Israel's top politicians are up in arms after the catering for cabinet meetings was switched for healthy cuisine. Starting this week, pastries and cakes were removed from the menu at daily conferences:

Government ministers were shocked last Sunday to discover that their usual cabinet meeting breakfast of burekas puff pastries, rugelach and croissants was replaced with granola, vegetables and yogurts. Juices were also replaced for water.

The person responsible for the new diet, which caused an uproar among the ministers, is Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser, who said he got the idea from Yona Bar-Tal, the President's Residence's deputy director-general.

"I reached the conclusion that the ministers should have a healthy menu with as little dough and fat as possible. Currently they are accustomed to get burekas puff pastries, sandwiches and cakes.

"We did away with juices and replaced them with water. We completely removed the burekas, rugelach and cakes. We put in yogurts with granola, fruits, vegetables, whole wheat bread, low-fat cheeses and other healthy foods," he said.

(Note: The East Coasters among us know what rugelach is - sugar filled deliciousness. Burekas are Ottoman-descended puff pastries stuffed with cheese or savories that came to the country via Turkish Jews. For obvious reasons, Israelis are not generally big fans of bacon and ham at breakfast.)

All this would just be a funny quirky story if not for the fact that most of Israel's Hebrew-language dailies ran a paper on the story today. That's because several cabinet members essentially used the change of menus as an excuse to troll for votes:

Several ministers welcomed the change for obvious health considerations. Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon noted, "Finally we have a cabinet secretary who recognizes the true value of Israeli agriculture and the land of milk and honey."

The eating habits of politicians are fair scrutiny for the Israeli media. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke in 2006 that left him in a semi-vegetative state. His legendary love of unhealthy food is believed to have been a contributing factor.

 

This post originally appeared on True/Slant and is reprinted with permission.

Uncertain about what to get the special lady in your life for Hanukkah? Are you worried that candy and flowers aren't original enough? Well, CBS, the channel that brings you such delightful fare as Two and a Half Men and Survivor, thinks you should get your ladyfriend an appointment for a pap smear.

Hey, look, women's health is important. But if my boyfriend took it upon himself to schedule my gynecological appointments, I'd think it was creepy and obsessive instead of romantic. Also, the phrase "pap schmear" is now haunting my nightmares. What is heard cannot be unheard.

 

 

 

 

[Thanks to Air America for the tip.]

 

t's sort of funny when two worlds collide unexpectedly, especially when one comes to the aid of the other. Take for example my recent search for the perfect milk alternative. I don't dislike good ol' cow's milk, nor am I allergic to it. But as an observant Jew, I often find myself at odds with the fridge staple, usually after I've just enjoyed a delicious turkey sandwich. I am what some would call a Fleish-a-phobe: I rarely eat meat if I can avoid it out of dread for the five hours and one minute to follow, when I will be barred from my favorite treats: ice cream, chocolate, cheese, milk-based pie, the list goes on.

And so I've spent some time searching for that perfect alternative, that wondrous, dairy-free concoction that will replace milk in my cookie recipe and help me whip up the perfect pareve pumpkin pie. Recently, my best friend and I (with both health and Halacha in mind) unofficially took it upon ourselves to taste-test every non-milk available to us, from various brands of soymilk to the less orthodox (and rarely Kosher) hemp milk, with varying results.

Soymilk is chock full of protein and readily available (call me crazy, but I don't think the taste is that bad, either), but it's also full of added sugar and contains estrogen. You know what they say about too much female hormone... Rice milk was the best tasting, but full of empty carbs and calories. Almond milk was pleasant and nutty, but was (as all nut products) high in fat. (Plus, as this website states, although almonds are among the most healthful nuts out there, the amount used in the milk is so small "you're better off just eating the nuts"). I like to point out that real milk isn't without its problems (hello, cholesterol), but two foodies can dream, can't they?

A fourth, hemp milk seemed the healthiest: filled with Omega 3 fatty acids, high on the protein, but it proved near impossible to find Kosher. On the day I finally saw that the strange mark on one box was a legitimate Teudah Kashrut, I snatched it off the shelf, never mind the eight dollars a carton.

We found it quite good, definitely a few steps up from the starchy powder my friend had been mixing into his drinks for a protein boost (he'd once remarked to me that it tasted like sawdust), and I happily realized that it had virtually no aftertaste: it was just like rice milk! And one look at the ingredients told us why. The second ingredient was rice milk, and it had brought so many empty calories with it. So much for the cannabis smoothie.

Aside from our dilemma, we grappled with the idea that we may just seem a little, well... nuts to be searching so seriously. I got a few stares from my family when I announced that I'd found hemp milk Kosher. Why did I care so much? Use plain soymilk in baking and be done. Who likes the taste of that stuff anyway? (I countered with something like "I shamelessly enjoy the taste of soymilk, and this argument has been milked to death anyway," pun totally intended.)

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I staggered home this morning from my local pub on Bograshov Street red eyed, wheezing and smelling like my seventy year-old chain smoking travel agent, Shoshana. The thing is, I don't even smoke. I am getting tired of having to toss my T-shirts in the wash after having barely worn them because they reek of secondhand smoke. Under normal circumstances I could get at least another 48 hours out of them. The problem is that I think I'm becoming dependent on secondhand smoke. It's gotten to the point that sometimes I start itching in anticipation of someone lighting up.

When the public smoking ban began to be enforced last year by the City Council, I was excited at the prospect of being able to spend a night on the town without having to worry about nicotine poisoning, but that ship sunk pretty much as soon as it sailed and I am unaware of a single smoke-free bar in Tel Aviv. If you know one, please let me know. A cigarette is usually lit post- coitus, but only in Tel Aviv does the smoking precede the sex.

Legislators in Israel passed the smoking ban as a means to reduce health risks and thereby the ever-increasing costs of health care. The success of reducing health risks through public smoking bans in other countries speak for themselves. The number of heart attacks in Ireland has fallen by about 11 percent since the smoking ban was introduced there in 2004, according to Irish researchers at a cardiology congress in Vienna. Similar results have followed in other places too. Scotland, for instance, had a 17 percent decrease in heart attacks. Pueblo, Colorado confirmed that heart attacks fell by almost 27 percent since its public smoking ban.

This got me thinking about why, in spite of the health risks, bar owners are so opposed to upholding the smoking ban. Obviously they must be taking their customers' best interests into account. I don't think it's too much to ask to request that customers smoke outside. I know it's not the harsh Mediterranean winter that's keeping them indoors. Scantily clad female smokers brave the rain, sleet and snow for a quick cigarette all over Europe without affecting the livelihood of bar owners. But having to brave the cold for a smoke doesn't seem to be the reason. There must be something else at work here. In Israel, where the anti-smoking lobby is comparatively weak compared with Western countries, smoking's sexy appeal still trumps its resulting shorter lifespan.

