurized even if sold in their shell, in the USA at least, so be careful that they are still raw.

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

Not vaccinated
It is much better if the hens were not vaccinated.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

Best is if fed no mineral supplements
Those supplements are considered good by farmers but are not like real food, they bring toxicity.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

Best is not fed oyster shells
Some farmers use oyster shell powder to give minerals to the chickens, and although it could be a good food for them, the issue resides in that oysters store all their toxins in their shells.

🍯 HONEY

Mandatory

RAW Honey should be unheated.

⚠️ WARNING: Honey labelled "raw" is in several countries legally allowed to go to much higher temperatures, that are in fact not raw.
⚠️ WARNING: Honey should not only be raw but unheated, which is a lower temperature than raw, otherwise it will lose its enzymes (its main benefit) and be much higher in sugar, which we want to avoid.

🌡️ Temperature rules for storage:

💡 TIP: Ask what is the maximum temperature reached by the honey.
💡 TIP: Ask about the temperature inside the beehive.
💡 TIP: Ask about the processes that follow extraction.
💡 TIP: If they use a centrifugal machine (it can heat too much without the beekeeper even knowing).
💡 TIP: Ask how they extract the honey, how they cut the honeycomb (heating knives ruin it).
💡 TIP: Ask if the beehive is in the shade.

⚠️ WARNING: Summer honey could be too hot if the ambient temperature is too high. Bees fan the beehive to cool it (partially to dry it so it doesn’t ferment into alcohol), but that may not be enough.
⚠️ WARNING: In very hot places (e.g., Dubai, North Africa), most honey may be too hot. It may be raw but always partially heated.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

FEED
Some sugar fed to the bees
Often, some processed sugar is given to them. As long as it's limited in time, it's fine.
Ask what quantity. The less, the better.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

Usage of anti-mites
Ask how the beekeeper performs pest control.
Do they use anti-mites? That may be authorized by organic labels, but it’s not ideal.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

STORAGE
Plastic should be avoided
Honey is a solvent, plastic will leech more into it than the average food.
Better to store it in glass or similar material.

Note

Crystallized honey
Crystallization doesn’t indicate whether a honey is unheated or not.
It is a natural process that can occur over months depending on the ratio of glucose/fructose sugar content.

🐟 FISH

Mandatory

RAW

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

SOURCE
Avoid more polluted fish: Prefer bigger and deep-sea fish
The seas and oceans are getting more and more polluted. For that reason, prefer eating deep-sea fish (the exception to this is oysters).
The bigger the fish, the more it can isolate its toxins, by binding them within many layers of complex fat molecules.

💡 TIP: Examples of deep-sea fish include: Swordfish, Monkfish, Grenadier, Black Cod (Sablefish), Orange Roughy.

🚫 Very undesirable

SOURCE
Avoid anything from the Gulf of Mexico
According to Aajonus, it is a dumping ground for the military and extremely polluted.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

Avoid fish organs
Because of pollution, fish organs could be too toxic.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

FREEZING
Some fish can tolerate freezing better than others
If it's a fish that would be alive after thawing, it can be eaten frozen without too much nutrient loss.
Otherwise, avoid frozen fish.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

DRYING
Dried fish is much less digestible
Drying, the removal of moisture, kills bacteria which disables the enzymes and prevents digestion of most of the meat.
Prefer raw unsalted cheese for dry food cravings.

🚫 Very undesirable

Avoid fish sprayed with chemicals
Some supermarkets spray chemicals. Sometimes it can make the fish look more shiny.
You may be able to smell them (which can give a headache).

🚫 Very undesirable

Beware of MSG in sushi shops
Even when ordering raw fish, it can often have MSG added to it.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

Avoid tap water cleaning
Even in high-end fish shops, the fish is most likely cleaned with tap water when it is cut.
If you can, ask for that not to be the case.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

Avoid aluminum foil
In shops, the fish is sometimes put on aluminum foil, which isn't great.

🚫 Very undesirable

STORAGE
Avoid saran wrap
Unlike regular plastic, saran wrap has chemicals that go deep into the item and cannot be scraped off.

