Pegan Diet, Is It Right For You?
When it comes to eating well I like paleo. I like intermittent fasting. I like keto green. I like vegan. But what I actually love is muscle testing food to see specifically what your body’s biofeedback is and creating a diet specifically for you. When muscle testing it’s surprising to see the results. Sometimes it’s vegan except yes to cheese but not milk. It’s because the fermentation process of cheese allows the person to have it. Sometimes when muscle testing it’s paleo without the fruit because even fruit sugar is too much sugar for that person. It’s wonderful to get these specific results when muscle testing. So when Dr. Mark Hyman came out with a new book called The Pegan Diet Paleo + Vegan = Pegan I was definitely intrigued just like when I loved Dr. Anna Cabeca’s book Keto Green came out I was super excited because I knew there had to be a healthier way to do keto. Yet again, keto green is not for everyone because maybe you don’t do well with cruciferous vegetables.
Just like all the other ‘diets’ published there is not one specific diet for everyone but I did enjoy reading The Pegan Diet and how Dr. Hyman simplified great nutritional advice in 21 principles which I will summarize below.
1.Use food as your Farmacy
He goes into details of exactly how food is medicine and eating the right types of food can support your immune system, hormones, circulation, digestion, energy, and detoxification system. He also explains how eating healthy fats helps support every single cell in your body.
2. Eat the Rainbow
Pegan diet is double the fruit and vegetables compared to the US dietary guidelines which says 3 cups a day. The optimal amount should be 6 to 8 cups of fruit and veggies a day. A serving is usually 1/2 cup so this is 12 to 16 servings a day. If you know me well enough you know that I think fruit servings should be limited to one or two servings a day depending on the muscle testing so the rest should be veggies. Dr. Hyman’s goal in this chapter is to show you all the different benefits one can get when eating a variety of fruits and vegetables and even breaks it down in a chart listing all the different colored foods with their phytochemicals and benefits. There is a list of red foods, orange foods, yellow foods, etc.
3. Follow the 75% Rule
Fill 75% of your plate with non-starchy veggies. If you aren’t sure what a non-starchy vegetable is we have a chart in the office and can give it to you next time.
4. Eat the Right Beans, Whole Grains, Nuts and Seeds
A handful or two or nuts and seeds is good but they have to be raw and soaked overnight and then lightly toasted for better digestion. That is why we carry sprouted almonds and sprouted grainless granola and sprouted cashews in the office. Nut flours should be eaten minimally for it is too highly processed. Non-starchy beans are good and should be only 1/2 cup per day and include lentils, lupine beans, peas, snow peas, black eyed peas, mung beans and traditional organic soy products. Soak the dried beans for a few hours or overnight and not from a can. Can also be cooked in a pressure cooker instead with a sheet of seaweed for extra nutrition. He suggests kombu. Stick to 1/2 to 1 cup whole grains a day. If you have gut dysbiosis, want to lose weight or auto-immune disease take a 3 week holiday from grains and notice how you feel.
5. Eat Your Meat as Medicine
Eat only quality meat. If you aren’t sure what that means, read my blog on grass-fed meat. Life Without Bread is a book going into detail how a diet rich in animal protein can be beneficial. The book is based on 40 years of research from the 1950s through 1990s, before the quality of meat went downhill so I recommend that if you eat meat that it has to be good quality. Pegan Diet book explains how studies show that grass-fed, regeneratively raised meat cooked the right way can give good nutrition but meat is a side dish no the main entree. Good quality meat can be hard to find. Here is what I have used.
6. Be Picky About Your Poultry, Eggs and Fish
Again it’s about quality. Eat pasture raised chicken, turkey, duck and eggs when possible. Pasture-raised is even better than organic. Pasture-raised eggs can be found in grocery stores but to get pasture-raised chicken, turkey or duck I need to go to a farmer’s market. Stick with low-mercury, wild fish, three times a week. Be careful with shellfish. It’s hard to get wild. If you can’t get wild eat fish farmed with sustainable, restorative or regenerative practices. Checkout www.cleanfish.com to learn more. For online options my favorite resources for quality fish is thrivwemarket.comand butcherbox.com
7. Have Fats with Every Meal
Fat is your friend. When I started eating more healthy fats I became stronger and more energized. The right fats can make you healthy and lean. They are also good for the brain and heart. The wrong fats can be deadly. Unlike sugar, which is all bad, fats are complicated. For a list of healthy vs. non-healthy fats just email me and I can email you back a chart or give a handout at the office. It’s all about eating the right type of fats. We need fats to survive. Every cell is made of fat. Every nerve is wrapped in a layer of fat. Our brain is 60% fat. Our hormones are made of fat. To make it easy stick with organic avocado oil, organic extra virgin olive oil and coconut or MCT oil and do not eat fats with sugar or starch.
