Beware: The Expanding Succoth Waistline

September 28, 2023 by Lazer Brody

Shabbat, Yomtov and Chol HaMoed feature heavy meals daily. Succah-snacking goes on the intermittently all day long for a week. Don’t forget that a minute on the lips is a year on the hips, if you’re not careful. That’s why this post is so vital before the upcoming week of Succoth.

The advice here, if you follow it, will aid your health and save you from needless holiday weight-gain.

Parenthetically, I don’t believe in dieting of any kind – a person who learns how to live and maintain a healthy lifestyle doesn’t need to diet.

“If you’re looking for the best way to mold your eating habits, try what I call ‘Ivri’, eating just the way our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did.”

Most diets are unhealthy fads that lead to short-term, unhealthy weight loss and long-term frustration, metabolic and/or nutritional imbalance. Ultimately, they also trigger ailments of all kinds and a return to weight gain. The extremes begin with Paleo/Primal on one end that tells you to eat all the meat and fat you want but stay away from carbs. The other end is total vegan that tells you that an egg, sardine or chicken breast will kill you, Heaven forbid.

No extreme approach is in accordance with Torah and the Rambam’s timeless advice on nutrition. But, let’s save that discussion for another time. If you’re looking for the best way to mold your eating habits, try what I call “Ivri”, eating just the way our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did. That means eating foods as close to the way Hashem created them, with no interference from food manufacturers and genetic modifiers. With that said, let’s talk about Succoth…

Succoth and Overeating

In Judaism, Succoth is the annual “joy harvest”, where we gather happiness for an entire year. The problem is that with multiple daily festive meals, visiting friends and relatives in their Succahs and partying all week long, most people gather pounds in addition to the joy. And, the excess weight eats away at the joy…

Today’s Beams health & fitness advice might save you from adding five pounds and a whole inch to your waistline this Succoth. None of us want to go the route of gaining needless weight, so let’s do a little holiday-eve preparation with this food for thought:

The perennial post-holiday problem of many suffer from is the added calories, pounds, flab, and cholesterol of a week of eating and rejoicing in the Succah. As lazerbeams.com is committed to the health of body, mind, and soul, we’ve composed a few vital guidelines to combat the expanding Succoth waistline. Beware of these nutritional land mines:

Empty Calories:

Empty calories come from nutrient-scant foods, especially manufactured products, fast food and junk food. Stick to what I call nutrient-dense foods, where you get the most nutrients from each calorie consumed. Here, the winners are fresh vegetables, fresh foods and naturally dried (not roasted or salted) seeds and nuts. Nutrient-scant foods (cakes, pastries, sweets, soft drinks and liquor) are outright dangerous to the body.

Cakes:

Many people want to make a blessing on the Succah every time they enter it. But, one really shouldn’t make a blessing unless he eats something. For that reason, many folks eat cake (“mezonos”, at a minimum amount of a little over and ounce) so they can say the Leshev B’Succah blessing, the blessing to sit in the Succah. If a person eats 2 ounces of cake 3 times a day, that adds another 840 calories to his daily intake. The Melitzer Rebbe shlit’a says that one should make a Leshev B’Succah blessing only when eating a proper meal that includes washing your hands and breaking bread.

No need to eat cake for the purpose of making a blessing to sit in the Succah. If a person eats 3 average-sized portions of cake a day for the 9 (outside of Israel, 8 in Israel) days of the Succoth/Simchat Torah holiday, he’ll gain more than two pounds. We suggest eating sliced fresh carrots or sliced green apples instead of the cake. If you have a sweet tooth, eat a portion of grapes or a Majool date filled with a dried almond.

Liquor:

Many people make a Lechayim (toast) every time they visit the Succah of a friend and relative. In Israel, quite a few people that barely touch alcoholic beverages all year long keep them on hand to serve guests, and end up toasting glass-per-glass with the guest. A one-ounce shot of vodka or 86-proof Whiskey is 70 calories, while an ounce of a 72-proof liqueur such as Kahlua or Banana Liqueur is a hefty 117 calories. 3 Lechayims a day is enough to pick up another half pound during the week of the holiday.

Adding that to the cakes (see above), you’ve already gained 2.5 pounds during Succoth. Putting the weight on is so much easier than taking it off. If you still want a lechayim, try a glass of dry red wine, preferably with an alcohol content of 14% or below. Dry red wine, especially the dark red varieties from Israel, are full of fantastic antioxidants that are great for the heart, lower LDL cholesterol and help keep you slim. G-d willing, we’ll do a separate post on the subject of dry red wine in the near future. Just remember, the Rambam reminds us that even healthy food and drink should not exceed moderate levels.

Sweet Beverages:

Succoth is a time when parents allow the Cola and soft drinks flow freely all week long. Now hear this – an 8-ounce glass of Coke Classic is a whopping 97 calories, just as caloric as the equivalent amount of beer or of a slice and a half of bread. A person that drinks 6 glasses of cola a day will gain almost a pound on Succoth, plus wreck his/her teeth and gall bladder in the process. We suggest that you reach for the mineral water, sparkling water, or herb tea instead, for they have zero caloric value and no added chemicals. With that in mind, if you don’t want to fill your body full of substances that are detrimental to it, stay away from diet drinks.

Snacks:

People like to munch in the Succah. We all know that you can’t eat one Frito or potato chip – therefore, those plastic bags empty fast. One ounce of fritos, potato chips, or our Bamba and Bisli add another 160 calories to your calorie-galore score. If a person drinks two glasses of cola and consumes two ounces of snack foods a day, he’ll gain over a pound during Succoth. Again, fresh carrot and cucumber sticks are a virtually non-caloric and healthy replacement for the junky snack foods. And, if you want something sweet, try Madjool dates or dark chocolate that’s 85% cocoa or more, but limit yourself to 2 dates or 2 chocolate squares a day.

So, with the cakes, the l’chayims, the cokes and the snacks alone – without the heavy meals that include kugel and fat meats, you’ve already gained close to 5 pounds. And, if you drink diet beverages and use artificial sweeteners, you might not gain the weight but you’ll be likely to suffer from headaches and anxiety.

Takeaway

True, tradition is important; that is, as long as it doesn’t ruin your health.

At the Brody homestead, whole-grained rice, buckwheat groats and quinoa have replaced fried farfel and oil-dripping kugel. We don’t fry, but broil and bake. We eat loads of veggies and fresh fruit, and drink local mineral or sparkling water. Fish and lean poultry have replaced the lamb and veal, and we eat beef sparingly. Dessert is apple or quince compote with no added sugar and a square of 85% (minimum) chocolate. Our bread is home-baked and whole-grain, preferably spelt with minimal yeast.

Our goal should be to control what enters our bodies. Food manufacturers care about making money, not about our health. That’s why we don’t buy their products. Our bodies weren’t designed to digest the myriad of chemical additives and preservatives that they force-feed us.

The Rambam gives an important reminder – don’t eat until you’re full. The stomach resembles a washing machine – if you overload it, it can’t do the laundry. By the same token, an overloaded stomach can’t digest, resulting in indigestion, another common Succoth ailment.

A great way to combat the the expanding Succoth waistline is to walk for 30-60 minutes a day. Better yet, while you’re walking, talk to Hashem in personal prayer. That way, your body gets its exercise and your soul gets its nourishment, that is none other than connecting with Hashem. What could be better? We wish you a happy and healthy Succoth with no indigestion and no expanding waistline, amen.

If you need further advice, feel free to contact us or leave a comment below.

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