🦪 OYSTER

Mandatory

RAW

🚫 Very undesirable

SOURCE
Avoid oysters from the Gulf of Mexico
According to Aajonus, it is a dumping ground for the military and extremely polluted.
Otherwise, oysters have the ability to seclude pollution to their shell and avoid it settling in their flesh the most.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

STORAGE
Wrong storage
Sometimes, in shops, oysters are put in a tank filled with tap water.
Make sure that is not the case.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

Avoid freezing
Beware, buffets will sell you infinite oysters, that is not a good idea:
they are almost certainly frozen, and freezing foods harm most of their nutrients.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

DRYING
Dried oysters are much less digestible
Drying, the removal of moisture, kills bacteria which disables the enzymes
and prevents digestion of most of the meat.

Prefer raw unsalted cheese for dry food cravings.
Therefore, avoid dry oyster powder “supplements.”

🐟 SALMON

Mandatory

RAW

🚫 Very undesirable

SOURCE
Do not eat farmed salmon
Farmed salmon is fed badly and in poor conditions, even if organic, it is of too low quality.

🚫 Very undesirable

Most salmons are GMO, even wild
Aajonus stopped eating all salmon, even wild.
According to him, years before, Monsanto released GMO salmon in the wild, and thus all wild salmon in the ocean is now hybrid GMO.
The only acceptable salmon you could get is from secluded rivers, and even then, only after making sure some lobbyists haven’t paid off the locals to introduce GMO salmon there.

🚫 Very undesirable

STORAGE
Avoid saran wrap
Unlike regular plastic, saran wrap has chemicals that go deep into the item and cannot be scraped off.

💧 WATER

Mandatory

Naturally mineral only
Water should be naturally mineral.
There are mineral waters which are non-natural, meaning they add mineral supplements, electrolytes, etc.

Mandatory

Naturally sparkling
If using sparkling water, it should be naturally sparkling, which means using natural gas from the spring, and not added artificial CO₂.

⚠️ WARNING: Be careful about the order of words in the label.

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

STORAGE
Stored in glass, not plastic
Plastic leeches phthalate toxins into the water.

🚫 Very undesirable

Avoid treated water
Avoid water that was “ozonated”, or processed to “remove iron”.
These processes add toxins to the water.

Note

Fluoride level
Some waters have high levels of fluoride, even naturally. That may not be a concern, since we do not drink much of it.
Aajonus found plastic bottling and its phthalates to be worse than some slightly higher fluoride levels that the body can deal with.

Note

SOURCE
Brands
In terms of brands, in some countries, some brands are fine, and in other countries the same brands can contain different water. For example

🥒 VEGETABLE JUICE

Mandatory

RAW

Mandatory

ORGANIC LABEL

💡 SOURCE: Juice from bars can be an option.
Juice bars are rather common, and they can be a good way to get good vegetable juice.
It is less expensive to make your own, however, those can be helpful while traveling for example.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

Avoid the wrong kind of juicing machine
Ask how they extract the juice from the vegetable.
What kind of machine is it? Is it centrifugal?
Then that’s not great, it will lose many nutrients and generate some heat.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

Avoid mixed juices with too many ingredients
If they have complex juices on the menu (ginger, apple, lemon juice, celery, etc.), you could try and ask them to remove some of it.
You may not want apple or ginger, which can give stronger detoxification.
Avoid kale, spinach, or any plant not mentioned by Aajonus in his juice recipes.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

Avoid tap water cleaning
⚠️ WARNING: Most likely, they wash the vegetables in tap water before juicing them.

🌰 NUT

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

RAW
Avoid pre-opened nuts
Some pre-opened nuts are lasered, which could overheat part of the nut inside.
Better to take those with their shells still on and use a nut cracker.

🚫 Very undesirable

STORAGE
Avoid saran wrap
Unlike regular plastic, saran wrap has chemicals that go deep into the item and cannot be scraped off.

🍈 PAPAYA

Mandatory

RAW

Mandatory

ORGANIC LABEL

🚫 Very undesirable

Avoid irradiated papayas
Be careful that it is not irradiated. Even organic papayas can sometimes be irradiated.
If it looks burned on a side, it's most likely been irradiated.
Sometimes, it can be very hard to find non-irradiated papaya, such as in the UK.

🚫 Very undesirable

STORAGE
Avoid saran wrap
Unlike regular plastic, saran wrap has chemicals that go deep into the item and cannot be scraped off.