8. Avoid Dairy (Mostly)
Dairy is not an essential food group. A lot of people are dairy sensitive. Consume only full fat dairy products. Low-fat dairy is harder to digest. If you do muscle test well for dairy goat and sheep dairy is healthier. The best cow milk is A2 milk. Grass-fed butter and ghee is different than cheese and milk and can be fine to use.
9. Eat Like a Regenetarian
Shop local and organic. Join a CSA (community-supported agriculture) program if you can. Go to localharvest.org to find one in your area. Shop farmers’ markets too. End food waste as much as you can. Look for ROC (regenerative organic certified) label on your food. Limit your use of plastic. We do so much plastic detox in the office. Plastic is a huge source of infertility and other hormone concerns.
10.Treat Sugar Like a Recreational Drug
White refined sugar is addicting and for better health really should not be ingested. Brown sugar, cane sugar high-fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols are also toxic. Yes I eat sugar but it’s in limited amounts and includes stevia, coconut sugar, honey, and maple syrup. Other options are monk fruit and agave but my body tends not to like them so I stay away.
11. Don’t Rely on Coffee and Alcohol
Even if you muscle test well for alcohol it should be limited. We also muscle test coffee separate from caffeine to see if a patient can do either. Green tea really has the most health benefits of any caffeinated beverage. Your beverage of choice should always be water.
12. Leverage Personalized Nutrition for Optimal Health
This is where Healing Arts and muscle testing shine. We also work with functional medicine doctors when patients need blood work.
13. Cleanse, Detox and Reset Wisely
Dr. Hyman gives a specific 10 day cleansing diet to help detox and reset your body. To also help cleanse your body he suggests eating your last meal at least 2 hours before bed and at least 12-14 hours between diner and breakfast. Part of good health is good sleep. He suggests committing to a bedtime daily and turning off electronics at least 45 minutes before bed including the TV. I usually suggest 30 min.
14.Assess the Risks and Benefits of a Vegan Diet
Whether you are vegan or not 75% of your plate should be non-starchy vegetables. Eat green leafy vegetables, cucumbers, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, etc. if you test for it. Make sure you are eating protein-rich vegan foods including lentils which are the highest source of protein for any plant. Adding a protein shake is easy. Try one made with pea protein or hemp protein. Over the last couple of years there have been some really good ones that have come out. Take supplements as needed, especially vitamin B12 and iron.
15. Eat for Gut Health
Health is all about having good gut flora. No matter what your health concerns are bad gut flora is playing some sort of role. Bad gut flora drives inflammation which is at the root of all chronic disease and obesity. In this chapter is a recipe for a gut healing shake with colostrum, prebiotic, probiotic and collagen. His steps for healing the gut are similar to mine and are 1. Weed 2. Seed 3. Feed. Weed out and kill bad gut flora using supplements and eating no sugar. Sugar will feed the bad gut flora. Seed is eating probiotic-rich foods like sauerkraut and kimchi and taking a probiotic. Feed is eating fiber-rich foods for prebiotic benefits so the good bacteria can grow.
16. Eat for Longevity
To have a solid foundation for living as healthy as possible for as long as possible the Pegan Diet has 4 points. 1. Keep your fasting blood sugar to 70-85mg/dL. If it’s higher than this remove all sugars, including healthy ones, and refined starches from your diet, including gluten-free breads, pasta, all rice and potatoes. Stress can also cause blood sugar to go up so meditate, deep breathing, yoga or other relaxing techniques. 2. Eat protective, disease-fighting foods. These include green, leafy vegetables, organic, wild blueberries, organic broccoli and green tea. 3. Build muscle. The older you are the harder it is to build muscle so build muscle now and lift weights to keep the muscle you have. 4. Incorporate intermittent fasting. I suggest intermittent fasting only if you muscle test for it because it’s not for everyone. He suggests doing a 24 hour fast once a month as well. Some of my patients muscle test well for and get good results with fasting 24 hours once a week.
17. Eat to Boost Mood
The number one thing that will help boost your mood is to not let your blood sugar go up and down. Keep your blood sugar balanced with eating frequent healthy meals with healthy fats. Eat brain-boosting foods such as fish, nuts, seeds and green tea. Lastly, work with someone to see what nutrition you may be lacking (this is where we come in) or at least start with a multi vitamin made from organic food.
18. Make Healthy Eating Affordable
Plan ahead and go grocery shopping. It costs more to pick up food on the go. Taking your lunch to work with you will save so much money. If you don’t cook just make it easy with salads. You could also learn to cook 4-5 meals and cook extra so you have leftovers for lunch the next day. Track your spending habits. Shop at discount stores. I have a routine of shopping at 3 different grocery stores to meet all my family requirements as cheaply as possible plus then thrivwemarket.com and the CSA.
