I’ve been following Dr. Mark Hyman for a few years now and his podcast, The Doctor’s Farmacy, is an amazing series of interviews with some of the top individuals in the fields of medicine, health, and nutrition. As one could imagine, the topic of diet is a major point of discussion in this podcast. It seems that every expert these days is promoting a different diet. Often they are just slight modifications of the same diet. After all, what is the real difference between Atkins, Paleo, Keto, and low-carb? In reality, they all work on similar principles.
Dr. Hyman decided to unite the various diets by taking the two biggest players in the game—Paleo and Vegan—and combining them into a single diet, he calls “Pegan”. His ideal diet utilizes the common principles found in all the major successful diets:
- Eat natural, whole foods.
- Cook your own food.
- Avoid sugars and starches.
- Avoid processed and junk foods.
- Eat based on hunger, not time of day.
- Optimize your diet with proper exercise, sleep, and stress relief.
The Pegan diet seems great, right? Is it the “one true diet”? Probably not. But that’s because there is no one true diet. There are many great diets, including Paleo and Vegan. As long as you stick to the common principles stated above, and of these diets could work. Everyone has their personal preferences. Everyone has foods they love and others they can’t give up. For example, I could never give up meat, so I would never try Vegan. But other people refuse to eat meat for environmental or religious reasons, so Vegan/Vegetarian is perfect for them. Choose the diet that works best for you and stick to those common healthy principles.
There is no one true diet. The best diet is the one that you can stick to for life AND one that helps you achieve your health goals. So experiment. Try Paleo, Vegan, and Pegan. Try the other diets not mentioned in this article. Maintain and overall healthy life. And see what works for you. That will be your one true diet.