A cigarette on-hand isn't going to transform you into a dashing Humphrey Bogart or a stylish Marilyn Monroe, but its importance in restraining awkward hand gestures when you are in the process of courting a member of the fairer sex should not be overlooked. I usually rectify this problem by downing a couple shots of liquid confidence, putting out the vibes and leaning nonchalantly on the bar.

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In the course of just a few days, incidents of swine flu have been reported from as far away as New Zealand, and as close as a few blocks from my Manhattan apartment.  The WHO is warning of an international pandemic, and health professionals ranging from school nurses to emergency room doctors are undergoing a crash course in identifying the symptoms of the disease.

Because the disease seems to have originated in Mexico, some conservatives have seized this opportunity to demand that the United States close the border with Mexico. According to the World Health Organization, such measures would be ineffective in stopping the spread of the disease. Even though the disease seems to have entered the United States via American tourists to Mexico, there is a real chance that immigrants will be stigmatized as the bearers of disease.  To cite just one anti-immigrant commentator:

The recent outbreak of Swine flu in Mexico and over 40 cases in the United States exposes yet another aspect of mass immigration into the United States.  Such outbreaks of diseases stem from cultures that lack personal hygiene, personal health habits and standards for disease prevention. . . .

Why?  Short answer: culture and customs.  The Bird flu spreads across Asia because people live and sleep with their chickens, with their pigs, with their livestock.  It's their culture.  They live in such compacted numbers that they cannot move toward healthy paradigms.

Blaming immigrants for introducing disease into the United States is not a new phenomenon. In Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the “Immigrant Menace” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1994), Alan M. Kraut traces the ways in which various immigrant groups, including the Irish, Italians, Jews, and Haitians, have been accused of spreading diseases ranging from typhoid to polio to tuberculosis to AIDS.

 

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, tuberculosis was often known as the “Tailor’s Disease” or the “Jewish Disease.” Because the disease spreads quickly among people living in cramped quarters, poor immigrants living in tenements were more likely to contract TB than wealthier Americans were.In 1908, Dr. Manly H. Simons, the medical director of the US navy had this to say about Jews and disease:

 

The poorer classes of Jews are very unsanitary; they work and live in dirty and badly ventilated quarters. . . as a type, Jews are beginning to show mental and physical degredation as evidenced by the great variability of development, great brilliancy, idiocy, moral perversity, epilepsy, physical deformity, anarchistic and lawless tendencies." (qtd in Kraut 145)

 

The Jewish community responded by establishing hospitals to care for Jewish patients with TB and with other communicable diseases. At the time, most hospitals admitted only patients with physical injuries, and would not treat anyone with a communicable disease. Wealthier patients would not enter hospitals, but instead would receive private medical care at home. Jewish hospitals opened their doors first to Jewish patients with contagious diseases, and then to any patient with such an illness. These hospitals not only treated sick people of all ethnic backgrounds, but also helped to reduce the stigma of disease and to alleviate fears of an immigrant-borne plague.

 

Will swine flu be the TB of the twenty-first century? I certainly hope not. I hope that this disease, like many public health scares before, disappears quickly befor reaching pandemic status. And whatever happens, I hope that the anti-immigration folks fail to turn today's Mexicans into yesterday's Jews.

I really love it when my boyfriend gets excited about a meal.  He stops, breathes in. “Oh,” he says quietly, “oh, wow” a little louder.  That usually makes me pause.  “Oh this is amazing,” his eyes go wide and a smile begins to play across his face, “I can’t believe how good this is.”  Sometimes he reaches across the table to include me in the moment, sometimes he revels in his experience alone.

We had one of those moments last night.  Earlier in the day, I had been bored at work so I checked out Facebook and noticed an invitation to several restaurants with a focus on sustainable food that were donating a portion of their proceeds that night to the Brooklyn Food Conference.  Since I was planning on being in the neighborhood of one of these restaurants, I decided to check it out – boyfriend in tow.

Cheryl’s Global Soul was warm (except at the seats next to the door since New York City is still a little cool) and cozy with artistic wood paneling reminiscent of Noah’s Ark.  Cool jazz played forcefully through the speakers giving a funky and young vibe although the crowd was eclectic from the young family seated next to us to the older genteel woman relishing her pork chop alone.  The menu was unassuming, just a sheet of paper in plastic that didn’t mention at all that the vegetables were procured at the nearby farmer’s market, but the wait staff was knowledgeable enough to let us know where the fish and meat was farmed when we asked.  And catching on that we were into the local and sustainable thing, our waitress discussed at length which local and organic wines were available that night.

Cheryl herself, a commanding presence in the room, choreographed every aspect of the evening.  From welcoming new patrons, to ensuring her customers have everyone they needed (including extra napkins to wipe up what appeared to be very juicy chicken at the table next to us) to the food exiting the semi-open kitchen, which I could occasionally glimpse a few tantalizing details of the cooks preparing our dinner.

Although my boyfriend’s reaction may have been slightly reminiscent of that iconic scene from When Harry Met Sally, he wasn’t kidding that the food was really quite good and the portions were remarkably large.  After we were seated a large plate of soft crusty bread was quickly brought to our table with a bowl of salted olive oil we enjoyed dipping into again and again.  We splurged (after all, the more money we spent, the more that was being donated to a good cause) on an appetizer of pumpkin ravioli drowning in sage butter.  Had it been socially acceptable we probably would have licked the plate, but instead resorted to dragging more of that soft bread into the last slicks of butter and pumpkin filling.

I ordered the trout, farmed raised in Maine and on the “good” fish list which came to the table grilled and with the head still attached.  A rarity as most restaurants shield us from what they we really eating, but without the head you are missing the best part – the fish cheeks.  My fish was served with jasmine rice and black beans.  So simple and so delicious.

My boyfriend ordered the vegetable tagine, which was remarkably complex in flavor and filled the large bowl with local carrots, zucchini, celery as well as (although probably not local) chickpeas and tofu.  The dish was spiced with turmeric, cardamom, and slightly sweet with cinnamon and was that tamarind we tasted?  Tired from his long day at work, my dining companion perked up when the food arrived digging hungrily into the generous portions.  We only got through half of our meals, and had the rest packed up, making me look forward to lunch tomorrow.

We left the restaurant smiling, contented with good food, nice atmosphere and the knowledge that we had discovered a new cozy spot with a solid menu that was unpretentiously making a real effort to do the right thing by buying fresh and local.

