The 7-Day Ayahuasca Dieta: Your Complete Meal-by-Meal Guide

The week before ceremony is not about restriction for its own sake. It's about preparation — a way of quieting the body so the spirit can meet the sacrament with less noise in the way. Communities that have carried this tradition for generations use the dieta to soften the body's density, calm its appetites, and bring a participant into a state of readiness long before they ever sit down in ceremony.

This is not a modern wellness cleanse, and it isn't about losing weight or "detoxing" in the way that phrase gets used today. It's a spiritual practice refined over centuries, built on foods that are simple, plain, and easy for the body to carry. Nothing here requires special equipment, a health food store, or a recipe with twelve ingredients. Everything on this list is available at an ordinary grocery store, and every meal takes thirty minutes or less.

Use this guide as a companion for the seven days leading into your ceremony. Adapt portion sizes to your own body, and treat the shopping list as a starting point you can shape around what's actually in season near you. What matters most is the intention you bring to the process — each plain meal is a small, repeated act of setting yourself down and getting ready.

Day 1

Breakfast: Rolled oats cooked in water, topped with sliced banana.

Lunch: Steamed white rice with water-sautéed zucchini and boiled lentils. Add a few ounces of poached, plain chicken breast or baked freshwater fish for protein, or keep it fully plant-based with a larger portion of lentils.

Dinner: Baked sweet potato with steamed green beans and a side of quinoa. Add grilled plain chicken or baked white fish, or stay vegetarian with a side of roasted chickpeas instead.

Snack: A sliced apple, or a cup of chamomile tea with a handful of raisins.

Day 2

Breakfast: Plain rice porridge (rice simmered soft in water) topped with sliced pear.

Lunch: Quinoa with steamed broccoli and boiled chickpeas. Add poached chicken or baked freshwater fish, or double the chickpeas and add a side of steamed kale to keep it vegetarian.

Dinner: Brown rice with steamed carrots and a simple lentil stew (no salt, no spice added). Add grilled fish or chicken, or keep the stew as your protein and skip the meat entirely.

Snack: A banana, or a small bowl of steamed pear slices.

Day 3

Breakfast: Rolled oats cooked in water, topped with blueberries.

Lunch: Baked sweet potato with steamed spinach and a side of boiled black beans. Add plain baked chicken or fish, or double the black beans for a fully vegetarian plate.

Dinner: Barley or millet (whichever you can find) with steamed cauliflower and lentils. Add grilled chicken or fish, or keep the lentils as your only protein.

Snack: Sliced pear, or a cup of mint tea.

Day 4

Breakfast: Rice porridge topped with sliced peach.

Lunch: Brown rice with steamed green beans and chickpeas. Add poached chicken or baked freshwater fish, or keep the chickpeas as the centerpiece of the plate.

Dinner: Quinoa with oven-roasted zucchini and carrots (roasted on parchment, no oil needed) and a side of lentils. Add grilled fish or chicken, or stay with the lentils alone.

Snack: Cucumber slices, or a cup of lemongrass tea.

Day 5

Breakfast: Rolled oats cooked in water, topped with sliced banana and a few raisins.

Lunch: Steamed white rice with steamed bok choy and lentils. Add poached chicken or baked freshwater fish, or keep the lentils as your protein and add a side of steamed carrots.

Dinner: Mashed sweet potato with steamed broccoli and a side of chickpeas. Add grilled chicken or fish, or double the chickpeas to stay fully plant-based.

Snack: A sliced apple, or a small handful of plain, unsalted rice cakes.

Day 6 — The Day Before Ceremony

As ceremony approaches, meals become lighter and simpler. This isn't a strict rule so much as a natural softening — you're giving your body less to process so your attention can start turning inward.

Breakfast: A small bowl of rice porridge with sliced pear.

Lunch: Steamed vegetables (carrots and zucchini) over a small portion of white rice, with a spoonful of lentils. A little protein is fine here if you'd like it — a few ounces of poached chicken or fish — but it isn't necessary.

Dinner: A simple, unsalted vegetable broth (carrots, celery, and zucchini simmered in water) with a small portion of rice stirred in. Keep this meal light and eat it earlier in the evening than usual.

Snack: Herbal tea and water. Let this be a quiet evening.

Day 7 — Ceremony Day

Today's meals, if you eat at all past midday, should be small and plain. Most retreats ask participants to stop eating solid food several hours before ceremony begins so the body is light and receptive — your facilitator will give you the exact timing for your retreat's schedule, so let that guidance take precedence over anything written here.

Breakfast: A small bowl of oats or rice porridge, eaten early in the day.

Midday: If your schedule allows a light meal before the fasting window begins, keep it simple — steamed vegetables with a small portion of rice.

Before ceremony: Water and, if permitted by your facilitator's schedule, a cup of caffeine-free herbal tea. Let your body arrive at ceremony empty and calm rather than full.

