I don’t make it a follow to inform readers what to do. In truth, I’m well-known for providing unsolicited recommendation to family and friends solely. However in gentle of current food-centric holidays similar to Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, along with weekly Shabbat meals, I really feel compelled to increase my benevolent, unsolicited recommendation to readers as nicely.
Over time, I’ve noticed that Jews worldwide partake in sure food-related practices which might be unhealthy, if not downright harmful. Listed here are 5 which might be notably ubiquitous:
The Dreaded Washing Cup
Jews love to make use of communal washing cups at kosher eating places, synagogues and at house. You already know the sort—they’re normally made from silver, nevertheless rusted, or plastic, and used earlier than one consumes bread. The water is poured 3 times over every hand, and a blessing (“Netilat Yadayim”) is recited. What lives on the handles or on the backside of these washing cups is anybody’s guess. In preparation for a future column, I’m going to swab washing cups from half a dozen native kosher eating places and drop them off to a good friend who works in a laboratory at UCLA. I can’t wait to find what thrilling specimens to which native Jews expose their fingers earlier than consuming a pleasant, juicy burger.
I don’t know if it’s halachically permissible, however I motive that I may be of extra service to God if I’m not sick each different week.
The answer? At house, at all times wash the within and out of doors of the washing cup with cleaning soap and water at the very least as soon as every week. I at all times ask eating places for a disposable cup. In case you’re too shy to ask a number for a special cup, wash your fingers with cleaning soap after utilizing the washing cup. If nothing disposable is accessible, I merely put my fingers underneath the tap. I don’t know if it’s halachically permissible, however I motive that I may be of extra service to God if I’m not sick each different week.
The Gradual-Cooked Plastic Bag
In terms of cooking for Shabbat, Jews love to make use of the gradual cooker. It’s equally true for Ashkenazim and their cholent as it’s for Sephardim or Mizrahim and their hamin or dafina. I like North African dafina, full with chunks of tender meat, eggs, bulgur, rice and potatoes. The bulgur or rice, nevertheless, are virtually at all times cooked in a single day in a plastic bag. How is any plastic secure for a gradual cooker that mainly boils meals at a low temperature for almost 15 hours? Ashkenazim love their plastic baggage in gradual cookers as nicely. In most synagogues that serve a large pot of cholent for the Shabbat kiddush meal following morning companies, the underside of the gradual cooker is fully wrapped in an enormous plastic liner to make clean-up as simple as doable.
The issue is that almost all plastics include BPA (bisphenol A), and those who declare to be constituted of heat-resistant nylon resins, similar to Crock-Pot liners, can nonetheless leak chemical substances into meals. A report from the U.S. Nationwide Library of Drugs revealed that nylon liners can leak many substances, together with cyclopentanone, octadecane, heptadecane and 2-cyclopentyl cyclopentanone. Synagogues particularly have to be extra cautious. Nothing says “Love your Jewish brothers and sisters” like including boiled plastic to their food plan as soon as every week.
The answer? Both skip no matter particular person merchandise is contained in the plastic bag, whether or not bulgur, rice, or kishka, or, dare I say it, have rather less cholent. Sure, it’s a painful thought, however it’s higher than ingesting cyclopentanone, octadecane, heptadecane and 2-cyclopentyl cyclopentanone.
The Melted Serving Spoon
Alongside the identical traces as slowly cooking plastic, I cringe every time a Shabbat host or synagogue provides a scrumptious bowl of boiling-hot meals, full with an affordable, plastic serving spoon that’s little doubt been immersed within the sizzling meals for hours. It occurs most on the sizzling meals part of kosher supermarkets, the place the identical giant, plastic serving spoons are saved inside boiling sizzling containers of all the things from stews to rice and greens from the time the market opens till the time it closes.
“Plastic serving utensils shouldn’t be utilized in sizzling meals, notably above 158°F,” Michael Tanenbaum, a dietary well being author and editor-in-chief of ConsciouslyKosher.com, instructed the Journal. “At that temperature, their chemical elements, known as oligomers, begin to break down, releasing their toxins into your meals. Sadly, these substances are harmful even in small quantities.”
The answer? Use wooden or stainless-steel serving spoons at house. It’s troublesome to inform your host what to do, except you purchase her or him a stunning set of steel serving spoons. Even then, there’s no assure that they’ll be used. As for the synagogue, you may very well must buy wooden utensils and provide them as a present to the kitchen workers. The toughest promote will probably be to the great individuals behind the recent meals part of supermarkets. You’re higher off arriving on the retailer with your individual small pitchfork, although I can’t assure that you just gained’t be stopped by suspicious safety guards who may discover one thing pointy in your purse or pocket. Both means, you’ll have a great story to inform over Shabbat.
I’ll Take My Aluminum Effectively-Cooked
Have you ever ever observed how aluminum foil, when uncovered to sufficient warmth, begins turning a wholesome shade of black? If Jews are obsessive about something, particularly throughout Shabbat, it’s aluminum, whether or not aluminum pans or wrapping all the things—and I imply all the things—in aluminum foil. I get it. Aluminum pans are a lot simpler as a result of they’re disposable and stackable, and nothing seals meals higher than foil.
“The aluminum could leach into the meals it’s cooked in. The extra acidic the meals, the larger the leaching downside,” stated Tanenbaum. “The worst meals to wrap in foil are those who include lemon, juice, tomato sauce, vinegar or citric acid. Moreover, the longer the meals are uncovered to the aluminum, the extra leaching happens.”
The answer to aluminum is simple: wrap meals (or cowl serving dishes) in a number of layers of unbleached parchment paper—the brown type—after which, if nonetheless wanted, cowl with foil. “Make sure you search for unbleached parchment paper, because the bleached model accommodates poisonous dioxins as a part of the bleaching course of,” added Tanenbaum. Unbleached parchment paper can simply be discovered on-line or at most shops, together with Goal.
Tea for Two, with Petroleum
Jews like to make “l’chaims,” or toasts, whether or not at engagement events, Torah courses, brit milahs, weddings, Shabbat meals, and even post-Shabbat meals. And nothing is simpler than utilizing wax or styrofoam cups, whether or not for whiskey photographs or boiling sizzling tea or espresso. Styrofoam is a petrochemical. That’s the very last thing we would like in our our bodies once we make a “L’Chaim!” to life. Equally, wax melts into sizzling liquids, even when we are able to’t see it. A examine from the Indian Institute of Expertise discovered that 25,000 micron-sized particles are launched into sizzling drinks which might be poured into such cups.
In case you actually need to make a reputation for your self, journey with your individual mug.
The answer to the cup conundrum just isn’t so easy. Synagogues and occasions areas can’t change to more healthy choices, similar to compostable cups or BPA-free ones, as a result of they’re far more costly. The most effective factor to do is to keep away from sizzling drinks in wax, plastic or styrofoam cups. In case you actually need to make a reputation for your self, journey with your individual mug. Fortunately, it could double as a clear different to a communal washing cup in case you’re going to eat bread and have to rinse water over your fingers. Nobody ever stated Jews weren’t revolutionary.
Tabby Refael is a Los Angeles-based author, speaker, and civic motion activist. Observe her on Twitter @RefaelTabby
