Tapping Judaism for fresh start on losing weight

Cholent on Shabbat day. Brisket on Rosh Hashanah. Matzo balls and challah — lots of challah. Jews love food, and much of Jewish culture centers on sitting around the Shabbat yom tov table together, sharing stories and a meal.

“The Rambam advises that we recognize that which is permitted to us and put boundaries around that,” explains Rabbi Eli Glaser, a certified nutrition, wellness and weight management consultant who founded the health and wellness consulting company Soveya. 

“Surrendering to self-indulgence and gluttony — even within that which is technically permissible — is a considered degenerate with the permission of the Torah,” he said.

A report published in 2013 by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington found that the highest proportion of overweight and obese people — 13 percent of the global total — live in the United States, a country which accounts for only 5 percent of the world’s population. A 2005 study by the Israel Center for Disease Control found that obesity rates in Israel are high, too, and becoming comparable to those in the United States.

Rabbi Glaser, a contributing writer on Aish.com, embarked on a journey about a decade ago to lose 125 pounds. He is among a growing number of Jews who are tackling health and wellness  — particularly obesity — through a Jewish lens. He educates about the Torah perspective on protecting our health, as well as inspires and motivates audiences to take steps toward establishing a healthier relationship with food. Soveya — derived from the Hebrew phrase “V’Achalta, V’Savata, u’Verachata (You shall eat, you shall be satisfied and you shall bless G-d),” a part of the required blessing after eating a meal — has 10,000 email subscribers.

“Limiting ourselves to one serving of cholent is not restricting, it’s elevating,” said Rabbi Glaser, who also writes under the moniker the “Running Rabbi,” explains. “It really is a mitzvah not to take seconds.”