Diet for Minerals: Which Foods and How Much?

by Jon Sasmor RCPC (Mineral Guide, MinBalance LLC)
Updated April 2, 2022

The Root Cause Protocol's organic, ancestral, whole foods diet, along with the rest of the RCP, will take you far.

Many people want a specific daily or weekly diet. Here are suggestions for a Diet for Minerals to optimize your performance.

The Diet for Minerals is intended as a more specific version of an organic, ancestral, whole foods diet. It emphasizes certain foods which more rapidly balance minerals for optimum performance:

Diet for Minerals Foods	How Much
Root Cause Protocol foods & supplements. Including: grassfed organic beef liver, ocean mineral drops, magnesium, adrenal cocktails, whole-food-C, cod liver oil, etc.	Follow the stages of the RCP. Please see the official RCP Handbook for instructions.
Meat: grass-fed, pastured, organic, nose-to-tail. Emphasize lamb and dark-meat chicken. Mainly fast-cooked (pressure-cooked or "braised").	4-5 oz serving (weight before cooking), once or twice daily. For red meat (including organ meats), eat 3-4 servings per week (i.e. a 4-5 oz. serving every other day).
Egg yolks: organic, from pastured hens, soft-boiled. Please see article Why Eat Only the Egg Yolks?	3-5 yolks per day
Vegetables: fast-cooked (pressure or steam); only specific vegetables from the Frequent Foods and Occasional Foods lists.	2-3 cups (cooked volume), 2-3 times daily. Total 4-9 cups per day.
Animal fats: organic, from pastured, grass-fed animals; includes lamb or beef suet or tallow, duck fat, goose fat, ghee, butter.	1-3 Tbsp per meal. May also be added to broths that you eat between meals. Total 2-8 Tbsp per day. Slow oxidizers may need closer to 2-4 Tbsp per day. Fast oxidizers and those with low potassium may need 6-8 Tbsp per day. Also, everyone may mix cod liver oil and emu oil in Activator Goo.
Meat or bone broths: Include meat, bones, marrow, connective tissue, joints, feet, etc. From grass-fed, organic animals.	Up to 3 cups per week. For poultry, pressure cook 15 to 20 minutes or boil 1.5 to 2 hours. For beef or lamb, pressure cook 20 to 30 minutes or boil 2 to 3 hours. If poorly tolerated, cook for a shorter time or drink less often. Also, save and eat all the soft parts of the meat after cooking.
Fermented foods: fresh, containing live probiotics, ideally homemade but store-bought refrigerated is ok, only specific ones from the Frequent Foods list.	A little bit every day, to taste. May be eaten with every meal if you like.
Sea salt: Hawaiian Bamboo Jade brand preferred. Check other brands for no chemical additives.	With every meal, to taste. Add after cooking.
Purple starch: Okinawa variety purple sweet potato (tan skin, purple flesh). Preferably organic. Remove peel.	2-8 oz per day (weight before cooking), cooked with vegetables. For better digestion, please chew extremely well until sweetnesss increases. Fast oxidizers may need to limit to 2-4 oz per day. Slow oxidizers may need 4-8 oz per day.
Fish: wild-caught, cold-water, small or medium sized. Emphasize small ones such as sardines.	Optional. Up to 2 x 4-oz servings per week.
Almond butter and white tahini: organic, roasted, ideally unpasteurized.	Optional. Up to 2 Tbsp per day of each. Some people do better with more liver, egg yolks, and animal fat instead.
Raw dairy: unpasteurized, from pastured, grass-fed animals. Goat milk yogurt or cheese may work well.	Optional. No more than 4 oz per day. Some people do better without dairy for a while.
Total high-protein animal foods (meat, eggs, dairy, fish)	8-12 oz per day. Eat 2 daily servings (4-5 oz each, before cooking), or 3 daily smaller servings. If possible, eat all high-protein animal foods before the sun has set; as digestion partly shuts down after sunset.
Water: spring water from a listed brand; or Berkey-filtered water (main filter elements only) from a source that's already fluoride- and arsenic-free. For more details, please see article: Mineral-Rich Drinking Water.	2-3 Liters per day of water, including in Bone and Ocean, vegetable cooking water, broths, teas, and adrenal cocktails
Fruits, salads, raw vegetables, grains, legumes, nightshades, grain-fed animal foods, processed foods, microwaved foods.	Please avoid these, even though they're popular. A few limited exceptions appear in the Frequent Foods and Occasional Foods lists. Berries may be great occasionally, especially if wild. Some gluten-free grains, pseudograins, and legumes may work ok in small amount if correctly traditionally prepared, but this may be difficult.
Intermittent Fasting: 12 hours daily	Eat during a 12-hour window each day. Every evening, check the clock when you finish eating. If possible, don't eat again until after that same time the next morning.