28. The Happy Meal

I discuss the iconic happy  meal and why some foods genuinely make us happy and the difficulties with abstaining...

I discuss food trends across different age groups

I go through my pickle ball menu in detail

I sing to you

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SPEAKER_01 0:18

Folks, in this episode, episode number 28, I'm going to talk about chasing happiness because everyone's talking about that. And uh my angle is the happy meal. We're going to talk about foods banned in Europe. We'll talk about the dopamine addiction. I will discuss what boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z, what everybody's into. I'm going to go down my pickleball menu line by line so we can talk about some food. And I'm going to talk about a concept called 70-30. I want you to really think about the 70-30 thing more than I elaborate. The world is 70% water, your body is 70% water, your plate should be 70% water foods. Think about it. 30% doesn't really matter. Avoid the saturated fat. And that's half the battle, my friends. That and a little exercise, man, you're good to go. All right, so enjoy the episode. Episode 28. Good evening, good morning. Hello. It's Jesse Kaufman, the dysfunctional foodie, and I am back. You know, it's been three months. I know. Too long. And I don't think I haven't thought about getting back on here and spewing some more of my some more of my nuggets, my thoughts and rants, and I don't have any frustrations. Oh, maybe I do. What I want to talk about that I hope you'll be interested in listening to is I want to talk about food. And I always worry that I don't talk about just recipes and cooking enough for you because I am called the dysfunctional foodie, so I should talk about I should be talking about restaurants and recipes and how to cook stuff and things I've discovered. But I end up talking about nutrition and longevity and how to be healthy and all those boring things, right? No, not boring. I just don't want you to uh obsess about it like I do. So that's why I'm here. I obsess for you and I figure out just very simply what you need to think about and worry about. And don't worry about the rest. Don't have FOMO, fear of missing out on all the health hacks and life hacks and all the hacks. I'm gonna tell you what you need to worry about. Wouldn't that be nice? Okay, so let me um just step back for a second and say that, as I've kind of alluded to, I call myself the dysfunctional foodie because I overthink this stuff. But my mission, because I've had some health issues in the past, and I've been doing this about three, four years now, I dove into health and and read all the books. And in my first episode, or third, and fourth, and fifth, I spoke about the 10 ways to achieve longevity. You know, what are the things that you must do uh critically, you know, like stop eating fast food and reduce saturated fat and exercise and you know, all the things that most people at this point know. Sidebar. So I was at I was playing pickleball yesterday, met a guy, Kevin, and and somehow we got to talking and he said, Yeah, I lost 70 pounds. And I said, Wow, how'd you do it? You know, I love talking about this stuff. At that point, I had not divulged that I obsess about talking about that kind of stuff. But he said, Oh yeah, you know, I take a couple shots a month. I was like, Oh, like the Ozempic stuff. And he he said, Well, kind of, it's just a different brand name, but it's really helped a lot. And then we got to talk and he goes, Yeah, but the thing is, a lot of people take these shots and they really work, but then they they stop and then they go back to their regular, you know, standard American diet or poor eating habits. And he goes, I'm really focused on, you know, eating like salmon and broccoli. And and I exercise, he said, five days a week. I said, Okay, so you've really got two of the most important pillars down. So you've lost the weight. Number one, healthiest thing you can do for yourself, period, bar none. We've talked about it a million times. Number two, you exercise five days a week. That's the second most important thing you can do for yourself, health-wise. The third is calorie reduction, maybe, coupled with choosing the right foods to eat and avoiding the ones not to eat. It's as simple as that. But I digress. Today's episode, we are going to talk about happiness, hence the happy meal. I've never thought about the marketing genius behind the happy meal until chasing happiness is a hot topic these days, and people are trying to figure it out. I was like, oh my god, the happy meal. They called it the happy meal when I had kids, and they just wanted the food, the high fat, and high salt and high sugar, and then they also got a toy. I mean, dopamine, serotonin, just like fireworks shooting off. Of course, they begged for whined and cried for the happy meal. We're going to talk about what foods are banned in Europe. We'll talk about discipline a little bit. And I also want to talk to you about my pickleball menu, which is semi-complete and see what your thoughts are. And we'll kind of go into that. And I hope you enjoy this episode. All right, let's rock and roll with foods that are