Someone made a comment at the Food Conference that ‘ethnic foods’ were unhealthy; take your pick between Italian (heavy sauces), Indian (full of butter), Chinese (high fat & sugar content), and nobody’s national dish is particularly good for you. Nigel countered this with an important distinction: what we think of as “typical” cuisine from other countries is often, in that country, reserved for special occasions, whereas we eat it any (and sometimes every) night of the week. Couple that with the fact that when we eat out we’re likely to eat more than we are hungry for, and still have dessert–and yes, eating special occasion food all the time IS bad for you. It’s the equivalent of having a Thanksgiving-type meal four or five nights a week.I hadn’t really thought about this before. Our culture assigns different kinds of foods and meals to different kinds of occasions, and more and more, the category of ’simple sustenance’ is giving way. Food plays a lot of different roles in our lives, and its importance for feasts, festivals, gatherings, important occasions cannot be understated. But in terms of what we need to stay healthy, our bodies require much less than society would like to feed it. We risk numbing ourselves by excess (not to mention getting fat, encouraging overproduction of our farmland, and increasing the disparity between this country and most of the rest of the world).

I do it all the time — I ‘treat’ myself. If I’m feeling sad, or stressed, or I woke up late, or even if I just happen to be biking past the bakery that gives a 50% discount on all its pastries if you arrive by bicycle (how do you turn that down!?)–I buy something yummy to get me through the day. But when I stop to tally up the week– the ‘treat’ hot chocolate, muffin, pastry, carrot cake… I’ve eaten something like that nearly every day.

It’s not really a treat any more. And if someone is coming in to visit — we go out for a meal. Or I’m excited to see my partner, and we make plans to go out. Or I simply don’t feel like cooking, so it’s buckets of chinese food from the corner restaurant, bliss of chopsticks and garlic sauce. More often than not, I’m eating something ’special’.

What then do you eat on a really special occasion? I’m thinking about Shabbat. I like celebrating Shabbat with food. I love the Fridays when I leave work, with no other task to think about other than going to the Farmer’s Market to buy food, going home to cook it, and spending the evening eating, talking and singing with friends. A big meal with lots of people means you can make many different dishes, your plate overflows with salad and sauces–and whether you revel in mixing all your foods together as I do, or you keep your courses neatly separate, it is delightful to eat a lot, to eat well, to celebrate good food and good company.

But how much the more so if we didn’t eat like this all the time! How much more would I appreciate the chocolate cake if I wasn’t eating a brownie three days a week? I am resistant to diets and rules and restricting myself, but I’m realizing that by setting boundaries, I am actually freeing myself up to enjoy celebrations much more than if I have no rules, and eat whatever I want, whenever I want to. Healthy is not just what you eat, it’s how, and how much, and to what end. So I offer another way to think about setting Shabbat apart from the rest of the week: in this case, it’s not what we do ON Shabbat that makes it special, but what we DON’T do on the other days of the week that can help us eat - and live - more healthily. I think I might give it a go.

Shabbat Shalom.