Arthur C. Brooks lays out eight science-backed eating rules for happiness: eat balanced and varied, prioritize protein and fat, skip junk food, drink moderately, maintain regular mealtimes without snacking, and eat socially with others. He argues food should serve life and relationships, not dominate them.
What are my top 8 for eating rules that will lead you to greater happiness? Number 1, and by the way, this is just Spanish eating. That's what it comes down to. So, but you can do it in any cuisine. I'm not talking about just eating a bunch of lentils and putifarra or something like that. You're going to eat what you want to eat. But the bottom line is here are the rules that actually are based on the science that work pretty well. Number 1, as much as you can based on your sensitivities, your ethics, and your health, Balanced across a lot of food, balanced across a variety of food, right? Number 2, emphasizing proteins and fats over carbohydrates. It's a good practice, not ruling out all carbohydrates because restrictive diets are pro— are generally problematic, but emphasizing protein and fat over carbohydrate. 3, avoiding junk food and very moderate use of refined sweets. So if you can cut out junk food almost entirely, and you can have sweets just on special occasions, that's the way to go. Four, alcohol consumption should be moderate. So if you're going to consume alcohol, and by the way, you don't have to consume alcohol to get happier. A lot of research on that, but if you do, you should be a moderate drinker. Number 5, recreational drinking is a no-no. Okay. And so it's like, if it's binge drinking to celebrate, that's really, really bad for your health. It's also bad for your happiness. Six, avoiding obesity is important for happiness, but not to the extent of crash weight loss programs or yo-yo diets that mimic starvation. All right. So be careful with the way that you try to lose weight or your happiness. It has to be sustainable. It has to be gradual. It has to be super, super healthy. Number 7 is organize regular formal mealtimes without snacking. That's the best way to do it. Eat a lot. I mean, eat frequently, but don't snack. And last but not least, eat together with other people. Make it part of who you are as a person and what you do socially with other people. One more thing to keep in mind. Um, and this one comes from my wife. So maybe it's not from the literature, it's from my literature. My wife thinks it's weird how obsessed Americans are, how obsessed so many Americans are with food. I mean, a lot of people in Spain like to cook and they like to eat, but they're not talking about it. It's not a hobby really. And she thinks that that obsession that we have actually, you know, I mean, obsession with food is like an obsession with antique yo-yos or something. It's kind of, it's evidence of odd behavior. And that always made me laugh that she feels that way about us. But also it betrays a deeper truth that we often find in psychology, which is when you raise any ordinary part of life to something around which you're basing a whole lot of your attention, it's usually not a healthy thing. You know, people who are talking about sex all day long, it's like, you know, it's like, come on, man, that's not normal. Right. That, and food is kind of the same thing. It should be You shouldn't live to eat. You should eat to live is how that works out. If you want to have a good, balanced, and healthy lifestyle, the point of food isn't food. The point of food is life and love.