Your Complete 7-Day Shopping List

This list is sized for one person across the full seven days. Adjust up if you're preparing alongside a partner or housemate, and feel free to swap any vegetable or fruit for whatever is freshest near you — the principle (plain, whole, simple) matters more than the specific item.

Produce

• 7 bananas
• 4 pears
• 4 apples
• 2 peaches
• 2 cups blueberries
• 3 medium zucchini
• 2 lbs carrots
• 1 lb green beans
• 1 head broccoli
• 1 bunch spinach
• 1 bunch kale
• 1 small head cauliflower
• 1 bunch bok choy
• 1 cucumber
• 4 medium sweet potatoes
• 1 stalk celery

Grains & Legumes

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 3 cups white rice (dry)
• 2 cups brown rice (dry)
• 2 cups quinoa (dry)
• 1 cup barley or millet (dry)
• 2 cups dried lentils (or 2 cans no-salt-added lentils, drained)
• 1½ cups dried chickpeas (or 2 cans no-salt-added chickpeas, drained)
• 1 can (15 oz) black beans, no salt added

Protein

• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 1 lb freshwater fish fillets (such as tilapia or trout), fresh or frozen

If you're preparing a fully vegetarian or vegan week, skip this section entirely — the lentils, chickpeas, and black beans above are enough protein on their own.

Pantry Staples

• 1 box herbal tea (chamomile, mint, or lemongrass — caffeine-free), about 20 bags
• 1 small box raisins, unsweetened
• 1 package plain, unsalted rice cakes
• Filtered or spring water, kept on hand throughout the week

Foods to Avoid — and Why

• Salt. Traditional dieta teaching treats salt as an anchor to worldly excess and appetite — removing it is a way of asking the body to want less.
• Sugar and sweeteners. Sugar overstimulates the body's cravings and is thought to pull attention outward, toward pleasure-seeking, rather than inward toward stillness.
• Oil, fats, and fried foods. Heavy, greasy foods are believed to weigh the body down, making it harder to feel light and open when it's time to sit in ceremony.
• Spices and hot peppers. Strong spice is thought to agitate and heat the body, working against the calm, settled state the dieta is meant to cultivate.
• Pork. Pork is considered one of the densest, most difficult foods for the body to carry, and is avoided out of respect for the sacrament and the ceremony ahead.
• Red meat. Its density is believed to work against the openness and lightness the dieta is meant to bring forward in the body and spirit.
• Dairy products. Dairy is traditionally seen as heavy and mucus-forming, at odds with the clean, clear state the dieta is meant to create.
• Fermented foods and condiments (vinegar, soy sauce, aged cheese). Fermentation is thought to introduce a kind of instability into the body that disrupts its readiness for the sacrament.
• Caffeine. Caffeine artificially agitates and stimulates the body, which the dieta instead asks to arrive calm and unforced.
• Alcohol. Alcohol is considered directly incompatible with the sacrament and with the spiritual seriousness the dieta asks participants to hold.
• Sexual activity. Traditional teaching asks participants to conserve and gather their energy during this period, rather than expend it, as part of preparing for ceremony.

Meal Prep Tips

• Cook a large batch of rice, quinoa, or another grain early in the week and store it in the refrigerator in glass containers — it reheats easily and saves you from cooking from scratch every day.
• Steam several vegetables at once and portion them out for the next two or three days rather than steaming fresh for every single meal.
• Cook lentils and chickpeas in bigger batches too — a pot made on Day 1 can easily stretch across several lunches and dinners.
• If you're including chicken or fish, cook it fresh every two to three days rather than all at once, so it stays at its best.
• Label containers by day before the week starts. Taking the guesswork out of "what am I eating today" is a small, quiet way of bringing intention to the process.
• As the week goes on, shift dinner earlier in the evening and let portions get progressively lighter, especially on Days 6 and 7.
• Keep water and caffeine-free herbal tea within easy reach all week — staying hydrated makes the lighter meals easier to sustain.
• On ceremony day, follow your facilitator's specific timing for when to stop eating rather than relying on a fixed hour from this guide — every retreat schedule is a little different.

A Note on Medications

Certain medications — including SSRIs, other antidepressants, and other psychiatric medications — are known to carry serious interaction risks with ayahuasca. This is a known and well-documented fact, not a minor caution. Any decision about changing or stopping a medication must be made together with your own prescribing medical provider, well in advance of your retreat. Earth Connection Community does not instruct or advise anyone to stop taking prescribed medications, and nothing in this guide should be read as suggesting otherwise. If you take any medication, please talk with your prescribing provider before your retreat so the two of you can determine what's appropriate for your situation.

This guide is offered for educational and spiritual preparation purposes only. It is not medical advice. If you have a health condition, take medication, or have any dietary concerns, please talk with your own healthcare provider before making significant changes to your diet.