Israel – Health Ministry: ‘Haredi Sector Suffers from Obesity’

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    Israel – The Health Ministry has determined that there are more overweight people in the ultra-Orthodox sector than in the secular one.

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    Yair Amikam stressed in a letter to the chairman of the ministerial Tender Committee that “the problem is seven times worse in the haredi sector than among seculars.”

    At first, Amikam stated, the Dairy Board and ministry would work to raise awareness to the issue among children and teenagers. The campaign was to be brought to the sector’s members through a haredi radio children’s show.

    “The haredi lifestyle focuses on the dinner table,” explains Shifra Krimolovsky, the campaign’s initiator. “Haredim eat and celebrate a lot. When a baby boy is born in the general sector there is just a circumcision ceremony, while the haredi sector holds different social events which include a lot of food.

    “At the same time, they don’t engage in any physical exercise. This is the reason we are launching a campaign which will begin with the children, with the aim of getting the mothers to learn about proper eating habits and physical activity.”


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    31 Comments
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    shazmar
    shazmar
    12 years ago

    i dont think obesity is the problem, i think cholent addiction is!

    Pickle
    Pickle
    12 years ago

    In unrelated news, obease Hareidim report that they Suffer from scrawny health ministers.

    ExpatriateOwl
    ExpatriateOwl
    12 years ago

    I’ve been saying that for years!

    But don’t take my word for it, go ask Rabbi Yehuda Levin!

    skazm
    skazm
    12 years ago

    they’ve done studies – people in poverty are more obese than their more well-to-do counterparts because they nwws cheaper food sources that are usually processed and no good for you.

    12 years ago

    I totally agree. There isn’t enough emphasis on the importance of physical activity both for girls and for boys. It’s not part of the curriculum in frum schools like it is in public schools, and programs that provide this outlet are often looked down upon as “goyish.” Not only that, but if you go into any frum supermarket, the junk food section is always the biggest section in the store. This problem isn’t just in Israel but also in NY. I think there should be more awareness of the health problems that this type of diet and lack of exercise creates.

    12 years ago

    It’s not a pretty sight.

    ProminantLawyer
    ProminantLawyer
    12 years ago

    this is stereo typing. you cannot say they are obese without a study. where are the numbers? are the wowen as big as the men or visa/versa?

    enodmilvado
    enodmilvado
    12 years ago

    Its the same old Israeli political games against the frum world. When last did they offer a solution to the frum community in regards to a kosher exercise availability. There are hardely any outlets for a frum person to exercise and workout in Israel (and outside of Israel as well). Its not the cholent, or any of that stereotype. The stereotype is what the Israeli political propaganda wants you to think. (e.g The so called Haredim are poor well some of the richest in Israel are frum e.g Leviev, the Haredim are lazy well every single qualified so-called Hardedi who applies for a job at firms or government departments get turned down because they are frum, even if they are qualified have ecperience or over qualified frum immigrants. NOne are isolated incidents. The media is all a part of it, how it took over 45 years before a frum media outlet e.g arutz 7 became “legal”. They don’t wnat a frum voice because it is a war, even the current hebrew frum dailies are all intertwined and influenced by one individual.

    12 years ago

    On exercise the Rambam says, “As long as a person exercises and exerts himself…sickness does not befall him and his strength increases…. But one who is idle and does not exercise…even if he eats healthy foods and maintains healthy habits, all his days will be of ailment and his strength will diminish.” Rambam also stresses that one must not overeat. The problem isn’t the food at brissim-it’s the overeating and the number of sugary desserts instead of having fruit for dessert.

    BaalMussar
    BaalMussar
    12 years ago

    Every time news slows down a report of us being obese comes out. Sorry it’s no news.

    Darth_Zeidah
    Darth_Zeidah
    12 years ago

    .חכמים.  הם ממש גילו אמריקה

    PrettyBoyFloyd
    PrettyBoyFloyd
    12 years ago

    I just finished Fressing Cholent at Flams.

    hadtocomment
    hadtocomment
    12 years ago

    I have seen many different women out walking, usually in pairs, for exercise, but I have almost never seen any men out walking. I actually felt uncomfortable doing so, and after a while, got a treadmill to exercise on. Though a few other men may be exercising at home on treadmills or elliptical machines, and a few have memberships and regularly swim, I think it is fair to say that the vast majority of men are not getting any exercise.