19. Feed Your Kids What You Eat
Families who cook and eat together build healthy habits that will last a lifetime. It’s exciting when we splurge on the weekends eating out and Sunday night my 13 year old asks for a salad. She knows what she is missing. Children, even more than adults, enjoy and require routine. Pretend Soup is a cookbook that has kid-friendly recipes from whole foods if you want ideas. If your children are already eating gluten, sugar and dairy you don’t need to do a big overhaul. Make small changes with them and they may not even notice. Don’t announce the pancakes are gluten-free. Just make them and see if they even notice. Start babies with avocado at 6 months old. Pediatricians are recently recommending 4 months old but I would wait. Start with avocado because it is the closest thing nutritionally to breast milk. Then stick with veggies for as long as you can. Introduce fruit at 10 months just because it’s so sugary and you want them to not crave sugar.
20. Make Healthy Habits Stick
If your family is not on board tell them you need time to take care of your health and that you hope they will support your decision for you to do it for yourself. Talk to your friends and see if there is anyone that can support you there. At least you know you have us to support you through the changes and making them healthy habits for life. Study habit change can also be empowering. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg or Tiny Habits by B.J. Fogg are recommended.
21. Start the Pegan Diet Today
Last but not least, start the Pegan Diet! The end of the book is filled with recipes. I made the Morning Quinoa Berry Bake and we loved it, kids included. He suggests 1/3 cup healthy sweetener but I did without because of the shredded coconut and fruit I thought it was sweet enough.
Should You Be a Vegetarian?
My patients often ask if I'm a vegetarian. I am not. My diet is free of gluten, sugar, dairy and fruit but not animal protein. I love fruit. It has a lot of good vitamins in it but my body doesn't love it. Except for limes and lemons I really do get all my vitamins from vegetables and healthy grains. I love buckwheat and the highest source of plant based protein is found in lentils so I eat lentils almost every day. If you want to incorporate lentils in your diet you have to cook them with a pressure cooker to get the lectins out. That is also how I cook the buckwheat and any rice I eat too. Lectins are a protein found in many plants that can cause leaky gut.
I also don’t eat eggs because my body doesn’t like them. Even pasture-raised eggs my body goes weak to. Pasture-raised eggs are the best quality eggs, even better than organic and if you can find pasture-raised organic eggs that would be even better.
In 2001 I did spend 3.5 years being a vegetarian but it wasn't for me. At first I felt like it was a relief to my body to go vegetarian but eventually my health started declining so I started eating meat again but just a little for I would say I still eat 85% vegetarian. That other 15% is just enough meat to make my body happy. I am very careful about the quality of meat I eat and make sure it is grass-fed or pasture raised and straight from the farmer who I know treats the animals well. I can respect eating vegetarian or even going all the way vegan but unfortunately what I have found in my office is that for most people being vegan for a long period of time is a disservice to the body. Being vegetarian can be sustainable given your body type and that's why muscle testing is so important. Everyone is different.
Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride is an MD who wrote a great article on this topic called Feeding vs. Cleansing. This article explains the importance of a plant based diet for a temporary time in order to cleanse the body. "Human body (without water) is largely made out of protein and fat (almost half and half), these are the 'bricks and mortar' from which your bones, muscles, brain, heart, lungs, liver and all other organs are made. Laboratory analysis of plants and animal foods show that the best protein and fat for human physiology comes from animal foods. The amino acid profile of animal protein is correct for the human body, while amino acid profile of plant-derived proteins is incomplete and unsuitable for human physiology. The same with fat: animal fat has the right fatty acid composition for human body to thrive on, while plant oils are unsuitable. So, when it comes to FEEDING your body and BUILDING your bodily tissues and structures animal foods are the best and the only suitable ones."
If you are thinking about becoming a vegetarian or are a vegetarian and you are thinking about incorporating more animal product you can always let me know so I can test the body and see what your body says. Just ask me; the answer is always to muscle test!
How to Soothe PMS
You may think that PMS symptoms subside with age. Unfortunately, cramps, headaches, and other premenstrual pain can get worse into your mid-30s and 40s. While many of us have accepted these symptoms as “normal,” they’re anything but normal. Your symptoms could also be the result of something more serious. It’s not healthy to be in pain every month or to experience mood swings, fatigue, irritability, or even acne regularly.
There are reasons you might experience hormone imbalance in your 30s and beyond, and it has nothing to do with PMS. What a lot of people do not know is that chronic stress, nutrient deficiencies, and environmental toxins all contribute to hormone imbalance. That's where we can really help. With the muscle testing that we do we can identify those toxins, figure out what nutrients your body is missing and design a nutrition program just for you. One of the main toxins we find in women suffering from hormonal issues is plastic.
