Five Food-Related Habits That Are Not That Great for Jews

I don’t make it a practice to tell readers what to do. In fact, I’m famous for offering unsolicited advice to friends and family only. But in light of recent food-centric holidays such as Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, in addition to weekly Shabbat meals, I feel compelled to extend my benevolent, unsolicited advice to readers as well. 

Over the years, I’ve observed that Jews worldwide partake in certain food-related practices that are unhealthy, if not downright dangerous. Here are five that are particularly ubiquitous:

The Dreaded Washing Cup

Jews love to use communal washing cups at kosher restaurants, synagogues and at home. You know the kind—they’re usually made of silver, however rusted, or plastic, and used before one consumes bread. The water is poured three times over each hand, and a blessing (“Netilat Yadayim”) is recited. What lives on the handles or at the bottom of those washing cups is anyone’s guess. In preparation for a future column, I’m going to swab washing cups from half a dozen local kosher restaurants and drop them off to a friend who works in a laboratory at UCLA. I can’t wait to discover what exciting specimens to which local Jews expose their hands before eating a nice, juicy burger.

I don’t know if it’s halachically permissible, but I reason that I can be of more service to God if I’m not sick every other week. 

The solution? At home, always wash the inside and outside of the washing cup with soap and water at least once a week. I always ask restaurants for a disposable cup. If you’re too shy to ask a host for a different cup, wash your hands with soap after using the washing cup. If nothing disposable is available, I simply put my hands under the faucet. I don’t know if it’s halachically permissible, but I reason that I can be of more service to God if I’m not sick every other week. 

The Slow-Cooked Plastic Bag

When it comes to cooking for Shabbat, Jews love to use the slow cooker. It’s equally true for Ashkenazim and their cholent as it is for Sephardim or Mizrahim and their hamin or dafina. I love North African dafina, complete with chunks of tender meat, eggs, bulgur, rice and potatoes. The bulgur or rice, however, are almost always cooked overnight in a plastic bag. How is any plastic safe for a slow cooker that basically boils food at a low temperature for nearly 15 hours? Ashkenazim love their plastic bags in slow cookers as well. In most synagogues that serve a giant pot of cholent for the Shabbat kiddush meal following morning services, the bottom of the slow cooker is entirely wrapped in a huge plastic liner to make clean-up as easy as possible. 

The problem is that most plastics contain BPA (bisphenol A), and those that claim to be made from heat-resistant nylon resins, such as Crock-Pot liners, can still leak chemicals into food. A report from the U.S. National Library of Medicine revealed that nylon liners can leak many substances, including cyclopentanone, octadecane, heptadecane and 2-cyclopentyl cyclopentanone. Synagogues in particular need to be more careful. Nothing says “Love your Jewish brothers and sisters” like adding boiled plastic to their diet once a week. 

The solution? Either skip whatever individual item is inside the plastic bag, whether bulgur, rice, or kishka, or, dare I say it, have a little less cholent. Yes, it’s a painful thought, but it’s better than ingesting cyclopentanone, octadecane, heptadecane and 2-cyclopentyl cyclopentanone. 

The Melted Serving Spoon

Along the same lines as slowly cooking plastic, I cringe each time a Shabbat host or synagogue offers a delicious bowl of boiling-hot food, complete with a cheap, plastic serving spoon that’s no doubt been immersed in the hot food for hours. It happens most at the hot foods section of kosher supermarkets, where the same large, plastic serving spoons are kept inside boiling hot containers of everything from stews to rice and vegetables from the time the market opens until the time it closes. 

“Plastic serving utensils should not be used in hot foods, particularly above 158°F,” Michael Tanenbaum, a nutritional health writer and editor-in-chief of ConsciouslyKosher.com, told the Journal. “At that temperature, their chemical components, called oligomers, start to break down, releasing their toxins into your food. Unfortunately, these substances are dangerous even in small amounts.”

The solution? Use wood or stainless steel serving spoons at home. It’s difficult to tell your host what to do, unless you buy him or her a lovely set of metal serving spoons. Even then, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be used. As for the synagogue, you may actually have to purchase wood utensils and offer them as a gift to the kitchen staff. The hardest sell will be to the good people behind the hot foods section of supermarkets. You’re better off arriving at the store with your own small pitchfork, though I can’t guarantee that you won’t be stopped by suspicious security guards who might notice something pointy in your purse or pocket. Either way, you’ll have a good story to tell over Shabbat. 

I’ll Take My Aluminum Well-Cooked

Have you ever noticed how aluminum foil, when exposed to enough heat, starts turning a healthy shade of black? If Jews are obsessed with anything, especially during Shabbat, it’s aluminum, whether aluminum pans or wrapping everything—and I mean everything—in aluminum foil. I get it. Aluminum pans are so much easier because they’re disposable and stackable, and nothing seals food better than foil. 

“The aluminum may leach into the food it’s cooked in. The more acidic the food, the bigger the leaching problem,” said Tanenbaum. “The worst foods to wrap in foil are those that contain lemon, juice, tomato sauce, vinegar or citric acid. Furthermore, the longer the foods are exposed to the aluminum, the more leaching occurs.”

The solution to aluminum is easy: wrap food (or cover serving dishes) in several layers of unbleached parchment paper—the brown kind—and then, if still needed, cover with foil. “Be sure to look for unbleached parchment paper, as the bleached version contains toxic dioxins as part of the bleaching process,” added Tanenbaum. Unbleached parchment paper can easily be found online or at most stores, including Target. 

Tea for Two, with Petroleum

Jews love to make “l’chaims,” or toasts, whether at engagement parties, Torah classes, brit milahs, weddings, Shabbat meals, or even post-Shabbat meals. And nothing is easier than using wax or styrofoam cups, whether for whiskey shots or boiling hot tea or coffee. Styrofoam is a petrochemical. That’s the last thing we want in our bodies when we make a “L’Chaim!” to life. Similarly, wax melts into hot liquids, even if we can’t see it. A study from the Indian Institute of Technology found that 25,000 micron-sized particles are released into hot beverages that are poured into such cups.

If you really want to make a name for yourself, travel with your own mug.

The solution to the cup conundrum is not so simple. Synagogues and events spaces can’t switch to healthier options, such as compostable cups or BPA-free ones, because they’re much more expensive. The best thing to do is to avoid hot beverages in wax, plastic or styrofoam cups. If you really want to make a name for yourself, travel with your own mug. Happily, it can double as a clean alternative to a communal washing cup if you’re going to eat bread and need to rinse water over your hands. No one ever said Jews weren’t innovative.

Tabby Refael is a Los Angeles-based writer, speaker, and civic action activist. Follow her on Twitter @RefaelTabby