banned in Europe. Here's 19 of them. Fruit loops, because of the yellow five and red 40. Mountain Dew, it's got BVO, whatever that is. U.S. chicken, so American chicken, because they do a chlorine wash to it. Farm-raised salmon because of the antibiotics and poor feed quality. American milk, it has RBGH, a growth hormone from Monsanto. Maricino cherries, red number 40. U.S. American apples, DPA to prevent browning. It's a carcinogen. Little Debbie cakes, it's got yellow five and red forty. American cereal because it's got BHT. Instant and mashed potatoes. It's got the BHA, a preservative found in wax and rubber. American ground beef because of the pink slime. Ritz crackers, because it has cottonseed oil. American pork, it has ractopamine, a growth hormone. Coffee made creamer, hydrogenated oils. Skittles, titanium dioxide, yellow five and six. Twinkies, yellow five. Arby's bread has azodicarbonamide or ACA, and it's a whitening agent. Stovetop stuffing has BHA and DHT preservatives. Hawaiian papaya, chickly modified to prevent viruses. I'm going to let that sink in for a second. I'm not going to lecture. I would just remind you to avoid processed foods, avoid fast foods. You know, part of the reason that it's taking me three months to get back up here and spew some more verbiage to you is because I sold a house and it sold very quickly. And so bought a new house, new construction. Wasn't going to be ready for a month. So I rented an RV with my girlfriend Christy, and we hooked that thing up and we drove kind of across eastern United States, all the way up to Canada, back down to Maine and throughout. Did three weeks living out of living cooking out of an RV trailer, 21-foot RV trailer. It's my first experience uh doing that. And it was it was great. You know, I was cooking in this tiny, like, you know, one step one way, one step the other way, no steps backwards, four dogs at my feet, and I was trying to, you know, produce gourmet food, and I succeeded. But it um after the whole three weeks, and then we rented an Airbnb for a month, and we finally got the house, and we've spent the last three weeks just moving everything in. And so I finally have an office with a computer and a microphone, and that's why I'm here right now in this moment. First moment I've had since all that's happened. But what I want to tell you was that during my time uh in the RV, I had these aha moments, of course. You know, when you slow down, you you have you get clarity. And sometimes when you are go back to basics, things become very simple and clear. And so during that trip, I remember going, I I understand happiness now. And here are seven things for happiness. And remember, put yourself in my state, in my shoes. Um, and maybe this applies to us even now when we're not in a trailer. Number one, and don't take these things for granted. Imagine if you didn't have them. A hot shower. Number two, a good bed. I didn't have a good bed in the RV. Number three, air conditioning and heat. Things we take for granted until they break, right? And then you're like, oh my god, I can't sleep. Number four, good food. Good food. We take it for granted. It's just everywhere. It's easy. We have food luxury in this country. We're never hungry. Okay, number six, music. We didn't have it, right? Didn't have your little boombox, your little Bluetooth thing. Okay, number seven, someone to share life with. And you know, many people are lonely, and you know, I was alone for a long time, and it's just very nice to have someone to share life with. Number eight, toothbrush and toothpaste. You know what your mouth feels like when you don't brush your teeth. So those are just some of the fun things I was thinking about as I was assessing what is what I really need in my life, and what really brings me baseline happiness? So, are are you happy? Do you ever think how do you measure your own happiness? Or do you compare your happiness to others? Do you have FOMO? I I I feel like I could be happier. And what's the relationship between happiness and just being content? Is happiness the reduction or lack of unhappy events or circumstances? For example, if you simply have the following conditions, are you happy? Number one, low or no stress at work at home. Number two, health. Number three, enough food daily. Four, a comfortable place to live and sleep. Number five, a hot shower. Here it comes again. Number six, exposure to nature. Number seven, music again. And number eight, again, someone to share experiences with. So if you have that, no lower no stress at work, health, enough food, comfortable place to live live and sleep, hot shower, exposure to nature, music, and someone to share it with. Are you happy? Can you be happy sometimes and content sometimes? Are happy and content similar? What is it called when you're content and then something great happens? Happier? More content? When the Buddhist monk was asked if he was happy, he said, sometimes he said, but I am always peaceful. So maybe you just seek peace. Maybe when you get close, you're pleased. When you eliminate any additional stressors in your life, you're happy in the short term, and closer to peace, contentment in the long haul. If an