It’s great that the government recognizes BPA as a toxin that not only interferes with women’s hormones and fertility but also causes cancer among other health issues. But BPA is not the only toxin in plastic and I don’t know how long it will take for the government to recognize it. So we want to stay away from plastic whenever possible. No plastic forks, spoons, straws. If you love straws then you can buy stainless steel straws off Amazon. No plastic water bottles. I use a glass one called a flaska that I absolutely love. You can use stainless steel water bottles too. Do your best to avoid ziplock bags, saran wrap, tupperware. To store leftovers, I use pyrex, glass containers with rubber tops and I just don’t let the food touch the rubber. But if you buy a bag of frozen peas it is what it is, nothing you can do about it. I always suggest to my patients to just do the best they can. They will not be able to get rid of plastic 100%.
The hormone disruptors in plastics even influence the way genes express themselves in people with reproductive disease and obesity to make it more likely that people pass the disorders onto their children. The study of how the cellular environment changes gene expression is called epigenetics. I think it’s fascinating and for this reason we want the cellular environment to be as healthy as possible from all heavy chemicals, heavy metals and junk food so that the cell can create optimal gene expression for your health. For more info on gene expression and epigenetics watch my video.
Besides plastic other toxins that have been studied that cause hormone imbalance and can lead to PCOS and other issues are:
1. Pesticides - so eat as organic as possible
2. Phthalates (THAL-ates) are chemicals in plastic that make it soft and flexible. You can also find them in: Cosmetics and personal care products, from perfume, nail polish, and hair spray to soap, shampoo, and skin moisturizers. To learn more about phthalates and how healthy your personal care products are go to ewg.org for more information. The website is from the Environmental Working Group and it rates all personal care products and cleaning products on a scale 0-10, 0 being healthiest for you and 10 being the worst for you, meaning it’s researched to cause cancer. It’s a great website with thousands of products rated so you can choose the healthiest ones and I love the research they use to determine the score they give each product.
3. Phytoestrogens: a compound in plants that acts like estrogen in the body and if we eat too many then the hormones get imbalanced because the body thinks it has too much estrogen. Foods that contain phytoestrogens include: soy and soy products, flax seeds, grapes, carrots, lentils, licorice, bourbon, olive oil, and oats.
4. Another big hormone disruptor we eat all the time is meat that contains hormones. When animals are poorly farmed they are given hormones to grow and mature faster so they can reach the butcher faster and the farmer can have a higher turn around rate. I think over the years farmers use more and more hormones with their animals is the reason why girls are hitting puberty faster. It’s also a main cause of moodiness. I think all women know what it feels like to be extra hormonal. The last thing we want are extra hormones from the meat we eat so if you eat meat then do your best to eat quality meat without added hormones.
One particularly significant natural method of treating hormones is inositol, a type of sugar found in fruits, beans, grains and nuts. The foods with the highest levels of inositol are cantaloupe and oranges. Inositol influences the insulin response and several hormones, not just sex hormones but also several hormones associated with mood and cognition. Multiple studies have shown that supplementation with inositol may not only improve insulin resistance but also decrease male hormones in the bloodstream, lower blood pressure and lower triglycerides which makes it really helpful for patients with PCOS (poly cystic ovarian syndrome).
Also inositol seems to promote ovulation, which, in turn, may support fertility. There was a study done where women who weren’t getting their period and then started supplementing with inositol, 86% got their period back whereas the control group who was taking a placebo only 6% got their period back.
Another supplement that helps is vitamin D. Between 67%–85% of women with polycystic ovary syndrome are thought to be deficient in vitamin D. Adding vitamin D to a daily routine I have observed it to improve insulin sensitivity, increase weight loss success, slow the formation of ovarian cysts, regulate periods, minimize inflammation, reduce oxidative stress, lower cholesterol, lower high triglycerides and reduce male hormones in the bloodstream.
Another thing people don't realize is that women of all ages are starting to experience the symptoms of estrogen dominance or estrogen deficiency—way before perimenopause or menopause begin. Luckily, supplementing with the right nutrients can help. That means fewer symptoms from PMS like headaches, cramping, and mood swings. I love using red raspberry leaf to not only help with PMS but it's also great for perimenopause, menoapuse, infertility and ammenorhea too! You can drink it as a tea or take it as a tincture. The leaves of raspberry plant are believed to cure infertility in both men and women. I also use red raspberry leaf tea to help regulate menstrual cycles when the cycle is too long or too short and it’s great while pregnant too because it helps tone the uterus, decrease nausea, and ease labor pains. I also use it afterwards for breast feeding mothers because it helps increase milk production.
No matter what age you are I see time and again how hormone balance also means better health long-term. It truly is that important. For more info listen to our podcasts on Fertility Help and PCOS.