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Controversial name
The Pegan Diet, also called paleo-vegans, is nothing but combining the recently fashionable paleo diet with a vegan diet. The name itself is controversial because the vegan diet rejects meat and all animal products. Connection its with the paleo diet, which is a diet that includes such products and calling that this is half vegan, not entirely appropriate, and indeed can outrage “real” vegans.
However, let’s move away from the name and look deeper into the diet. What are the its main principles?
The basic principles of the diet are:
- choosing products of natural origin
- without preservatives and other additives
- preferably from organic crops and breeding
- vegetables should make up about 50-75% of each meal
- you can eat meat and fish
- resignation from refined sugar
- giving up gluten
- resignation from cow’s dairy products
- giving up processed foods
- resignation (or possibly a strong limitation) of consumption legumes
What do a dietitian say about these rules?
Processed foods, sugar
Most of these recommendations are perfectly valid. Both processed foods, as well as rich in preservatives and other chemical additives, does not carry with you health benefits. On the contrary, its frequent consumption can lead to obesity or other diet-related diseases, e.g. hypertension, or diabetes. Therefore, it should be limited, and preferably eliminated. This the same applies to refined sugar – it is completely unnecessary. For example, fruit will provide us with a sufficient amount of simple sugars.
Gluten and dairy
However, the issue of resignation from products is debatable gluten and cow’s dairy products. If we have no contraindications health, it is not necessary to exclude these products from your daily routine menu. What’s more, they are desirable because of good-quality bread or pasta wholemeal is an excellent source of complex carbohydrates (and these, in turn, should cover approx. 55-60% of the energy we need), as well as fiber and minerals such as: magnesium, potassium, phosphorus and B vitamins. However, dairy products are good source of protein and calcium. Choosing farmed and organic products (which is one of the assumptions of the pegan diet), so there is no need to worry about consuming gluten and dairy products.
Legumes
The author of the diet (Dr. Mark Hayman) thinks you should get some of them give up, because they are difficult to digest and have a bloating effect. This truth however, it has been known for years, it is also known that the pods are enough prepare so that they do not have such properties. All legumes should be soaked before cooking, preferably overnight. Then it will soften their peel and the germination process begins, which eliminates the substances anti-nutritional substances (e.g. thioglycosides), and compounds responsible for flatulence (raffinosis, stachiosis) will dissolve. For this reason, we never use to boiling water in which the vegetables soaked. It is also essential to have vegetables were cooked until tender (and not, for example, al dente).
In addition, it is worth seasoning legumes with marjoram, cumin or fennel, i.e. spices that work against flatulence.
In doing so, there is no need to exclude vegetables legumes from the diet. The author himself admits that they are a good source of protein, which makes them a valuable product (especially in a vegan diet).
Other vegetables
It is commendable that the diet is focused on dishes vegetable. Thanks to this, the menu will be rich in vitamins and minerals, and also dietary fiber. Moreover, these recommendations are in line with the Institute’s standards Food and Nutrition, which emphasize that every day you should eat what at least 3 servings of vegetables, preferably in every dish.
Summation
The pegan diet is in line with the assumptions in many respects healthy, rational nutrition. However, it unnecessarily eliminates products gluten, cow’s dairy, and legumes. However, I think these rules were created for marketing purposes, so that on the dietary market you can was to announce the news.
Main photo is from: Photo credit: Geoff Peters 604 / Foter / CC BY