There are millions of people around the world who live solely on a kosher diet, but a lot of people have no idea what it entails. Kosher food is often considered Jewish food, and it is prepared according to Jewish law, but many other people eat it too. For a meat to be considered kosher, the animal that is slaughtered must have hooves or chew its own cud. Dairy products, poultry and fish are also restricted.
History
The founders of Judaism devised complex rules for slaughtering animals thousands of years ago, according to Jewishfederations.org. For example, the Torah says a goat kid cannot be cooked in its mother's milk. People on a kosher diet are forbidden to eat meat and dairy that were produced together. Nowadays, people have separate sets of utensils for meat and dairy. Debates over certain foods have arisen in modern times. A kosher diet dictates you can only eat fish with scales and fins, but as swordfish sheds its scales as it grows older, whether it is kosher is unclear. Pyrex cooking utensils are also difficult to classify, as laws about cooking with metal and earthenware laid down thousands of years ago did not account for modern technology. The kosher diet industry is now worth $100 billion in the United States, with 16 per cent of the market made up by Muslims, according to halaljournal.com.
Restrictions
Non-kosher food includes pork, rabbit, sturgeon, catfish, shellfish, insects and reptiles. If kosher food is cooked or processed with non-kosher food, the dish becomes non-kosher. Eating non-kosher food is considered a sin for Jewish people, and highly unethical for others on a kosher diet. Most kosher meat is slaughtered in the right way so Muslims can eat it. So eating certain non-kosher food is a sin for them too, although they do not have to follow a kosher diet so strictly. Muslims, for example, often eat shellfish, which is forbidden in a kosher diet.
Foods
Cows, sheep, goats, deer, antelope and giraffe are all considered kosher animals. But an animal has to be slaughtered in a certain way for its meat to be kosher. A sharp, flawless knife must be used to cut cleanly through the animal's esophagus and trachea. This way, the animal is supposed to lose consciousness very quickly and feel no pain. Muslims can only eat dairy produced from kosher animals, but never at the same time as the meat. Most cereals are considered kosher, as long as they are not processed. Kosher fowl includes domesticated species of turkey, chicken, duck and goose. They must be slaughtered by a trained, skilled individual. Scavenger or predatory birds are non-kosher, as are their eggs.
Benefits
People who eat a strict kosher diet generally tend to have lower cholesterol than those who do not. Because you cannot mix meat and dairy in a kosher diet, high cholesterol foods like cheeseburgers, lasagna and meat pizzas are banned. Your body struggles to break down dairy and meat simultaneously, and it stays in your system, leading to cholesterol. This means people on a kosher diet are at less risk of heart disease and stroke.
Considerations
The production of kosher wine must be handled solely by Jews. People on a kosher diet cannot drink any wine touched by a non-Jew before it was sealed.
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