“Food for the Soul: Traditional Jewish Wisdom for Healthy Eating,” by Chana Rubin, Gefen Publishing House, Jerusalem/New York, 2008, paperback, 224 pages, $16.95.
Ex-Portlander publishes cookbook
Recipes for Jewish soul food
By Deborah Moon
Living in Portland from 1992-98, registered dietitian Chana Kaufman founded and operated the Kosher Connection, a gift basket business featuring kosher foods. Now remarried and living in Israel, Chana Rubin has written a book combining her interests in Judaism and nutrition.
“Food for the Soul: Traditional Jewish Wisdom for Healthy Eating,” is an easy-to-read, well-organized look at healthy eating. From the benefits of the moderate consumption of alcohol and dark chocolate to more than 100 traditional recipes adapted for healthy eating, Rubin offers practical tips.
Rubin earned her degree in dietetics at Oregon State University in 1977, moving to Portland after graduation. She worked at the Robison Jewish Home and Neveh Shalom’s Foundation School and taught cooking and nutrition classes. She moved to Chicago for 10 years before returning to Portland in 1992, where she started Kosher Connections.
For the past five years, she and her husband have lived in Beer Sheva, Israel, where she teaches nutrition, sensible eating and healthy cooking.
Following are excerpts from an e-mail interview with Rubin:
Q: The table of contents makes it easy to dip in and look at specific topics. Why did you choose that format?
A: My goal was to make the book easily accessible to a wide audience. I tried to keep the format clear and easy to access. It also is meant to be used as a reference, not just a “straight” read from cover to cover.
Q: Talk about why you wanted to merge your interests as a dietitian with your Judaism.
A: As an observant Jew, I had a natural interest in Jewish thought pertaining to food and health. As a dietitian, I have worked mainly in teaching and preventive nutrition. I saw a special need for nutrition education within the Jewish community: something that would combine modern nutrition from the perspective of traditional Jewish values and wisdom.
Q: Do you think your book (and Jewish tradition) can give non-Jews valuable insight into food and eating behaviors.
A: Yes, I think that Jewish thought on health in general, and food specifically can be helpful to non-Jews as well as Jews. Judaism encourages enjoyment and at the same time moderation in eating. The rules of kashrut have given us a sense of discipline when it comes to eating. We don’t eat everything and it is forbidden to eat things that could impair our health. Maimonides, the great physician and codifier of Jewish law, wrote extensively about diet and its relationship to health. He also stated that if one was not healthy, one could not properly relate to God. From a Jewish perspective there is a definite connection between spiritual and physical health. All people can benefit from this understanding.
Q: Do you think healthy eating is harder to achieve among Ashkenazi Jews who grew up with lots of fat-laden recipes and fried foods as opposed to those from Sephardic traditions involving more fresh vegetables and rice?
A: Overeating is a problem in all of our communities. The Sephardi community has a tradition of serving very large amounts of food, especially on Shabbat and holidays. Fried foods are also common in their diet. Today the Sephardi population has the same health/diet issues as everyone else. But yes, their traditional diet is based on grains, fish and a lot of vegetables—more so than the traditional Eastern European Ashkenazi diet. In fact, it is very similar to the healthy Mediterranean diet. And many of the recipes in my book are influenced by Sephardi cooking.
Q: Does your book address how to make Ashkenazi dishes more healthful?
A: My book discusses how to make all recipes more healthy. For instance, substituting whole grain flour for white flour, reducing the amount of sugar and eliminating trans fats. I myself come from an Ashkenazi background. My book contains many suggestions for altering recipes to make them more healthy. I go into a lot of detail about replacing trans fat, since parve margarine plays such a large role in our baking.