While Paleo may be the eating plan of the moment, there’s a new health craze heating up in the US - the Pegan diet. Tipped to be the next big fad, the Pegan diet is a combination of vegan and Paleo.
Developed by Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine director Dr Mark Hyman, the diet is similar to the principles of Paleo, but allows grains. It’s plant-rich and incorporates protein, good fats and grains but avoids dairy, gluten and sugar.
Paleo focuses on foods that were hunted and gathered by ancestors, such as meat, fish, eggs, nuts, fruit and good fats, while a vegan diet is based on grains, fruit, nuts and seeds, with zero animal products.
"The foundational principles of both diets - real whole, fresh food in its natural state, free of processed ingredients, refined carbohydrates, and additives - are the same. Taking the best, most healthful qualities of both diets, I wanted to create an eating style that combines the best of two worlds," explains Dr Hyman.
Hyman’s 10 principles for following the Pegan diet are:
- Focus on foods with a low glycemic load.
- Fill your plate with veggies.
- Eat the right fats.
- Treat meat as a side dish.
- Choose sustainably raised or grass-fed sources.
- Avoid dairy.
- Say no to gluten, and cut down on other wholegrains.
- Limit legumes.
- Have sugar only on (very) special occasions.
- Banish Frankenfoods.*
*Genetically modified foods