Cross-posted from the Jew and the Carrot 

My family and I have had too intimate an acquaintance with illness.  Leaving out parents and extended relatives, my wife survived cancer at 31 (she is fine now, thanks) with the result that we are fortunate to have one child, but could not have more. I suffered a seizure and had brain surgery for (an ultimately benign) brain tumor, and two years ago was diagnosed with lymphoma.  After chemo etc. (yes, suddenly, dramatically bald, tough to keep a kippah on) I am now in remission.

Do I blame God?  Given the surfeit of blessings I have had in my life, it seems ungrateful, to say the least.  Do I deserve to be showered with blessings and never suffer?  It would be nice.  But I think the idea that we are owed only good is theologically childish.  Most of us - not all to be sure - are extraordinarily forunate.

I am not going to enter here the contentious question of why bad things happen, but I do want to say a word about prayer.  It isn't to get stuff.  It isn't magic.  True prayer, deep prayer, should be for relationship, intimacy, so that we are not alone.  Prayer has roots in the temple, with korbanot (sacrifices) from the Hebrew root "karov" - to draw close.  In prayer we draw closer to God and to the praying community.

At least we hope to, we try to.  In illness we come closer to God less because of sudden fear than because illness cracks something open inside us and God - and others - can slip into the cracks.  When we heal, we tend to heal inside too, leaving fewer or smaller openings.  Someone once said of the poet William Blake that he was cracked.  Blake's friend, a preacher, answered, "Yes, but it is the kind of crack that lets in the light." 

Rabbi David Wolpe, author of Why Faith Matters, is guest blogging on Jewcy, and he'll be here all week.  Stay tuned.

 

Screwing the Pooch: is a trendy drink really worth his suffering?You'd never guess it, but the refreshing beverage that's infused with herbal supplements and marketed as an earth-friendly, organic, and/or socially conscious "ancient remedy" for something-or-other might mean hell for man's best friend. The London Times reports that the demand for health foods has resulted in a huge surge in animal testing, and our canine companions are included among the ranks of the rodents, rabbits, and guinea pigs that populate the laboratories.

The trend for healthier eating has led to an increase of more than 300% in the number of laboratory experiments conducted on animals for food additives, sweeteners and health supplements over the past year.

Home Office figures showed an increase from 862 to 4,038 experiments from 2005 to 2006.

Often involving painful procedures and artificially induced injuries, many of these experiments focus on inanities such as the "cabbage diet."

At Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, rats were fed a diet containing 20% raw, lightly cooked or fully cooked cabbage for two weeks. The animals were killed to examine the effects of the diet on their liver and colon. The researchers had already carried out a human study on the effects on the gut of eating cooked cabbage.

Is It Me: or does the Teavigo logo resemble an "anti" sign? It's as if they are subconsciously trying to say, "Boycott us, we test on Fido!"Perhaps the most horrific experiment covered in the Times article was conducted by a company called DSM Nutritional Products, which is described as "the world's leading supplier of vitamins, carotenoids and other fine chemicals to the feed, food, pharmaceutical and personal care industries." In testing a product called Teavigo, a green tea extract, DSM force-fed huge doses to dogs who ultimately either died or had to be put down.

American products that contain Teavigo include Kinerase, a "dietary supplement for beautiful skin and wellness," and NUI Kid Water, a flavored, bottled "health" drink marketed to children. The official Teavigo website can be found here.

Whatever your general stance on animal testing might be, doesn't it seem incredibly cruel and wasteful to conduct painful experiments for such inane, passing fancies, especially when there are so many proven, reliable, humane alternatives? I mean, really: Johns Hopkins has a whole center dedicated to finding and using alternatives to animal testing. At this point, testing on animals is just bad science.

As consumers, our power is in our wallets. If you'd rather feed Sparky a dog treat than a lethal dose of Teavigo et al, then do your research and vote NO by boycotting products that unnecessarily test on our buddies in the animal kingdom.

It's October 1st, which marks the start of Breast Cancer Awareness month. It's a big issue to me, in small part because of two scares I had this past year, and largely because some important people to me have been impacted by breast cancer, either personally or second-hand.Think Pink: But don't stop with a lapel ribbon.

In a brochure given to me recently by Sharsheret, an organization supporting young Jewish women affected by breast cancer, I read:

"Alterations in two genes inditified as BRCA1 and BRCA2 make carriers more susceptible to developing breast and ovarian cancers....Among individuals of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, research scientists have found that approximately 1 in 40 carry an altered BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene compared to 1 in 345 in the general population. Among people with alternations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, three particular alternations have been found t be most common in the Ashkenzi Jewish population-- two in the BRCA1 gene and one int eh BRCA2 gene. While there is still debate as to whether breast or ovarian cancer rates are higher in Jewish women as compared to the general population, the proportion of breast or ovarian cancer that is heredity is higher in Jewish women of Ashkenazi descent."

Contact Sharsheret for a copy of one of their many information packets including Breast Cancer Genetics and the Jewish Woman, Facing Breast Cancer as a Jewish Woman, Facing Breast Cancer as an Orthodox Jewish Woman and The Jewish Family Facing Breast Cancer. Also, you might want to consider getting a breast self-exam shower card, a handy waterproof self-exam reminder that looks like the Do Not Disturb signs you hang on hotel doors.

Other organizations to keep on your radar and to help support are Hadassah's Healthy Women, Healthy Lives Program, Bikur Cholim's Women's Healthcare Project, in addition to organizations serving everyone such as Living Beyond Breast Cancer, National Breast Cancer Coalition, Susan G. Komen Foundation, Y-Me, Young Survival Coalition, Facing Our Risk and The Breast Care Site. Of course, breast cancer isn't just a women's issue, either, with men's resources like this page from the American Cancer Society and BreastCancer.org's men's section.

Of course, you can get active and raise some serious money in support of breast cancer, too. Events like Avon's Breast Cancer 3-Day (which I did a few years ago and can vouch for how well-organized it was and how meaningful it was to go 60 miles in three days and would do it again in a heartbeat), Race for the Cure events (which I've also done-- there are events in almost every city so check the website and see if there is one near you), Making Strides Against Breast Cancer (which I am doing this year) and and for the perhaps less-active, there is Wacoal's Fit For the Cure, where getting fitted for and buying a brassiere does a world of good and Brides Against Breast Cancer's 3-day bridal tzotch-fest raises funds. Or go test-drive a BMW, if that's your bag.

And, in addition to supporting these organizations or doing these events, you can make some of your purchases stretch your donation dollars with finds like this mezuzah case and these mezuzah cases. Here is a list of cosmetics that are tricked out in pink for October to benefit breast cancer research, all sorts of goodies at The Breast Cancer Site to wear and use, fabulous kitchen accessories and small appliances at KitchenAid's Cook For The Cure and even this pink Clean for the Cure vac. Things you probably need to buy anyway, right? Right.