    Phoenix
    Phoenix
    12 years ago

    I went to two hotels this summer for shabbos. If I would not have brought along my own food, I would hardly have had anything to eat. I cannot eat fatty foods, and I assumed there would be plenty of fruits and vegetables served a the meals. Well, I was wrong. The meals in both hotels, two completely separate caterers consisted of chulent, kishka, heavy kugels, fried schnitzel, and nary a veggie in sight. Oh yeah, there were a few small salads on the table, but they were drowing in oil or mayo. I was fascinated as I looked around and realised that hundreds of people are eating this heart clogging food with no problem. What happened to worrying about our health? I am very concerned about the way we are all eating, and I hope we can begin to change our habits to better suit what Hkbh wanted our bodies to be consuming.

    concerned_Jew
    concerned_Jew
    12 years ago

    all this talk about food is making me hungry.

    concerned_Jew
    concerned_Jew
    12 years ago

    Just because someone is overweight doesn’t mean they don’t get hungry. In Europe being overweight was considered a good sign, meant you were not starving. However I imagine that a little oveweight, not 400 lbs overweight.

    HappyOlah
    HappyOlah
    12 years ago

    Every time I shop in Kiryat Sefer or Har Nof, or other Chareidi neighborhoods I cannot find lowfat milk or cottage cheese. I have to go out of the neighborhoods to buy 1% milk and 3% cheese. I presume that the stores stock what their customers want. I would say it is ignorance that causes Chareidi wives and mothers to buy the high-fat products.
    (BTW, Chareidi men are big smokers, too. Is that from the alter heim?)

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    12 years ago

    It will take a letter from several true gadolim that states clearly and without the usual vague wording that in accordance with daas torah, all yidden MUST eat healthy foods, get regular cardiovascular exercise several times a week and closely monitor their weight, blood pressure, glucose levels etc. The yeshivot MUST be required to make time available for both exercise and nutritional programs. Shuls MUST be required to offer healthy foods, whether at a regular kiddush, the Rebbe’s weekly tisch or at simchot. They need to make clear there is zero yichus in eating foods based on a minhag from the alte heim that we now know are not healthy.
    All this needs to be done soon, with no equivocation and with none of the usual hesitancy and vague references. If not, more frum yidden will continue to die unecessiarily. Its that simple.

    12 years ago

    Not many charedi families with 9 children have the money to buy their families the right foods for a well-balanced diet. When you don’t have money to spare you buy the cheapest foods that will spread the furthest. It is considerably cheaper to feed a large family with a bag of potatoes or a box of pasta. One box of pasta=$.99 One cantaloupe=$2.99, which of the two can ease hunger longer and for more people? If fruits & vegetables were not so ridiculously expensive poor people could afford to buy and eat more of them.

    qazxc
    qazxc
    12 years ago

    I hear the AY wanted to have a symposium about this at the next convention but there wasn’t enough time between before the smorgasbord and after dinner no one could move to get to the next room and the hotel won’t let the featured health expert, a chashuv rosh yeshiva from central jersey smoke while he makes his presentation.

    Reb Yid
    Reb Yid
    12 years ago

    It’s a question of being goal oriented. A chareidi single girl has no problem starving herself to a size 0 in order to get a shidduch. So why doesn’t a 50 yr old chareidi man at least make an effort to look halfway decent? It’s because we live in a locker room mentality where we all just hang around the boys and who cares what we look like, everyone else is a zhlub too. Just care what you look like and the obesity rates will come way down.

    mikeb
    mikeb
    12 years ago

    Over the past few years, I have done my own little survey here in Eretz Yisroel. It is most revealing. I myself am chareidi, but (as with many others) have a large circle of friends who are not. At simchas nowadays, there is always a bowl of fresh salad on the table. Yes, even at chareidi simchas. However, if I am at a kippa seruga simcha I am lucky to get any of the salad to eat, as it is always the first thing to be finished. At chareidi simchas I can usually eat most of it myself. As to the overdosing on heavy carbs at almost all chareidi simchas … well there you are. To be quite honest, this stuff really worries me. Especially when many really seem to think that eating this type of diet is connected somehow with frumkeit.