🍍 PINEAPPLE

Mandatory

RAW

🚫 Very undesirable

ORGANIC LABEL
Avoid non-organic pineapple
Do not eat non-organic pineapple, moreso than other fruits.
They are often heavily sprayed, with potent chemicals to prevent field raids.

🚫 Very undesirable

STORAGE
Avoid saran wrap
Unlike regular plastic, saran wrap has chemicals that go deep into the item and cannot be scraped off.

🥒 CUCUMBER

Mandatory

RAW

Mandatory

ORGANIC LABEL
Some non-organic cucumbers are of decent quality.

🚫 Very undesirable

Do not eat or juice the peel, even from organic cucumbers
Cucumbers, even organic, can have petroleum wax on their skin.
This is one of the reasons to never eat/juice the skin, except if you know for sure that it is grown without.

🚫 Very undesirable

STORAGE
Avoid saran wrap
Unlike regular plastic, saran wrap has chemicals that go deep into the item and cannot be scraped off.

🍑 FRUIT

Mandatory

RAW

Mandatory

ORGANIC LABEL

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

Freezing fruit can be fine
Fruits are the only foods in general (besides certain fish and raw cream under certain conditions) that can be frozen without much issue.
But when they thaw, it is recommended to eat them fast.

🚫 Very undesirable

STORAGE
Avoid saran wrap
Unlike regular plastic, saran wrap has chemicals that go deep into the item and cannot be scraped off.

🪨 CLAY

Mandatory

RAW

It must be sun-dried
If ovens were used to dry the clay, it could be too much heat.

Mandatory

It must not be from volcanic activity
Clay that was made from volcanic activity contains molten metals.

🥛 MILK

Mandatory

RAW

🌡️ Temperature rules for storage:

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

Never chilled milk has more nutrients
Milk that has never been chilled will have retained some growth properties (still 1/10th that of raw meat),
and will ferment very nicely and consistently.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

Avoid micro-filtered / "cold-pasteurized" milk
Even if the milk remains raw, these processes kill its bacteria, which are extremely important for digestion.

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

100% grass-fed grass-finished is better
An animal fed too much grain will make less nutritious milk.

Note

A2/A1 distinction is not important when raw.

🧈 BUTTER

Mandatory

RAW

🌡️ Temperature rules for storage:

Be careful with the labels
Do not just trust the labels.
An “unpasteurized” butter could still be cooked.
It could be “thermised” (just some lower temperature cooking) without it having to be written on the package, for instance.
And do not trust everything that comes from France.

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

100% grass-fed grass-finished is better
An animal fed too much grain will make less nutritious butter.

🚫 Very undesirable

STORAGE
Avoid saran wrap
Unlike regular plastic, saran wrap has chemicals that go deep into the item and cannot be scraped off.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

Butter is often rinsed in tap water
If possible, if it is directly from a maker, ask for that not to be the case.

Note

A2/A1 distinction is not important when raw.

🧀 CHEESE

Mandatory

RAW
Must truly be raw

⚠️ WARNING: There is a trap to be aware of. Some cheeses are made “from raw milk”, but are themselves cooked.
This is called the “cooked paste cheese”. This is legal because it is only cooked once a cheese paste has been formed.

So beware of “raw milk cheeses”:
Gouda, Emmentäler, Parmigiano Reggiano, Mozzarella di Bufala, Cheddar, Gruyère, Comté, Pecorino, Ricotta… all are cooked paste.

Mandatory

Must truly be unsalted

⚠️ WARNING: Some "no salt" cheeses are actually salted.

💡 TIP: The first thing to check is the label, to see if there is added salt.
💡 TIP: The second thing to check is the nutritional label to see if the amount of sodium is more than ~0.08g per 100g of cheese.
💡 TIP: Ask your farmer who already makes raw cheese if they can make their cheese without salt.

If they are concerned or about to refuse, you could say you will take the cheese young (so they don’t have to worry about aging, bacteria outbreak, etc.).
You can also say it is not much different from making salted cheese in the initial stages.
Be careful with wording, some cheesemakers think it’s impossible or never heard of it, and might get offended.

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

100% grass-fed grass-finished is better
An animal fed too much grain will make less nutritious milk, and thus less nutritious cheese.