Okay, okay, and because baseball is heating up this week, I have to share this t-shirt. Okay, wait, this one, too.

This year, as with every year around this time, you hear a lot of people wishing each other health and happiness. And I believe that people are sincere in this wish, but unfortunately, being healthy and happy requires some work of the wishee. Being healthy means, among other things, going to the doctor.
If This Is What You Need: to get you motivated to put these things on your calendar, I say go for it.
I’ll be the first to admit that doctor’s appointments are about my least favorite activities. The examinations and questions make me uncomfortable and unhappy, and even with insurance, the cost stresses me out. But even though I dread my doctor’s appointments, I’m diligent about going simply because I’m terrified that if I don’t keep on top of my health I’ll find out I have some serious condition that requires lots and lots of time with doctors in hospitals, paying lots of money for procedures that hurt. So if you’re like me, I strongly suggest that you make your annual appointments ASAP.

AppointmentS, you say? In the plural?

Yep. There are a bunch of things to get checked out every year. Check with your doctor to see if all of these apply to you (pap smears, for instance, are recommended yearly for women under 30, and and then less often as you get older, and colon screening isn't necessary until you're fifty) but you really should investigate.  Sucks, but just do it.

1. Get Squeezed
Breast health is my number one issue right now because my mother was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and that makes her the fourth woman in three generations of her family. She was diagnosed because of something that was found in a mammogram, which only reinforces everything I’ve always heard about mammograms: they work, and you need to get one every year. Starting when you’re forty this should be something that you keep up with no matter what. Until you’re forty, practice monthly breast self exams (alas, being felt up by your boyfriend doesn’t count).
Boobs: If you wanna keep 'em, get 'em squeezed
For more information on the importance of mammography, click here.
For information on getting a free mammogram click here.
For instruction on how and when to conduct a breast self exam, click here.

2. Get Poked
Colon cancer is one of those cancer’s we’d really rather not discuss. Colons are gross, right? You know what’s grosser? Dying. From the time you turn fifty you should get one of three tests that screen for colon cancer every year. Every ten years you should get a colonoscopy. For more info on what tests you should ask for (and yes, you may have to ask for them) click here.

3. Get smeared
Girls, you need to go to the gynecologist every year for your annual pap smear. This may be my single least favorite activity of all time, but I hear cervical cancer is a bitch (and frankly, if there’s any part of my body that I want in tip top shape, it’s my cunt) so I grin and bear it. While you’re there, I suggest being tested for STDs, too (assuming you’re sexually active) because some of them, like clamydia, might not have any symptoms, and so can just hang out in your cooch for ages if you don’t catch them early. For more info on the importance of Pap smears, and how often to get them click here.

4. Get scraped
Is there anything worse than the sound of plague being scraped off your teeth? Blech! But it turns out going to the dentist is not just about checking for cavities and and gum disease. Because so much enters the body via the mouth, lots of things can be diagnosed early by looked closely at oral health. For more information on the Mouth-Body connection, check out this website. I was especially surprised by this:

Many diseases and conditions can affect your oral health. For example, people with weakened immune systems may be more likely to get fungal and viral infections in the mouth. The immune system (the system that protects the body from illness and infection) can be weakened by disease or as a side effect of cancer chemotherapy drugs or by drugs that are taken to prevent the rejection of transplanted organs or bone marrow. Medications taken for other conditions also can affect the health of your mouth. For example, many drugs cause dry mouth, which can increase your risk of dental decay, oral yeast infections and other oral infections.

Your oral health also can affect other medical conditions. For example, if you are diabetic, an infection in your mouth can disrupt your blood-sugar levels and make your diabetes harder to control. Researchers also are exploring the role of periodontal (gum) disease as a potential risk factor for various medical conditions, including heart disease.

So do yourself a favor and make an appointment to see a dentist every six months.

5. Get screened
Heart disease is the number one killer in the US. Half of all Americans will die of heart disease. If you’re like me and hate being a member of a the mainstream, or if you just don’t want to die anytime soon, I highly suggest getting screened for heart disease, a process that can be as quick as 15 minutes, and can help you see how to make changes in your diet and lifestyle that can save your life. For information on what happens at a screening, and where to be screened, check out Heart Screen Now.

6. Get charged
The smoke alarms in your house or apartment need to be checked once a month, and the batteries should be replaced every year. For more info check out this directive from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, or this rapping British firefighter.

If you think you might have trouble remembering all of this stuff, I encourage you to sign up for a free service that will remind you to set up appointments. I like MyHealthTests.

This stuff might not seem spiritual, but unless you want to become a spirit, you’ve got to stay alive, and to stay alive, you’ve got to keep on top of your health. So this year mark your spiritual beginning by having a bunch of doctors make you uncomfortable. Then take yourself out for a drink and congratulate yourself for being so damn on top of things.

This afternoon, I got a phone call from a friend of mine and we ended up in a discussion about a feminist Yom Kippur service she's attending this week in a start-up minyan living-room sort of setting. I asked her what elements were going to be changed, implemented or excluded to qualify the service as feminist and she pointed out some resources I'll be sharing with all of you a bit later this week, of course. She mentioned something which I found terribly interesting, and that the women leading this service made a point to let the attending women know that it was a "body-positive, fast-optional" minyan, feeling all too often food, eating, not-eating, and being female is so very loaded.

Yom Kippur: No laughing matter.

This idea started, my friend explained, when one of the service leaders, years ago, overhead women talking about the Yom Kippur diet and felt that seeing the fast as a trick to outsmart the metabolism to be quite a shonda, if not just missing the spiritual point, so they decided on their mindful approach.

Personally, this is a subject of great interest to me, mainly because I write a great deal about the social-cultural issues surrounding women and eating and so often about media literary versus body image and the like. This article from Jewish Family offers a breakdown of physical effects of temporary fasting, with a mindfulness towards eating disorders and here a few rabbis and physician talk it over in a broad sense. Here Richard Israel offers some tips and a decent explanation (for some of our friends-of-the-Jewcy readers) about why we fast, in personal and spiritual terms, while here a rabbi and health officials at the Renfrew Center for Eating Disorders urges people to consider not fasting at all.

This essay by Janie Lieberman details her struggle with eating disorders, why, with the day and its rituals too loaded for her, she did not chose to fast any longer, which ends with this paragraph:

"With Yom Kippur 'fast' approaching, we atone for our sins of the body and spirit. Forgetting all that, many will end their daylong fast by gorging at sundown. Indeed, the Jewish holidays are as rich in traditions as they are in rich food. I, however, do not fast. I did enough of that, and it was only a set up to binge. Judaism teaches us that the body is a soul's house. I respect that philosophy and don't abuse food or my body."

