A Kosher Complaint

Here is a little truism: nothing will change until people make it change. Those companies that specifically produce kosher products under "good" hashgochas have absolutely no reason to make changes in those products as long as kosher consumers keep buying their products without complaint.

Up to date nutritional information is available at everyone's fingertips. We can't claim a lack of information. Why, then, do those "kosher" companies still use coconut oil and palm oil in all their cookie and snack products? The shelves in our grocery stores do not have products marked "low fat," or darned few of them. Check out the sodium and sugar content of the strictly kosher products. Check out the cholesterol content. Check out the vitamin content.

For years the general public has had available 1% milk--Check out the label on the "green" milk and discover that our version is 1-1/2% milk, not 1% milk. For years a fortified non-fat plus milk has been available to the general public. Not in the chalav yisroel milks. Low-fat and non-fat cheeses and cheese products have been around for years, except in the chalav yisroel products.

I've heard the complaint that the few low fat products that are around don't taste as good as the regular products do. So is the answer to use the higher fat, less nutritionally sound products? Or is the answer to complain until the kosher producers get things right in the flavor but provide us with healthier products?

I'll admit that I don't have statistics in front of me to back up what I'm about to say, but observation and logic will support my guesses. Heart disease and strokes are more likely prevalent in the frum community then in the outside community--and the frummer you get the more likely the problem. Those kosher consumers who use products under the various kashrus organizations, such as the OU and Star K and Chaf K, the products that are sold in regular supermarkets and to the general public, have available to them better choices then those consumers who buy strictly the kosher-only brands. The "stricter" your level of kashrus, the worse your ingestion of things not good for you.

The more machmir you are about contact with the outside world, the more you remove yourself from general newspapers, magazines, television news programs, the Internet etc., the less likely you are to know about advances in nutrition and health care. The various Jewish presses have become only slightly better about offering some "healthy eating" tips to their readers. They sadly lag behind the general media.

I asked my local bakery who buys the whole grain fresh bread products that are for sale. The owner thought about it and said "the more "modern" consumers." I asked why he did not have more of a variety of whole grain products available. His answer? No interest on the part of those buying. And then he added this. He is a "concession" bakery--he brings in his products from Borough Park. He can only get what they produce, and they produce very little of the "better" products.

Our children already suffer from a lack of planned and regular exercise in the yeshivot they attend. "Gym" gets eliminated to make way for more learning. The day is already so long and no one seems to consider that physical exercise on a regular basis is just as important a "subject" as all the others. Recess periods get shorter and shorter. And then look at what these children bring for their "snack time" twice a day. The school canteens rarely if ever sell fresh fruit--they stock up on all the high calorie, high fat packaged snacks and candy. They offer sodas for sale. What are we doing to our children?

As girls hit the pre-teen and teen years they become very self conscious about physical image, the boys less so. They begin to eschew those high calorie snacks. Do they replace them with nutritionally sound products? Not many of them. They know they need "less" but they aren't getting sound nutritional education in school, or at home. They begin "dieting" in earnest. It is unfortunately not a joke, but when a biology teacher in a girls high school asked if anyone knew what the "food pyramid" was more than one girl answered "must be a place in Egypt."

There is a doctor in Brooklyn who specializes in eating disorders. His estimate is that over 2/3 of his patients come from the frum community. And he doesn't get those patients until things have really gotten bad. He once offered to set up a program on eating right to present in the girls high schools. Not one school took him up on the offer.

The place to start is with each individual consumer. Learn to read the required nutrition labels on all the products. Compare the labels. Refuse to buy what contains ingredients that have been proven to cause health problems. Complain to the groceries and then don't buy. Write to the manufacturers. The more letters they get, the more phone calls, the less they will be able to say "No one cares about that." Become an activist--get your friends to complain as well. And keep at it--change takes time and effort.

Educate yourself about what you eat. You just might be saving your life and the lives of your family members. Kosher producers like to say that they are providing a service to the kosher community. No, they are not. They are selling a product to make money. Just what kind of a "favor" are they doing for us?