unfortunate event occurs, you can get unhappy about that event while still being at peace in your life. So happiness is fleeting, as is unhappiness. And I think knowing that helps. How food and the pursuit of happiness go hand in hand. And we spoke about the happy meal, right? Those of us that have the means, as in most Americans, find joy camouflaged as happiness in dopamine rushes, you know, shopping or virtually buying anything, taking trips, and yes, eating delicious foods. There's a real chemical reaction that makes us feel good when any of the above any of the above occur. Now, is that bad? No, but it's transitory, and then we seek the next fix. Sounds like a like a drug a little, you know. If you Google dopamine addiction, yeah, yeah, who to thunk it. It's a real thing. Summary. Impulsivity, aggression, mania, and psychosis, compulsive behavior, sleep problems, increased anxiety and stress, difficulty concentrating, potential for neurotoxicity. To reset dopamine levels, focus on activities that promote overall well-being and reduce reliance on activities that artificially trigger dopamine release. Consistent sleep, spending time in nature, practicing mindfulness, and consuming a balanced diet. Breaking it down to what we discuss in this podcast, it's more than discipline and willpower at play when making food choices. It's chemical as well. We're all addicted, I will venture to say, so say it out loud, it will help. All right, here's the part that you're not going to like, okay? Makes some people really mad. Experiment if you dare. Start by Googling whether dairy is healthy and know that you can get calcium in many foods. Now that you're reminding yourself that you don't need dairy and that it's actually not good for you, ask yourself if you have the discipline to not eat dairy for one week, or even better for a month. Doctors told Americans that cigarettes were good for them for years. Marketing will tell you that milk does a body good, etc. Okay, so you know it's not good. Will you continue to consume it? And why? Dopamine. When you eat it, your brain lights up with pleasure, but your heart is waving a warning flag. Apply this concept to sugar, alcohol, red meat, salt, and all processed foods like chips, etc. And I wish you good luck. I'm gonna stop preaching about it though. A little more on happiness. Folks do happiness surveys around the world, and happiness in Finland is always ranked highest, probably because they're taught to have very low expectations in life. Interesting that your definition of happiness depends on your environment or circumstances, perspective, and your subjectivity. All right, let's talk food. So, um, depending on when you were born, you might be into different things right now, food-wise. Here's a little breakdown from Google. Baby boomers, born roughly 1946 to 1964, are into classic healthy and low-saturated fat foods. Gen X, born roughly 1965 to 1980, are starting to care about health but in denial a little bit. So they're focused on gluten-free, experimenting with vegetarian or pescatarian, and carnivore. Millennials, Gen Y, born roughly 1981 to 1996, are focused on fun, flavor, spice, and fusion. Gen Z, born roughly 1997 to 2012, are into the same as Gen Y plus sustainability, vegan, gluten-free. They're looking for crunch, spice, and they're heavy Instagram influencers. People care about food sustainability. Uh, they're looking at fermented foods, plant-based texture, sourdough, Italian, Asian, and some individual spices like tamarind. Uh, mushrooms are still hot, you know, old is new, nostalgia. People are into Middle Eastern, African, like the Zatar seasoning, and harissa, pomegranate, molasses, matcha is uh still going strong, organic, grass-fed, free range, wild caught, spicy, and breakfast foods. These are the things people are focused on. And that segues us into my pickleball menu. So let's talk through it a little bit. I'll tell you what we got going on. Okay, so the pickleball club of Georgia, which is the name of my new gig, will be the largest pickleball facility in the country or maybe the world. Now 33 indoor courts, it's gonna be in midtown Atlanta. So that's kind of cool, fun, exciting. Um, the people involved tapped me to um, because of my experience in the restaurant industry, um, to do the food and beverage part of it. They um used to be customers of mine at my little restaurant. So that's what I'm gonna be doing in December when it opens, December, January. It don't matter because what I've been doing is working on a menu. The trick, the challenge has been to find, excuse me, the sweet spot of the kind of gourmet food, healthy, plant forward, exciting, not only plant forward, I like to do filet mignon, I like to do um flat iron steak, and I'll also do, you know, chicken dishes, but scallops and salmon and risotto and paella and etuffe and jambalaya. I mean, the list goes on. I love to do it all uh to find that balance with what people expect to get in a pickleball facility. Primarily lunch business, I don't know, but not in the beginning, it's not gonna be a destination restaurant. I hope to create the vibe of we need to go to the pickleball restaurant, whatever it's gonna be called, um, regardless