Fasting: Some can, some cannot. No shame, either way.

The Talmud declares that one must maintain a healthy body in order to have a healthy soul, and with such discussion in Judaism devoted to saving a single life being like saving the whole world, and with even the most observant person not only being rabbinically permitted but required to violate other halachic terms to spare someone death.

But, in my humble opinion, there is physically saving a life, and there is emotionally saving a life. Sometimes the lines blur, sometimes they do not, but both are of great sacredness and importance. This year on Yom Kippur, I wish everyone a meaningful, mindful and safe experience, however it manifests, and however we thoughtfully choose.

 

I used to make the same New Year’s resolutions every year:

1. Do yoga (I’m a runner)
2. Eat more vegetables (I’m a carnivore)
3. Take a daily multi-vitamin (See #2)
4. Eat less cheese (I’m lactose intolerant)
5. Be nicer to my sister (I’m insufferable)
6. Stop taking myself so seriously (I’m going to be a rabbi.)

But when I got to rabbinical school, my list of resolutions started to seem a bit too superficial for Rosh Hashanah. Instead of pious spiritual aspirations, I was trying to frequent the produce section. I tried to make my Rosh Hashanah resolutions more metaphysical, but I missed my seasonal yoga classes and greens. I missed them a lot.

So I was thrilled when I discovered that Rav Kook, a hero of most contemporary rabbis, once wrote that the beginning of any attempt at Teshuva (repentance) is eating well. Kook claimed that human beings are born naturally good and only become corrupted over time. Repenting, he said, means getting back to who we really are, which starts on a physical level. So in the spirit of Rav Kook, here are a few ways to get your Teshuva on.

 

The more you cook them, the better they get: Organic carrotsMake Rosh Hashanah dinner a part of your day-to-day life by eating more tzimmes and cholent.
Cooked carrots are 34% higher in antioxidants than raw carrots and the antioxidants continue to increase if the carrots are kept at high temperature for a long time—up to a week. (Published in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry by Luke Howard PhD, Professor of Food Science at the University of Arkansas). Check out this tzimmes recipe, or try Pickled’s less-sweet version. For an extra health boost, vegetarian cholent packs a hearty punch. And thank your grandma—she knew what was good for you.

 

Spend more time at Congregation Beth Elohim and live three years longer
In studies published by The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, researchers found that the social interaction and community provided by regular attendance at shul (or church) may add an extra two to three years to your life. Don’t belong to a synagogue? The Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist movements all have search engines that allow you to research local options. Just attending on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur doesn’t count, though; it’s hard to find community in a group of people you only see twice a year. Instead, start by regularly attending an adult ed class or doing volunteer work. Then, when you come back for Shabbat, you’ll find enough friendly faces to feel instantly at home.

 

Who needs Lipitor when you can just accept your sister’s apology?
Forgive yourself. Forgive your parents. Forgive Joey Hershberger for not inviting you to his Bar Mitzvah in 7th grade. In the spirit of the season, and as your rabbi has been telling you for years, get over it. Frederick Luskin, a psychologist who works at Stanford University’s Forgiveness Project —the largest research project in the country exploring the physical effects of forgiveness—has proven that persistent unresolved anger can lead to higher blood pressure, cholesterol and stress levels, so letting go is good for your health. It’s also mitzvah, of course, and it only takes nine easy steps.

 

Hebrew: It's good for your brainWard off Alzheimer’s with the Aleph-Bet
Dementia occurs later in bilingual folks: a study in the Journal of Neuropsychologia found that Alzheimer’s and other dementias set in four years later in patients who spoke more than one language. No other factor—culture, gender, immigration, education, employment—made nearly as much of a difference, so get your Hebrew on by enrolling in an ulpan or taking adult education classes. (The National Center for the Hebrew Language has a marketplace selling all the tools you need to keep your brain sharp.)

 

Swap white rice for brown rice in your stir-fry.
Brown rice is lower in carbs and higher in fiber than white rice. It also has more vitamin E, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and over a dozen other nutrients. And it’s better for the environment—brown rice is less processed than white rice, so it takes less energy to produce. So go ahead. Buy a rice cooker (you can find a variety here.) Dump in two cups of rice, water, and a pinch of salt. Press the button. Wait 45 minutes. Eat. Feel self-righteous. You’ve now done a mitzvah for your body. And if you’re Sephardic, you’ve just doubled what you can eat on Passover.

The high holidays are a time for new beginnings—a kind of reset button on whatever you’ve gotten wrong in the past year. Services take care of your spiritual crimes, allowing you to wash all the grime off your metaphysical windows and start over fresh. But what about the more literal, practical, day-to-day mistakes you’d like to erase? Kol Nidre can release you from any number of vows, but not the one you made to your credit card company to pay back that $1500.

Hence Jewcy’s guide to starting over. We’ll tell you how to clean up past messes and prep for future successes in six categories:

Sex, love and dating | Health | Friendships | Family | Money | Work

Consulting myriad websites, books, and experts, we've pulled together 26 separate ways to start the year squeaky clean. Click the links above to get to each section, and remember: If Madonna can reinvent herself every few years, so can you.

And all good things must come to an end -- sometimes, as with Godfather III or Clerks 2, after they've overstayed their welcome a bit.  The parallels with meditation retreat continue; on the last day of a retreat, it's really hard to sit still, because your mind has already started thinking about going home.  Likewise, I'm now sick of the spicy lemonade, because I'm ready to move to orange juice and veggie juice, which is what I'm starting tonight.  Plus I'm now up at my house, with my partner, who is microwaving veggie burgers and eating cereal and basically causing my appetite to roil.  And then, because I'm not drinking enough of the lemonade, I get headaches.  Which I know I'll get, because I've learned that lesson already.  But I'm sick of the lemonade -- and round and round it goes.  Lotta Lemon

So, what have I learned during this week of near-fasting (and drinking the juice of all the lemons at right, and then some)?

First, that we really don't need anywhere near as much food as we take in.  It really is amazing how high-functioning I've been able to be, just on lemon juice, water, cayenne pepper, and maple syrup.  I'm going back to eating not because I have to, but because I want to. 

Second, that I would really look great if I didn't eat so much crap.  I'm back down to my optimal weight of 160 -- I must've been pushing 170 before the cleanse, given how much thinner I look.  And not just thinner -- better.  Skin clearer, eyes clearer, and somehow, the lost few pounds were all in the right places; my face looks like it used to 10 years ago, and so does my gut.  I was thinking about posting some pictures online -- but I thought better of it. 

