Healthy Eating, Part 1

Let me preface by saying that 99% of the world’s population don’t eat properly. In other words, they have unhealthy eating habits, eat foods that are detrimental to their physical, mental, and spiritual health, and don’t even know why they’re eating. With Hashem’s help, this mini-series will give the key to healthy eating. There’s nothing in the world like healthy eating that can make such a dramatic improvement in your appearance, your health, your mood, and in your ability to function at your best.

Keep in mind that we eat not only for the benefit of our body, but for the benefit of our soul as well. Most people are unaware of this critical fact, and that’s where they get tripped up. Hashem didn’t give us our bodies as a source of pleasure. Western society’s preoccupation with pleasure seeking and appetite fulfillment is what leads to a destruction of body and soul. Any naturopathic doctor or knowledgeable and honest medical practitioner will tell you that disease and illness stems from improper and unhealthy eating. There’s both a physiological and spiritual side to this statement. That’s why our great sage Maimonides – who was a magnificent physician as well – said over 800 years ago that he’s willing to guarantee a person good health if he or she eats in the healthy manner that’s prescribed by our sages. In this respect, we’ll take a look at healthy eating from a spiritual standpoint and from a practical physical standpoint.

Rebbe Nachman of Breslev placed a strong emphasis on healthy eating, and wrote several discourses on the subject, the most important of which appears in the first section of Likutei Moharan, Torah 47. Rebbe Nachman elaborates on a passage that the prophet Yoel said in Chapter 2, verse 26, “And you will eat, eating and be satisfied, and you will praise the Name of Hashem.” The prophet Yoel is telling us that once Mashiach comes and we’ll all have heightened spiritual awareness, we’ll eat and be satisfied. He means that we will eat for the purpose of giving proper nourishment to our bodies and souls, and not for the purpose of lustful appetite. That’s healthy eating in a nutshell.

Let’s define lustful eating: Lustful eating means that we eat for enjoyment and to satiate our bodily appetites with no regard to our spiritual and physical health. Lustful eating is the opposite of healthy eating. According to the Rambam, it’s the #1 cause of all disease, even the nasty big C, the disease that won’t don’t even like to mention by name. Lustful eating also creates an iron curtain between a person and Hashem. So, a person can’t possibly get close to Hashem until he or she overcomes their lust for eating. These are not my words, but the words of Rebbe Nachman of Breslev.

In Torah 47, Rebbe Nachman says: “One who is entrenched in the lust for eating is far from the truth, and severe judgments hover over him. This is also indicative of impending penury. Such a person will also suffer disparagement and humiliation.” Rebbe Nachman continues to explain that all this negative – far from the truth, severe judgments, penury, and disparagement – are all the result of a lack of Divine light, for Hashem turns His countenance away from a person that eats with lust.

A person asks, what’s the big deal? Why does Hashem turn away from somebody that drinks a coke and eats a pizza, and I’m talking about glatt kosher coke and pizza! When the lust for eating brings a person to eating forbidden foods, the situation is much worse.

The answer is simple. Our bodies are designed to be subservient to our souls. A body without a soul is a lifeless pile of useless, decaying organic waste. Our souls are our life force. The body is a housing for the soul and a vehicle to enable the soul to accomplish its mission on this earth, namely, to get to know Hashem and to correct its blemishes. When our eating is oriented toward bodily gratification, the soul suffers and Hashem turns away. When the body becomes flabby, lazy, hypertensive, diabetic, and arthritic, the soul suffers and Hashem turns away. The soul therefore has no interest in continental breakfasts of coffee and donuts, nor in junk food, white sugar, loads of salt and MSG, or in snack foods. The palate and the lust for eating want another piece of cake, but the body and the soul pay the price.

Now here’s the good news: Rebbe Nachman teaches that a person who breaks the yoke of lustful eating can be a miracle worker. The Rebbe says it more than once in Torah 47. So many people have dire problems with health and income – if they’d only change their eating habits, they’d see enormous miracles. Here’s how:

If lustful eating blocks Divine light, then overcoming lustful eating brings Hashem to shine His Countenance on a person. The Gemara in tractate Berachot quotes the priestly blessing, “May H shine His countenance upon you.” If we limit our eating both in quality and in quantity as to what we need for the health of our bodies in order to serve Hashem, then Hashem shines His countenance on us.

At this point, the Yetzer Hara (IE) wakes up, puts a shtreimel on his head, and starts quoting Torah: The Yetzer says, “Look at the Torah – it says in Chumash Devorim, chapter 8 verse 10: ואכלת ושבעת וברכת  – ‘You shall eat and be satiated, and you shall bless Hashem’ – you don’t bless Hashem until you’re full! Go have another piece of corned beef or schmaltz herring and grab another bagel too. Don’t worry about the calories – you can drink Diet Coke!”