The Diet Protocols for Happiness

We obsess over diets, fasting, and weight-loss drugs in the name of health. But we rarely ask a more important question: what kind of eating actually makes us happier?

In this episode of Office Hours, I explore what the science say about the relationship between food and well-being. Eating gives us pleasure, but meals bring deeper enjoyment when they also combine people and memories. I explore what that means in practice along with seven other practical rules for “happy eating.”

In the end, happiness at the table depends less on the food than the company. As my Spanish wife likes to say: the point of eating is not the food—it’s the love.

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Where to find Arthur Brooks:

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(09:55) Why eating is pleasurable—and why pleasure alone does not create happiness

(13:56) Two ways to turn pleasure into enjoyment

(17:12) How both positive and negative emotions influence eating

(18:43) Why eating moderately often is linked to greater happiness

(22:14) Dietary patterns associated with greater happiness

(25:19) What the research shows about alcohol and well-being

(28:16) Junk food’s impact on mood and well-being

(30:08) The pros and cons of a vegetarian diet

(32:19) Why crash diets are bad for your well-being and happiness

(35:59) Time-restricted eating and GLP-1 drugs

(37:13) #1: Balance across a variety of foods

(37:46) #2: Emphasize proteins and fats

(37:58) #3: Avoid junk food and refined sweets

(38:11) #4: Moderate alcohol consumption

(38:24) #5: No recreational drinking

(38:34) #6: Avoid obesity without starving yourself

(38:49) #7: Organized, regular, formal meal times

(39:00) #8: Meals in the company of others

(40:19) Q&A: The neuroscience behind how books affect our brains

(42:53) Q&A: Leisure vs. Sabbath

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Referenced:

• The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness: themeaningofyourlife.com

• Meaning Membership: https://hub.arthurbrooks.com/the-meaning-membership

• Arthur’s newsletter: https://www.arthurbrooks.com/newsletter

• The Happiness Scale: https://learn.arthurbrooks.com/the-happiness-scale

• The Pursuit of Happiness with Arthur Brooks: https://www.thefp.com/s/the-pursuit-of-happiness-with-arthur

• The pleasure of food: underlying brain mechanisms of eating and other pleasures: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13411-014-0029-2

• Health, Happiness and Eating Together: What Can a Large Thai Cohort Study Tell Us?: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4802060

• ...References continued at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.arthurbrooks.com/office-hours⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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