 Now, I still think that, on balance, enjoying the delicious variety of foods in the world is worth a little extra flab and a little less energy.  It's part of the delight of life, and this discipline is too ascetic for an everyday lifestyle.  But it is instructive to see what's really causing the paunches and big bottoms of America: eating garbage. 

Third, I've really appreciated, in a visceral way, the fact that I always have enough to eat in my life.  When your entire mental stability depends on one bottle of orange fluid, you can really see that clearly.  It's like that environmental parable about a civilization entirely dependent upon a single pipe.  They love it, take care of it, even venerate it -- now if only our dependence on the Earth were as clear for us to see.

Fourth, I think I've put some space between the sensation of hunger on the one hand, and the grouchy, crabby feeling I usually get when I'm hungry on the other.  This week, I always felt hunger in my belly.  But it was just part of the scenery, and part of the plan of the week.  I got used to it; it was really no big deal.  If only I'd feel that way when it's 2:30 in the afternoon and I haven't managed to eat lunch yet. 

And finally, I do feel, somehow, cleaner.  I've learned a lot this week about "toxins" and "cleansing" and other dubiously-defined touchstones of the wacky nutritionist fringe.  And I don't know about any of that.  But I can say that I feel somehow cleaner inside.  It's amazing how much crap (literally, in this case) was still coming out of me during my daily salt water flush, days after I'd stopped eating.  That stuff just sits there, all the time; who knows, maybe it does have something to do with toxicity, or loss of energy, or, well, something we don't yet fully understand.

  I'm glad I did the cleanse, and I'd recommend it to any healthy individual, if only for the adventure and for seeing how much of our ordinary responses to food and hunger are conditioned behaviors that have little to do with actually nourishing the body.  It was important that I was working with a nutritionist, in case anything did really go wrong.  Nothing did, but it felt good to know that my back was covered.  Not that I'm really out of the woods yet -- for many people, coming off the Master Cleanse is as difficult as the cleanse itself.  Which is why my shabbat dinner tonight will consist of vegetable juice.  Wow, look at the time -- time to light candles!  Shabbat shalom!

            I mean, I guess you can get used to anything.  Dukkha day is over, and I feel fine; this is the Cleanse Feeling that the nutrition fanatics talk about.  Sure, my belly feels hungry, but I'm so used to that it's just part of the scenery.  My energy is up, my mood is good, and if I can't multitask all that well -- so much the better, I hate multitasking anyway.  It's really a little... strange.

            And it's not that I've been sitting in bed all day.  Today the new print editions of Zeek arrived at our office, and I and four other members of my staff sorted magazines, stuck on mailing labels, and even carted the things to the post office.  I got a haircut, saw the film "Year of the Dog" (if you liked 'You, Me, and Everyone You Know, see it), drafted a contract for my software company, even took some time to have a lengthy conversation with a colleague about the American Jewish inability to sustain a non-hysterical dialogue about Israeli politics.  No more dehydration, and no real cravings. 

mmm, sushi menu            I am remarkably susceptible to appetite; just a whiff of a bakery, or, this afternoon, finding a sushi menu stuck in my mailbox, is enough to start me drooling Homer-Simpson-style.  It's kind of amusing to watch.  Because I was in the closet, I was never that horny as a teenager, and feel like this is my opportunity to get instantly aroused at the slightest provocation.  It is a kind of deliciousness.

            What I thought I'd blog about today, before I realized that my spooky, Jack Lalainesque energy was the real subject, was about the great and perennial question: To Colonic or Not To Colonic.  For those of you blissfully not in the know, "Colonic" is short for a colonic irrigation -- basically, paying someone to stick a large tube up your rectum (did you know that thesaurus.com has no entries for "anus" or "rectum" -- what, are they policing the world against giggling twelve year old boys?) and fill your colon with saline solution (or coffee, or wheatgrass, or one of a large variety of liquids).  It's a cleanse, all right; it washes the insides right out.

            I was game.  I'd never done one before, but like Hillel said, if not now...  But then I met a doctor who warned me against forcing valves meant to open one way to open another way.  "If one valve breaks, none of them will function properly." stick it up yer ass I thought of the Asher Yatzar prayer -- "Blessed are you God, who created in the human being many openings and many holes... If one of them did not open or close properly, we could not exist even for a moment." -- and of the Hippocratic oath to "first, do no harm" -- and chickened out.  Besides, this morning's Salt Water Flush was quite, er, cleaning on its own.  (Go ahead, reader: try drinking 1 quart of lukewarm water with 2 teaspoons of salt dissolved in it, and see what happens. Advice: stay near a toilet.)  So -- no Colonic for me.

            Still, I can't help feeling that I'm not Maximizing My Cleanse by not doing one.    Who knows, maybe I will tomorrow.  But part of what's enabled me to do this in the first place has been the knowledge that I'm not hurting myself, and that I can stop at any time.  What if Colonics really are bad for you?  Then again, not even quackwatch.org mentioned my doctor-friend's Valve theory -- only a few cases of disreputable practitioners and dirty machines (yecch).  Will I feel like I didn't go the full monty because I didn't have a nurse stick a tube up my tuchis?  Aren't there more important things to worry about?

            Stay tuned.

Well, today was harder. Dukkha day, they'd call it on a meditation retreat; the "day of suffering" when the initial thrill is off and the hard work really begins. My dukkha day started early -- around 5:15 in the morning, when I woke up dehydrated and couldn't get back to sleep. You really have to drink the lemonade all the time; if you don't, you pay for it sooner or later. In my case, I just wasn't thirsty after about 8pm last night, so I didn't drink -- and it came back to haunt me with pre-dawn nausea, aching, and general lousiness. I did get back to sleep around 7, but had to be up at 9 for a conference call, which didn't go so well either.

I'm drooling already Now, my (even thinner) body aches, and I have started to get cravings at the mere mention of Entenmann's Louisiana Crunch Cake (I saw some boxes of it at the Rite Aid where I was buying more Spring Water... mmm, processed food). But at the same time, I have really enjoyed moving more slowly, noticing the limits of my body. I can't jump down the subway stairs two steps at a time. I just can't carry that much. And it feels good to just sit around.

I also really have appreciated, in a bourgeois-tourist sort of way, what it is to be nourished, and to be hungry. Walking down the street this morning, I felt a wave of gratitude for this lemonade, which really is a lifeline. In the Jewish tradition, we have all kinds of gratitude-practices for food -- blessings before and after, dietary laws, special recipes -- but it often takes a lot of work to really feel the emotions behind the ritual. But when you're hungry, it's easy. Of course, I understand that this is a privileged, touristic visit to the world of hunger; unlike people who are actually starving, all I need to do is open my fridge and eat some of the veggies rotting inside. I'm not claiming I really know what it's like to not know where your next meal is coming from. But there is still something to feeling, literally in your bones, that life hangs by the thread of this little bottle of liquid. Somehow that is easier, more tangible, than some more abstract and diffused notion of "I depend on food for my existence," or blessing God for providing sustenance.

