Key Points:
- In addition to a strict diet, Hyman exercises regularly and practices mental relaxation techniques.
- Hyman’s Pegan diet focuses on foods that do not strongly elevate blood sugar levels.
- By minimizing hunger and fat storage, the Pegan diet could promote the loss of belly fat.
In an interview with GQ, 63-year-old Mark Hyman, M.D., believes that what we think of as aging isn’t aging. He says,
“I think the thing that most people get wrong is — and it’s no fault of their own because it’s what we see all around us and we think it’s normal — that decline and disease and decrepitude and frailty are normal consequences of getting older. They’re actually not. They’re a sign of disease. And the truth is that most of what we see in this country, and increasingly around the world, is abnormal aging. [It is possible to] stay fit and healthy and spry well into your late 80s, 90s, and even beyond.”
Considering that Dr. Hyman blossomed abs in his 60s, how does he age “normally?” For one thing, he exercises consistently, saying,
“I think if exercise were a drug, it would be the most powerful drug ever invented on the planet. It has the ability to regulate almost every physiological function for the better and to avert many of the chronic diseases that we have, from heart disease to diabetes, cancer, dementia.”
The doc adheres to an intense, hour-long resistance band (Tom Brady’s brand) routine. The routine targets stability, strength, and cardiovascular health, all of which decline with abnormal aging. When it comes to exercise, Hyman emphasizes the importance of resistance training and building muscle:
“I think one of the most important things that you can do as you get older is to start early to put on muscle and to keep the muscle as you get older… Muscle is basically the currency of longevity.”
In addition to working out in the morning, Hyman journals “to gather [his] thoughts and get [himself] grounded for the day.” He also practices other mindfulness and relaxation techniques such as meditation, breathwork, guided imagery, and listening to binaural beats, on which he says,
“You can get an app or you can go on YouTube and put it on, essentially it synchronizes your brainwaves in a way that helps to put you in a deep state of relaxation. So, I’ll often just put on my headphones, I’ll lay in bed, and I’ll put on a 20-minute session of binaural beats. I’ll pop up much more refreshed.”
The Pegan Diet
While physical exercise and mental relaxation are a must when it comes to health and well-being, they say abs are made in the kitchen. Following his morning workout, Hyman has a “healthy aging shake” for breakfast, which includes:
- 40 to 50 grams of whey protein from grass-fed goats (Mt. Capra or Naked)
- 5 grams of creatine
- The longevity-associated compound urolithin A (Mitopure)
- Probiotics
- Adaptogen mushrooms
- Frozen berries
- Macadamia milk (on occasion)
From these ingredients, it may be difficult to ascertain just what the Pegan Diet entails. While it’s the best of both a paleo and vegan diet, some may wonder just what a paleo and vegan diet are.
The Paleo diet gets its name from the Paleolithic Era (2.5 million – 10,000 B.C.), which occurred before the advent of widespread agriculture and settlements. During the Paleolithic Era, many humans wandered the earth in search for food, hunting and gathering. For this reason, those on a paleo diet avoid foods associated with farming, such as dairy, grains, and legumes. Instead, modern paleo diet followers stick to fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish, eggs, nuts and seeds.
A vegan diet is often followed to prevent potential contributions to the affliction of animals and the environmental resources needed to support animal agriculture. Thus, vegans do not eat animals, including cows, fish, chickens, and pigs, or animal products, including cow’s milk, eggs, and honey. Instead, a vegan diet is based on fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, and legumes.
The Pegan diet focuses on the best outcomes achieved from a paleo and vegan diet. It is a result of Hyman “researching nutrition for 30 years and analyzing thousands of scientific papers and treating tens of thousands of patients with food.” However, while the Pegan diet encompasses avoiding entire food groups, it’s not that simple. The following are its basic tenets:
- Don’t spike your blood sugar. Focus on meals with less carbs and more protein and fats from nuts (with peanuts at the bottom of the list due to them being the least nutritious), seeds, coconut, avocados, sardines, and olive oil.
- Eat the right fat. Focus on omega-3s, which are high in fish like salmon and sardines, nuts like walnuts, and seeds like flaxseeds and chia seeds. Other good fats can be found in avocados, coconut, and grass-fed or sustainably raised animals.
- Eat mostly plants. Hyman says fruits and vegetables should be 75% of your diet and he usually has 2 to 3 vegetables per meal. These fruits and vegetables should have a low glycemic index, meaning they won’t elevate your blood sugar levels too much.
- Low-glycemic fruits include berries, plums, kiwis, and grapefruit.
- Low-glycemic vegetables include lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower.
- Eat a lot of nuts and seeds. Nuts and seeds are very nutritious, containing protein, vitamins, minerals, and good fats.
- Avoid dairy. Hyman says cow’s milk is for growing calves into cows, not humans, which is also what vegans like to say. Only as a treat, he says to shoot for organic goat or sheep products.
- Avoid gluten. Gluten is a protein found naturally in wheat. However, most of the wheat grown in the United States has been genetically modified to produce more gluten, which allows for higher yields on this cash crop but also damages our gut. As a treat, Hyman says to go for heirloom wheat, which won’t be modified.
- Shy away from gluten-free grains. Hyman says they still raise blood sugar and trigger autoimmunity.
- Shy away from beans. Hyman says lentils are the best and to stay away from starchy beans.
- Eat less meat and animal products. Don’t eat meat and animal products as a main course. This could have a positive environmental impact.
- Limit sugar. Think of sugar, in all its forms (e.g. sweetened beverages, candy, baked goods, ice cream) as an occasional treat.
Lastly, Hyman says,
“Don’t worry about focusing on how much you eat, if you focus on what you eat, your body’s natural appetite control systems will kick into gear and you eat less.”
Will the Pegan Diet Get You 6-Pack Abs?
Waist circumference is strongly associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. In other words, having less fat around the waist is a good indicator of overall health and longevity. It follows that having a flat stomach is not just a platform for aesthetic prowess. Hypothetically, the Pegan diet should contribute to losing belly fat because the diet discourages consuming high-glycemic foods.
Some scientists postulate that obesity is caused by consuming processed, high-glycemic carbohydrates, which promote fat gain and hunger. This means that consuming high-glycemic foods leads to fat storage, and fat tends to first accumulate around the waist, covering those abdominal muscles. Moreover, high-glycemic foods promote hunger, encouraging the consumption of excess calories and evermore fat storage.
In addition to consuming mostly low-glycemic foods, Dr. Hyman regularly exercises and practices mental relaxation techniques, both of which have profound effects on reducing stress and improving mood. These practices could prevent some individuals from consuming excess calories in response to stress and decrements in mood. Additionally, chronic stress can lead to fat storage, preferentially within the abdomen.
Therefore, eating low-glycemic foods and minimizing stress levels could help prevent overeating and reduce fat storage in the abdominal area to reveal the abdominal muscles. Of course, depending on how strictly this is followed and your current body fat percentage, this could take months to years.
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