of whether we're playing pickleball or not. So here's the menu uh in the appetizer category. And if you know anything about pickleball, you'll get some of the titles and some of the um the the play on words. If you don't, I'm not gonna get into it because you probably don't care about pickleball. And a lot of a lot of people think that pickleball's too hyped, but it's a lot of fun, and I recommend it to all of all ages. So we're gonna start off with the appetizer category called Zero Zero Start. And we'll have very simply caprese skewers. Now, everybody knows what a caprese is, right? The tomato, the fresh mozzarella, basil, extra virgin olive oil, often a balsamic drizzle, a little salt. And this will be skewers, so little prism skewers, grape tomatoes, little tiny mozzarella balls called purlinis, hence the word pearl in there. And you just lay them on there, like two tomatoes, three of the little pearlini mozzarellas, and the same treatment. And you do a nice little platter of that, an excellent little finger fruit appetizer for those playing pickleball. Then we're gonna have, wait for it, spin art dink. Sounds like spinach, artichoke, dip, spin art dink. So, what do you do in pickleball? You spin. It's the art of spinning, and a dink is an actual term for very short shot. That is just over the net. So the spin art dink will have artichokes, on dry tomatoes, spinach, poblano peppers, and avocado aioli, and it'll be served with plantain and wonton chips. Next, we're gonna do kind of a, I don't call this boring because I like it, but it's a simple egg roll, southwestern veggie egg rolls. It'll have uh black beans, jack cheese, corn, bell peppers, uh, and onions, and then an avocado cashew aioli. Avocado cashew aioli. What's an aioli? Garlic mayonnaise, correct. Then we'll do the wingman. The wingman. Gotta have wings, right? They'll be smoked, baked, and fried, served with a you know, your basic sauce is buffalo and Korean barbecue and a hot honey harissa. Or you can have them dry rubbed. Then a classic, because old is new and nostalgia, a shrimp cocktail. Just simple. Dip it in the homemade mango horseradish cocktail sauce, and you're good to go. Then we'll do an ahi tuna crude. Soy sesame, sushi quality tuna, avocado cashew mousse, a cucumber, red onion, tomato salsa, mango, black sesame seeds, and wontons. I'm gonna do Brisket nachos. So wontons layered with queso, Korean barbecue, brisket, nappa cabbage, diced tomatoes, and pickled red onions. So those are the appetizers. Three salads. I'm not going to read all the ingredients, but we've got a club med salad, which we'll have a quinoa cauliflower taboule. Do you know what taboole is? Google it. We'll have a Brussels sprout Caesar. That'll be um, it'll have maple roasted Brussels sprouts shaved in there and a uh and crunchy chickpea croutons. Then we're gonna do a wedge because nostalgia, the wedge is back. But jacked up a little bit, you know, with some cool stuff. Like I'm gonna do pickled red onions, um, a what I call V bacon, which is like a it's not real bacon, it's vegetarian bacon. It's made with tofu and Worcestershire sauce and and smoky flavor and a little soy. So good. Uh it's gonna have an avocado blue cheese dressing, wonton crumble, and microgreens. So three salads. I'm gonna run through these sandwiches real quick. Uh oh, we're gonna do um little flatbread pizzas. I call pizette, I don't call them pizzettas. A pizzetta is a thing, it's a small pizza. But uh, we'll do a margarita, a buffed chick, as in buffalo chicken, and a brisket. And then our sandwiches are gonna be called bangers because to a banger is a term in pickleball where a guy's just a guy or girl who's just slamming all the time instead of doing that little dink stuff, just a banger. And it sounds like a sandwich, some sounds like something between a burger and a and a sandwich. So it's a banger. And we're gonna do Philly sliders. I'm gonna do a stuffed cheddar burger. So, since we make our own patties, we're just gonna shave cheddar cheese and roll it up into the patty and just cook it right with the cheese inside the patty. Then you gotta have like a, you know, everything but the kitchen sink burger, we'll call the kitchen burger. And if you know anything about pickleball, the kitchen is a very sacred place on the court. We'll do a house ground burger and we're gonna top it with our spinach artichoke dip. So burger topped with spinach artichoke dip with me so far, crispy onions, some of that V bacon. Gonna be good. Then we'll do a buffalo chicken Caesar wrap. Because, you know, why not? Probably be the most popular sandwich on the menu. To be plant forward and super health conscious, for those that care, we'll do a tofu, quote unquote, chicken salad croissant. So it'll be smashed chickpeas, celery, onion, lemon, cucumber, cranberries, walnuts, tofu, tomato, avocado, cashew, crema will be the sort of mayonnaise y component that brings it all together. And then my favorite sandwich will be the grill from Ipanema. Now I didn't say the girl from Epanema. Some of you young folks out there don't even know what the grill from Ipanema is, but I would sing it for you, but you know, I'm not that much of a ham.