I also learned today that I'm more disciplined than I give myself credit for. I recently counted a total of seven different careers that I'm trying to pursue at once. I have trouble saying no, and staying on task when Microsoft makes it so easy to alt-tab to something else. But on the listserv of the group of us doing the cleanse together, one person admitted she'd cheated on her cleanse by eating a donut, and another said that he was changing his plans entirely. (To be fair to the donut-eater, she'd been victimized by police harassment at the Empire Roller Rink in Brooklyn; the donut was a quite forgivable consolation.) I realized that, short of a serious health problem -- which I thought I might've had this morning -- there's almost no way I'm going to break the practice to which I'd committed. It feels good to assert some control. Of course, I'm aware that assertion of control is one of the reasons psychologists say many people begin eating disorders. But this feels more benign. I'm on a journey, one whose end is not so far off, and despite the allures of Louisiana Crunch Cake, I'm glad I'm sticking with it.

 

P.S. I don't really like Louisiana Crunch Cake that much. I just saw it in the Rite-Aid.

I feel like Oprah Winfrey. 48 hours without food, and I must've dropped five pounds already. More, probably -- I don't actually own a scale. And all this with only slight mental discombobulation, a few confused numbers and lapses of cognitive function? Sign me up.

Actually, I found out today that Beyonce Knowles and Robin Quivers (of Howard Stern fame) have each done the Master Cleanse, which I started yesterday morning. First Kabbalah and now this -- it seems like each New Age path I pursue has already been trod by a diva. Is this a gay thing?

The Master Cleanse Lemonade It is remarkable, really, how little nutrition we really need to survive. I love food; though I keep kosher and thus restrict my diet somewhat, within those bounds I'm an amateur gourmet. I cook French, South American, Southeast Asian; I eat out a lot. But I've always assumed that at the heart of my gastronomic adventures lies a basic human need: to be fed. But aside from a few moments of fatigue -- most of which are attributable to not religiously drinking my Cayenne/Maple Lemonade; if I stop drinking for half an hour, I start to get woozy -- I've really been doing fine. Yes, my sex drive is down, I'm not running around Central Park, and I start to fade around 8:00 in the evening, but hours can go by without my even noticing that the fast is happening.

I should say a little more about the Master Cleanse, and about my motivations; I don't want to give the impression that it's purely adventure on my part. The Master Cleanse, in the form I'm following it, was pioneered in 1976 by alternative health pioneer Stanley Burroughs. It is mostly about purging the body from toxins, and there are all kinds of New Agey theories about how that works and why it's important. But as anyone who's ever fasted on Yom Kippur knows, depriving the body of nutrition also affects the mind and heart, and this is where, for me, it begins to get more interesting. I find that when I fast, there's less energy for multitasking, lots of rational thought, anxiety, and running around. I become more patient, more yielding. I literally can't be bothered. And many other people report insights, openings, even realizations. This is really why a lot of people, to some extent myself included, go to all this effort. At least on the level of the mind, it does work.

As with psychedelics, going without food can also bring on a side-show of hallucinations and visions, though I've never fasted long enough to see any. But, as with psychedelics, the main event is not the bells and whistles but the shifting of the mind that takes place when it's not so easily carried away by ephemera of scheduling and plans. Simply put, I find that I like myself more when I'm fasting, and, in addition to the curiosity I described in yesterday's entry, I am partly doing this to experiment with being the kindler, gentler Jay for an extended period. Meditation is still my primary path -- I find seven days of silent retreat more emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually clarifying (not the same thing as deluding, exciting, relaxing, or inspiring -- here's an article I wrote on that subject a couple ofyears ago) than just about anything else I know. But I am interested in exploring some of that usefully altered state within my ordinary life.

Even during last week's run-up to the Master Cleanse, it was clear to me that exotic nutritional practices are scarcely different from obsessive eating disorders. Are my adzuki beans both organic and locally grown? Has my distilled spring water absorbed toxins from its plastic bottle? It's really exactly like kashrut, another borderline-OCD food behavior which requires equal parts diligence and chilling out -- or maybe unequal parts. As with kashrut, I found myself judging people for eating unhealthily (i.e., normally), giving myself guilt over little slips of discipline, and exceeding the advice even of my nutritionist, who, to her credit, is quite accepting of little indulgences.

In the last two days, the distinction between myself and the normally eating world has grown more stark. I'm not just keeping vita-kosher; I've become a vita-monk. And so I've become less tempted by, and judgmental of, the ordinary world. I did have to go to a cocktail party last night (my editor at the Forward just launched her new book), and I felt a bit melancholy walking across Central Park during picnic season. But in general, this rather total renunciation is easier than being of the world, but apart from it. And it's not like I'm living in a cave. Today, I took my nephew to the park to play football, drove up to my house upstate to check in on some renovation work, and even had a long conversation with my editor here at Jewcy over an essay I'm told is being published tomorrow. I'm just not eating anything.

There's more to say, but I need to leave something for tomorrow. Besides, do you really want to hear about the effects of a "Salt Water Flush" laxative?

Maybe you do, and maybe I'll tell you. Or maybe not. Tune in tomorrow.

What happens when a New York overachiever goes without food for a week, consuming only a concoction of lemonade and cayenne pepper, and venturing into the often wacko world of the holistic health subculture?

Well, I -- and you, reader -- am going to find out. Today is the first day of my weeklong (six days really, on the seventh, after my labors, I will rest) "Master Cleanse," which I'm doing under the supervision of a holistic nutritionist based here in Manhattan. I'm already hungry as I write this. But the truth is, I'm excited. I travel a fair amount, but I'm primarily a tourist of my own body and mind. I love altered mind-states and body-states. I've run a marathon, sat a six-week-long silent meditation retreat, experienced "full body orgasm" at Body Electric, and ventured into a number of unusual states of consciousness. It's what I like to do, and I even wrote a book about it (God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness, and Embodied Spiritual Practice, published a few months ago.) Obviously, this kind of play can easily get out of hand, and I'm careful not to let it, but at the end of the day it boils down to a simple question: with only a few decades of life, why restrict oneself to one narrow band of the range of human possibility?

And yet, somehow, whether because of my hyper-rational Jewish upbringing (Yale Law School! Yeshiva!) or just because I'm stubborn, I haven't (yet) succumbed to the sort of New Age weirdness one often meets in these byways of the spirit. Well, maybe I have sometimes. But I don't believe in crystal healing, or the Law of Attraction, or that angels are sitting on my shoulders. I didn't believe in "energy" until I experienced it myself, on multiple occasions. And who knows what I think about God.

