We have read about the Paleo diet which diet mimics the palaeolithic man (meat, nuts and veggies), then we have read about the Vegan diet in which no meat or dairy products are consumed. But what if a person doesn’t want to leave meat and also wants to follow a vegan diet. The solution is the Pegan diet which is the best of both diets with lots more to it.
What is the pegan diet?
The pegan diet is a combination of the two well-known diets:- Paleo and Vegan Diets.
Likewise Vegan or Paleo diet, the practitioners are not restricted to following a consumable plan of what to eat or not to eat.
In the Pegan diet, there is only one rule that you need to consume eatable in the right proportion, i.e. Seventy-Five Percent plant-based foods and Twenty Five animal meat or dairy products. In this way, a balance of vegetarian food and non-vegetarian or Lactrotarian food is seen in this diet.
Mark Hyman, M.D. is the creator of the pegan diet and he claimed that this diet lowers blood sugar, and inflammation and decreases the risk of heart diseases and diabetes.
What can I eat on a pegan diet ( foods to eat)
You can consume any fruits and vegetables that have low starch and rank low glycemic index numbers (Between 55 to 69) and organic fresh meat or fish with a low amount of mercury. Here is the list of some more food which you can consume:-
- Try vegetables like Cauliflower, Carrot, Broccoli, Peas, Tomato, Peppers, Eggplant, Leeks and Mushrooms.
- Apples, Cherries, Dark Berries, Citrus fruits, Pears, Mangoes, Pineapples, and Avocados are some fruits that you can add to the food list.
- In non-veg items, you can pick eggs, beef, chicken, bacon and fish like herring salmon and cod.
What foods are not allowed on the pegan diet? (Must Avoid)
Here are foods you should avoid when you are doing the pegan diet.
- Foods that have sugar (Especially processed food)
- High Glycemic Index Foods.
- Milk, Cheese and Yogurt.
- Mostly all grains need to avoid but gluten-free grains are allowed.
Try Easy Pegan Diet Recipes
Below are some easy to make recipes for people who are interested to follow the pegan diet.
Strawberry Coconut Smoothies
Whether you are a kid or an adult you will love it. To refresh your mind, it is recommended to take it in the morning time. First, you need ingredients like coconut milk, banana and strawberries. Put all in the blender and blend it. Serve it with chilled ice.
Pegan Almond Milk
It is a simple dish yet good for people who follow veganism. To make you only need four ingredients 4 cups water, 1 cup of soaked almond, 2 dates and vanilla extract. Add all the ingredients to the blender and blend them to make smoothies. Refrigerate it for an hour and then serve it chill.
Pegan diet weekly plan
In this section, we are describing a 7-day weekly plan in which we will discuss a plan for the people who want to follow this diet.
- Monday: You can have a blueberry banana smoothie, tabouleh salad for lunch and tomato black bean salad.
- Tuesday: You can have a green smoothie with veggies, leftover vegetable stir fry in lunch and tabouleh salad at the night.
- Wednesday: In breakfast, you can have mango chia pudding. For lunch, you can have a tomato bean salad or vegan Ceaser salad and for dinner, you can have roasted garlic and herb millet polenta with mexican street asparagus.
- Thursday: In Breakfast, try blueberry nut millet porridge. For lunch, you can have butternut squash soup with Cajun prawns and for dinner, slow cooker pulled pork with apple cucumber coleslaw.
- Friday: Try Strawberry coconut smoothie at the start of the day, baked zucchini fritters in the afternoon and Toasted Corn quinoa salad for dinner.
- Saturday: In the morning, you can have eggs baked in tomato, in the lunch you can have vegetable frittata and for the dinner, spicy beef curry stew.
- Sunday: Try Sweet potato hash with boiled eggs in the morning, creamy cauliflower vegetable soup in the afternoon and Instant pot chicken stir fry for the dinner.
Pegan diet pros and cons
Pros – It improves the digestion system by limiting the eating of processed foods. Because you eat mostly fruits and vegetables your body consumes less bad cholesterol. Pegan Diet is also beneficial if you trying to achieve weight loss.
Cons – Pegan diet advocates low glycemic food restriction this is the main reason, grains are not permitted. There are not many vegan food options available in this diet.
Is the Pegan diet hard to follow?
Besides its many combinations of eatables varieties, we can still say that it is not easy to be on pegan diet because it has many food restrictions. It lacks dairy products which can eliminate the necessary protein part from your diet.
The pegan diet is often considered as costly as it recommends you to buy organic fruits and vegetables and fresh wild-caught meat products.
Also if you have an eating disorder, then you must consider your dietician once before applying the diet to your life, as the Pegan diet excludes many types of eatables like legumes, grain, starchy vegetables etc.