Everything's kosher: fitting food for a fit lifestyle - food - Brief Article

Better Nutrition, Sept, 2002 by Esther Hecht

David Lewin is an extra-careful label reader. Not only does he want to provide a healthy lifestyle for his family, he also seeks out products that meet the requirements of Jewish dietary law: kosher health food.

What makes a food or product kosher? "The word `kosher' means proper, appropriate, fit," says Rabbi Shammai Engelmayer of Temple Israel Community Center in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. Only certain animals, fish and fowl are considered kosher. All kosher-slaughtered animals undergo rigorous inspection, and meat and fowl must be thoroughly cleansed of blood. Milk and milk products may not be consumed with meat or fowl.

Animals, fish and birds that prey on others are forbidden, but not a single fruit, vegetable or herb is prohibited. "There's a lesson to be learned there about the kind of people we should be," Engelmayer says.

According to the rabbi, the three most important elements of the kosher dietary laws are "animals that are healthy, a production process that is as clean as possible and a sense in the consumer that even this most basic human action of eating for survival requires thought and care." In the vernacular, "kosher" means any food that doesn't contain forbidden ingredients--lard, for example, in whole-wheat bread.

These elements account for the popular belief that kosher food is cleaner and more healthful than ordinary food, Engelmayer says. Also, E. coli scares and other tainted-meat alarms have sent many consumers in search of kosher meat.

A favorite store of Lewin's is his local organic market in Rockville, Maryland. There he checks labels for kosher certification. Often enough, he finds it.

"In almost any food category, at least one product line is kosher-certified, so keeping kosher doesn't prevent us from having a varied, healthy diet," he says.

Sara Goldstein, of Long Island, New York, has the added requirement of finding kosher foods suitable for her Weight Watchers diet. "I can find them in all food groups," she says.

Not only people like Lewin and Goldstein buy kosher health food. Muslims seek out kosher products because they meet the dietary requirements of Islam. And many other people--regardless of religion--believe that "kosher" is synonymous with "healthy," leading to a growing demand that has manufacturers producing increasing numbers of products for the multibillion dollar kosher food market, says Engelmayer.

One of those manufacturers is Deliciously Slim Natural Foods, Inc., based in Colleyville, Texas. The company was founded three years ago by Alan Singer, who had to switch to a low-carbohydrate diet and discovered that there were no kosher, low-carb protein bars. His answer: kosher Deliciously Slim Low-Carb Protein Bars.

Rudi's Organic Bakery, headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, had been in business for five years in 1981 when the company made its entire line kosher, says founder Sheldon Romer. Now Rudi's--which Romer believes to be the only kosher- and organic-certified bakery in the United States--markets its wide variety of breads throughout the country.

Stamford, Connecticut-based TastyBite Eatables, which manufactures vegan and lacto-vegetarian food in India, obtained kosher certification to meet the demand, says Marketing Manager Alpana Parida.

"I look for kosher meat products--and halal, the Muslim equivalent--when I can't find organic because I know that the production standards are much higher and more humane than regular supermarket brands," says Stephanie Fysh, of Toronto.

Even kosher salt, the coarse-grained variety so named because it's used in preparing kosher meats, seems to have a special aura.

"The taste seems cleaner to me," says Peggy Lee of Guthrie, Oklahoma. "It doesn't have the `chemical taste' that table salt has."

Despite the perception that kosher is healthier, people who observe Jewish dietary laws do so as a matter of faith, "because God said to do so," rather than for health reasons, Engelmayer says.

It's true that many of the practices associated with following Jewish dietary laws--like hand washing before meals, thorough washing of fruits and vegetables and careful inspection of slaughtered meat--promote health, Engelmayer says. But the fact that a dish is prepared in accordance with those laws does not in itself make it healthful. After all, a cholesterol bomb of a cheesecake or a fat-laden mutton stew can be kosher.

Elliot Berry, director of the Department of Human Metabolism and Nutrition at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, in Jerusalem, says he knows of no studies linking a kosher diet with improved health. Rather, it's the accompanying lifestyle, which transforms eating into "a more refined, spiritual experience," that has a salutary effect, says Berry.

Nor does "kosher" mean a style of cooking. Any cuisine can be prepared in accordance with Jewish dietary laws: New York City has Chinese, Japanese, Indian, French, Italian, Moroccan and vegetarian restaurants that are kosher.

As in restaurants, manufacturing kosher health food involves two basic steps, Engelmayer says: a review of all ingredients, including additives, to ensure they aren't derived from non-kosher sources; and on-site supervision that ensures, among other things, that the food-production environment is virtually sterile.