Maybe my skepticism is, itself, my motivation. I'm just so damn curious. Friends of mine have done cleanses, and I've spent time with them while they've done them, and I want to see what happens. What's it like? How does the mind shift after five days of near fasting? What happens to the body? Oh, and losing some weight and feeling rejuvenated for springtime wouldn't hurt either.

The whole process of my cleanse actually takes three weeks, and began just over a week ago. My nutritionist is not from the hard-core school. We've been working gradually, every couple of days taking a few things out of our diets, and putting a few things back in. For me, the first things out were caffeine, trans fats, and packaged, processed foods. (I really do like pop tarts, and sugary breakfast cereal too.) Then went alcohol, sugar, and meat, followed by dairy, heavily cooked foods, and anything with wheat. For the last couple of days, I've basically been on a raw foods diet, eating uncooked fruits and vegetables, plus the occasional steamed greens.

At the same time as we've taken foods out, we've put other foods in. In the last week, I've eaten more new things than in the last two years. Kombu and kuzu, flax seeds and millet, and of course, the Green Powder, a dehydrated concoction containing, the "Vibrant Health" box says, 18 billion probiotics from 8 different strains, and roughly 100 ingredients ranging from astralagus extract to Wild harvested Bladderwrack (sounds painful; I have no idea what it is, but I'm not making it up). The Green Powder gets the most stares -- I was at a big, mainstream conference on "Inclusion in the Jewish Community" (in one of my careers, I direct a GLBT Jewish organization called Nehirim) last week and, when I dumped the large pile of green dust into my orange juice, the waitress at the hotel restaurant literally stopped in her tracks and stared at me until I took a sip of the algae-hued beverage. And for someone who is never a Food Fascist (you know, those vegan types who glare when there's no gluten-free pasta on the menu), I've had to rely on the patience of my friends at shabbat dinners and social gatherings.

But overall, the past week has really been... cleansing. I don't miss the foods I've given up, and have enjoyed learning about the new ones I've put in. Since my nutritionist is a "holistic" one, we're putting in not just actual foods but anything that nourishes us, including massage, going to a steam room, and scheduling more time to relax -- it's been like a mini-vacation. And after a week of eating lots of greens and no toxins, I do actually feel less tired, and my skin looks better. I went for a run yesterday, and felt lighter than usual.

Of course, all this could be psychosomatic. And although cleaning out the digestive tract is, in general, a good thing, there isn't hard scientific data that the Master Cleanse has any major benefit -- just a lot of anecdotes. Well, here's one anecdote more, recorded as it happens. I'm now going to walk into the kitchen, squeeze some lemons, and make my first Master Cleanse lemonade. Back in a moment...

Hmm -- not bad. 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (I'm borrowing a friend's juicer), 1/2 a tablespoon of maple syrup, and 1/10 of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, mixed into 8 ounces of water. I'm sure I'll be sick of this soon, since I'm to drink this, and only this, 8-12 times per day for the next six days. It's spicy -- a tenth of a teaspoon of cayenne sure goes a long way. I wonder if I can cheat and put in extra maple syrup.

See you tomorrow!

I promise I’m not a prude, but I’ve always thought single sex gyms make a lot of sense. You’re sweaty and gross and trying to focus on various muscle groups—and if you’re not being ogled by some random guy in jogging shorts you’re ogling the shirtless guy lifting weights. The hormones are literally in the air, and there’s that weird competitive vibe, too. Gyms are, by definition, immodest, so it’s not hard to believe that the ultra-Orthodox community hasn’t been interested in them until recently. But now, things are changing.
The Kosher Gym in Brooklyn: Oh so heimishe
In Brooklyn, you can go to the Kosher Gym on Coney Island Ave for a “professional, though heimishe, environment” to work out. There are separate facilities for men and women (yay!), personal training, babysitting, and a Torah Tape library where you can borrow recorded lectures from a variety of rabbis. The Torah Tape library is especially important when you consider that the KosherGym doesn’t have any televisions lest you catch sight of the secular world or a soap opera while you run on the treadmill.

I’ll admit, when I’m at the gym I allow myself to read trashy magazines and watch E! so I’m not sure I’d be happy at KosherGym, but the next time I’m in Jerusalem I really want to check out their version, also called Kosher Gym, although I don’t think the companies are related. The Israeli Kosher Gym puts a more Jewish spin on their atmosphere, bragging that “Not only is the ‘Kosher Gym' a flash of color in the monochrome Givat Shaul neighborhood, but it has also brought an energy boost to the religious community at large.” They also remind us that, “At Kosher gym, we don't only cater to the fitness of your body - we worry about the well-being of your soul too.”

I can’t decide if that’s creepy or cool. The Israeli Kosher Gym was just written up in the Jerusalem Post, and the article is full of more things that straddle the awesome/awkward fence, like a personal trainer talking about how she works with women to help strengthen their lower back and pelvic floor “which tend to weaken after several births.” It quotes a member who has ten children, and ends with a different trainer talking about how at the Kosher Gym women aren’t working out to get rockin’ abs and a killer ass, “They really want to be healthier. When someone is working to get a perfect body, no matter what her motivation is, eventually she'll become competitive and angry at not reaching her goal. That doesn't happen here. Here you'll find a greater emotional completeness.”

I’m not sure if I believe that. Just because you’re living under a snood and a mountainous velvet dress doesn’t mean you can’t be vain. But it does sound like the Kosher Gym crowd is a lot less likely to judge based on size, certainly in the women’s section, where most of the clientele is pregnant or gave birth recently. I wonder how many pregnant women go to the “eastern dance” (read: bellydancing) class.

Mostly I just think it’s great that the frum community is encouraging fitness.

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

In other healthful diet news, a North Carolina scientist has figured out a way of processing a cup's worth of coffee into baked goods (doughnuts, bagels) minus the traditional bitter coffee aftertaste. So what now? We go into a Starbucks and order a double shot of muffin? Oh, wait...

These Might Be Harmful To Your HealthIsrael has developed a new patent- a chip to be attached to surgical instruments to insure that random scalpels don't get "forgotten" inside a patient's body:

Researchers discovered that doctors "forget" surgical instruments in patients' bodies once in 1500 surgeries, an “oversight” which causes complications, repeated surgeries and even death.

By attaching the chip to a surgical instrument, the surgeon would be able to track it at any given moment on a huge screen inside the operating room.

"Up until now, instruments used to be counted, thereby increasing chance of errors," said Rubi Helbertal, CEO of Haldor, the company that developed the new chip.