Raising Up the Routine
As the holidays come to a close and we brace ourselves for a new year ahead, it’s time for our very own resolutions as to how to make this year better than ever before.
Focusing on how we nourish ourselves and zooming in on the physical nourishment via food & drink, there are many ‘traditions’ we have taken on as a culture that we may want to reconsider.
Festive meals have become one of the main focuses of our holidays, Shabbat, celebrations & gatherings. We have reached a peak of abundance in today’s world - where one simply walks into a grocery store and has access to thousands of food items from literally all over the world. Furthermore, with access to the internet and just the click of a button, one can have almost anything they want delivered to their door within days.
With an awesome respect for our culture and this grand accomplishment of mankind along with a deep gratitude to the Creator for granting us this fantasy, I believe we are all beginning to see the downside of such a ‘dream come true’ now that we have it; now that it’s so, so convenient.
For one thing, we have become severely addicted to high calorie intake along with incredible nutrient diversity. The problem with that is the addiction more than anything else.
Items like white sugar are not ‘pure’, they are refined to the degree that their nutritional content has been removed and what is left is simply a taste: A taste that leaves the body craving more, craving the missing nutritional content, craving the feeling of completeness that has been so stripped from these food particles. We know that refined white sugar & salt are problematic. Once used as spices, today they are found in many foods that have become staples in the S.A.D.- Standard American Diet. Ultra-Refined foods are cheap. They are mass produced to create profit/ reap benefits for the owners of the companies who are producing them. They are by no means healthy, beneficial or natural. These foods are numbing to the system, making people more & more disconnected from their bodies and how they feel.
When we sit around with family and loved ones, we sincerely want what’s best for them. We wish them health & happiness. Yet we have adopted incredibly unhealthy foods into our day-to-day realities. We see illnesses, disease & death creep up on our loved ones. Worst perhaps, we see general lethargy, depression, anxiety - mental & emotional disorders - in our youth and even young children…
There is a more balanced way to enjoy the abundance we have been granted. Perhaps we got it from the work of Rav Yosef Karo, the Shulchan Aruch (siman 250) where he writes that “One should have as much meat and wine and other tasty foods as he can.” However, it must be brought to light that 20 years later, in his book Magid Meisharim, Rav Yosef Karo wrote of a prophet who rebuked him: “...When you spent half your day in search of meat to no avail, while even the chickens that came into your hands were of no help – this all happened to teach you that meat and wine encompass the evil inclination. A person should not chase them, because man can live without them. You have honored Shabbat without meat before, therefore you should stop ruminating about anything other than the Lord’s Torah all day.” Here, Rav Karo is severely rebuked and thereby comes to agree with many other great Rabbis in saying that such practices (eating in abundance, eating meat, etc.) is permitted - not required.
Here are my most sincere tips for adopting healthier eating habits, as drawn from studies of health from around the world over the past ten years :
Eat raw food with raw food, cooked food with cooked food
Eat fruit with fruit, vegetables with vegetables
Do not eat fruit at the end of a meal
Do not eat meat with grains; Eat meat & vegetables or grains & vegetables
Your stomach is the size of your fist in its natural state; no need to overeat
Prepare, observe, smell, taste & chew food well. Most importantly, enjoy it deeply.
Don’t drink much when you eat. It dilutes digestive enzymes.
Get a serious water filter. Add some lemon or apple cider vinegar to your water.
Breathe deeply into your chest, abdomen & lower belly. It takes [a lifetime of] practice.
Eat Organic. Understand the Importance.
Simplify your plate, simplify your palate.
With prayers for a year of joy, connection, clarity & peace.