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

ORGANIC LABEL
Non-organic cheese could still be useful.
Considering it's not digested and has an abundance of minerals, it could contain its own toxins and pull more.

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

DRYING
The more dry a cheese is, the more efficient it is at drawing toxins to itself
Drying (the removal of moisture) kills bacteria which disables the enzymes and prevents digestion of the food.
When that food is cheese, with its high concentration of minerals and fats, it becomes a potent catch for toxins.

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

A good rennet is a plus
Cheese can be made without rennet, but if using rennet, even if imperfect, it is fine, according to Aajonus.
Vegetable/GMO rennet is preferable to avoid.
Making a rennet that is truly raw, without any chemical and unsalted, is a plus.

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

A good culture is a plus
Cheese can be made without cultures, but if using cultures, even if imperfect, it is fine, according to Aajonus.
Ideally, a culture would be unprocessed, either from a previous batch of cheese that was made without processed culture, or from a clean environment.
One's own spit can even be used as a culture to tailor the cheese to one’s bacterial flora.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

Avoid calcium supplements
Some farmers use calcium supplements (to increase yield).
That might compromise the quality of the cheese too much.

🚫 Very undesirable

STORAGE
Avoid saran wrap
Unlike regular plastic, saran wrap has chemicals that go deep into the item and cannot be scraped off.

Note

A2/A1 distinction is not important when raw.

🌴 DATE

Mandatory

RAW

⚠️ WARNING: If they are dried, they must be sun-dried, and not steamed, as steaming would cook them.

Mandatory

ORGANIC LABEL

🚫 Very undesirable

STORAGE
Avoid saran wrap
Unlike regular plastic, saran wrap has chemicals that go deep into the item and cannot be scraped off.

🥃 VINEGAR

Mandatory

RAW

💡 TIP: Look for the term “unpasteurized” on the label.
Call and ask the maximum temperature reached during the fabrication process.

Mandatory

ORGANIC LABEL

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

Aged in wood

💡 TIP: It would be better if they are not contained, or especially aged, in metal containers (even stainless steel).
The acetic acid of vinegar is a potent solvent that will leech metals into the food.

🫒 OLIVE OIL

Mandatory

RAW

🌡️ Temperature rules for storage:

💡 TIP: Look for "Extra Virgin Olive Oil" (EVOO). Under this term, the olive oil should be raw,
but call the brand and make sure by asking them what is the maximum temperature reached during the process.

🚫 Very undesirable

SOURCE
Beware of fake olive oils

⚠️ WARNING: But be extremely careful, a lot of olive oils are fake, and contain other oils in their mix.
Also, some olive oils are mixes of olive oils from different countries, and some countries might scam.

❌ Undesirable but not unacceptable

From mature, black olives

⚠️ WARNING: Olive oil should be made from mature, dark olives.
Otherwise, they may need to add a chemical to it, to disable a certain compound naturally found in unripe olive oil.

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

Aged in wood, stored in glass
It would be better if they are not contained, or especially aged, in metal containers (even stainless steel):
the oil is a potent solvent that will leech metals into the food.

💡 TIP: Olive oil should be made from mature, dark olives.
Otherwise, they may need to add a chemical to it, to disable a certain compound naturally found in unripe olive oil.

🥥 COCONUT CREAM

Mandatory

RAW
You will almost never find truly raw coconut cream or oil in stores.
They will heat at a minimum of 45°C (113°F).

💡 TIP: You have to make it yourself using a cold-extracting juicer, or buy from one of the very few places that provide truly raw coconut cream.

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

STORAGE
Avoid metal storing, such as cans.
Especially if the coconut cream/oil is truly raw, it will leech huge quantities of metals from the container (that is a property of coconut fat more than any other raw food).

✅ Beneficial but not mandatory

ORGANIC LABEL
It doesn't need to be organic.
Whole coconuts are one of the only foods which can be had non-organic.
According to Aajonus, because of the thick shell, toxins are undetectable in non-organic whole coconuts (that you will open and juice yourself).

🚫 Very undesirable

STORAGE
Avoid saran wrap
Unlike regular plastic, saran wrap has chemicals that go deep into the item, even through the shell of coconuts, and cannot be scraped off.

🚫 Very undesirable

SOURCE
Avoid coconuts from Thailand/China
They are putting some contaminant in the fields (Q&A August 17 2003).