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Tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Epanema goes walking in. When she passes each one, she passes goes ah. You've heard it.

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I can sing it in Portuguese too, but none of you would understand. So the grill from Ipanema is a grilled cheese sandwich, but not just an ordinary one. It has turkey ham, a queso fondue, pineapple chili marmalade, sweet and spicy on a French roll. Blow your socks off. We're gonna do a Cuban Dilla. What's a Cuban Dilla? Well, it's a Cuban sandwich, but in the form of a quesadilla. Most of you know what's inside a Cuban sandwich. Okay, I'll tell you. Turkey ham, pulled chicken, brisket, cheese, house pickles, mayo mustard, served with plantain chips. Damn because tacos are the best, we'll do fish tacos. But you could also have Korean barbecue instead, or buffalo chicken on top of a dull slaw. So those are the bangers, my friends, and that's a look at the pickleball menu as it stands right now. I want to finish with a couple uh random thoughts for you. When I talk about eating less food, eating the right food, perhaps not snacking, having willpower, it is so hard. So and I know it is. I think that you have to psych yourself up a little bit and ask yourself if you have if if you have discipline or if you can muster the discipline to do whatever it is you're trying to do. And maybe it starts with this simple task uh go hungry for a little bit. I'm not talking about days, talking about one day. Can you wake up in the morning, have your big glass of water, have your cup of coffee, and then not eat until dinner time. That's not that hard. A lot of you do it already. But if you can do that, can you go into the next day? And that would be a substantial fast. Um, you'll get to a point where you'll be hungry and then it will diminish, and then you'll be coasting. You're gonna feel an automatic sort of alertness and you're gonna feel good. If you can do that little bit of going hungry, just the first one, you know, no food from a cup of coffee to dinner, you'll prove to yourself that you can have the will peer willpower, for example, not to eat as much cheese slash i.e. pizza or whatever, or to hold back and not to have that fried food item that you we just kind of automatically just, okay, I'm gonna have wings and fries. I mean, God went to so many restaurants recently and all they had was fried food. That's it. Everything on the menu is fried. When I was on the road for three weeks, everybody's eating hot dogs, smoking cigarettes, eating fried food. And then people don't realize that they're just days away from feeling great if they made those, if you turn the corner on some of those things. The health epidemic in this country, resulting from the standard American diet, is much worse than most people realize. We suffer from uh the a disease of affluence. In history, the affluent ate much more animal protein than peasant folks, and as a result developed heart disease, and the poor folks did not. It's it's that simple. What's the number one um cause of mortality in this country? It's heart disease. When you think about heart disease, what do you think about saturated fat and cholesterol, right? Okay. So just focus there. What has saturated fat? You know what has butter, dairy, things that come from animals, animal meat. So reduce. And here's a way you can do it without becoming a vegan or becoming a vegetarian. You can think of eating like this. Think of 70-30. The earth is 70% water, your body is 70% water. Eat foods that are 70% water, and on your plate throughout the day, 70% is fruits and vegetables, and 30% is not. If you can do that, then you won't have any problems. Just because somebody goes on the internet and says the carnivore diet is making them feel fantastic, blah, blah, blah, there is way too much evidence. You gotta read the books, you gotta search the scientific studies that show that a heavy animal protein diet does lead to cardiovascular disease. So it's a slow process, as you know, your arteries get built up, but it's it's reversible. Heart disease is reversible. That's a proven fact, too. So there you have it. And then just a reminder about my little 2232 thing. That's to help you eat less food. It's the uh eat for two minutes, take a break for two minutes, set your little little uh stopwatch on your clock, on your phone, and then chew a bunch of times. If you do that, you will find yourself eating about, I say about 20% less food in general because you'll be fuller faster, or at least when you're full, your uh brain and stomach will be communicating because there is a time lag there between, okay, I'm full and my brain saying, ooh, I'm full. And that is where we're gonna leave things off for today. I'm glad to be back, and um, I have lots of exciting things for our future episodes. Thank you all very much. And did you notice how many um advertisements were on this podcast? That's right, zero. So I hope you appreciate that. I appreciate you. Uh share this if you can. I'd like to get a few more uh viewers out there. People listening, thank you so much. Have a great day and enjoy delicious, healthy food.