The Dr. Hyman Show
Encore: Eat Smart: Quality Foods to Improve Sleep and Reduce Stress
Mon, 30 Dec 2024
Food is more than just fuel – every bite we take has a profound impact on our biology. In this episode, I explain the principles of the Pegan diet, emphasizing the importance of quality, nutrient-dense foods. Joining me are some incredible guests: Dr. Cindy Geyer, a renowned expert in functional medicine, and Dr. Elissa Epel, a leading stress researcher. Together, we’ll explore how chronic stress and poor sleep are intricately connected to major health issues like obesity, diabetes, and neurodegenerative diseases. Learn how specific dietary choices can serve as powerful medicine, improving your overall health and longevity. Plus, explore actionable tips and expert insights on integrating these health-boosting foods into your daily routine. View Show Notes From This Episode Get Free Weekly Health Tips from Dr. Hyman Sign Up for Dr. Hyman’s Weekly Longevity Journal Full-length episodes of these interviews can be found here: How to Follow the Pegan Diet What Is Driving Your Poor Sleep and How Can You Fix It? How To Reduce The Harmful Effects of Chronic Stress This episode is brought to you by Seed, ButcherBox, Vivobarefoot. Seed is offering my community 25% off to try DS-01® for themselves. Visit seed.com/hyman and use code 25HYMAN for 25% off your first month of Seed's DS-01® Daily Synbiotic. ButcherBox is giving new members two pounds of ground beef for FREE in every box. Visit ButcherBox.com/Farmacy and use code FARMACY. If you're not barefoot, go Vivobarefoot. Head to vivobarefoot.com/drhyman to get 20% off today!
What are the principles of the Pegan diet?
It's only tied to the planet's health. Our own health is tied to the soil health. The nutrients of soil are how we get our nutrients. So it really is a beautiful ecosystem that we learned mostly how to destroy. But today I'm going to talk to you about how would you follow the vegan diet? What does it look like? First of all, it's a plant-rich diet, not a plant-based diet.
And that's an important distinction. Plant-based implies vegan. Plant-rich means your diet's mostly plants. And that should be three quarters of your plate covered with colorful veggies. Lots of colors, weird things, mostly non-starchy veggies. I do eat a purple sweet potato or sweet potatoes, fine. Winter squashes are fine, especially if you're not insulin resistant or diabetic.
Try to choose organic or regenerative when possible. Use the Dirty Dozen Guide and the Clean 15 Guide from the Environmental Working Group. That's ewg.org. Download those guides and you'll learn all about which are the foods you want to stay away from that are the worst contaminated.
For example, don't ever eat strawberries unless they're organic or nectarines, for example, whereas you can eat an avocado or banana if it's not organic. Also, load up on the good fats. What should you be eating? Well, nuts and seeds. Try to eat fats in their whole food forms, seeds and nuts, avocados, pasteurized eggs, fatty fish like mackerel, sardines, herring, anchovies.
some wild salmon that's small uh olive oil also is a very minimally processed oil let's try to stay away from the hexane um extracted deodorized solvent you know mixed uh refined oat oils that we eat are probably uh refined oils if you're going to eat canola or soybean oil I don't highly recommend that, but they can be part of cooking and other things if you want.
And only if they're expeller pressed, only if they're organic, mostly they're GMO, mostly they're sprayed with glyphosate. You just stay away from that. So for cooking, I use extra virgin olive oil for no heat or low heat, avocado for higher heat, avocado oil, I like that, and extra virgin coconut oil. Also, use nuts and seeds. They are tremendous.
Every day, a couple of handfuls of nuts and seeds really help with weight loss, diabetes, heart disease. They're a great source of minerals, fiber, fat, protein, and lots more stuff. Almonds, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, chia seeds, sesame seeds are all great. I like pine nuts too. I put that on there. Also, what about meat? Should we be vegan?
Should we be carnivores? Should we be paleo? You know, we do need protein and we need animal protein, especially as we get older to build muscle. If you don't have enough protein in the right forms with the right amount of leucine, which is a very important amino acid to build muscle, you will lose muscle as you get older.
And if you see people who are vegan as they're older, they tend to be more frail, more thin, less muscle mass. And muscle mass is the currency of longevity. So you want to make sure you keep, maintain, and build muscle as you get older. And so it doesn't mean you have to be eating 20-ounce steaks. It just means you need 30 grams. And that's not much. It's a palm-sized piece of protein.
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