An Ashkenazi pre-fast menu often includes challah, gefilte fish, chicken soup, turkey or chicken, salad, baked potato and vegetables. Some favor the traditional brisket, tsimmes (stewed carrots and prunes) and kasha varnishkes (small pasta noodles with buckwheat). Sponge or honey cake often tops off the meal.
Dr. Harold Solomon, an internist specializing in hypertension and nutrition at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Harvard Medical School, believes the kind of “carbo-loading” found in the above menus constitutes “a myth” of proper pre-fast etiquette. Adequate proteins and fats, like meats and vegetables, that break down more slowly during a fast do benefit the body, he notes.
But pastas and heavy starches, sugary sweets and even fruits break down far more quickly and are therefore less beneficial in the long run. They cause hypoglycemia or falling blood sugar, and in short, “make us hungry.”
Avoidance of salty foods, too, is something of a bubbemeysa, says Solomon, although too much sweating or overheating the day before a fast is unwise. “People always ask me about salt. You should continue [eating salty foods] if you’re used to a high-salt diet. Don’t go out of your way to avoid salt” or to overload on water, he cautions.
Mireille Miara, a holistic practitioner at the ISIS Institute in Boston, takes a different approach. Eight to 12 glasses of water is a must the day before a fast, she says. “Some fruits, cantaloupe, watermelon” are also prudent, but not after the main course, when they “slow down digestion, get fermented…and create bacteria.”
For the pre-fast foods, Miara suggests whole-grain pasta, “a healthy protein” like fish or chicken, chickpeas or hummus, and salad.
“The time to drink,” she continues, “is 20 to 30 minutes before or after a meal, but not during unless you’re choking.” Like Solomon, she reminds the pre-faster to avoid heavy starches and sweets. “There is wisdom in giving the body a rest. If you eat heavily, you’ll defeat that rest.”
As for caffeine, Solomon says the preparation must begin before erev Yom Kippur. “If you have more than one or two cups a day, you should cut the caffeine in half the week before” by either drinking cups that are half decaffeinated or by cutting your consumption in half, he says. At least three days before, “you should be clean.”
And after the fast?
“The body really knows what it needs,” states Solomon. “Some feel the need for some salt immediately because they are volume depleted or dehydrated. Some have a sensation of hunger, which is really a falling blood sugar or hypoglycemia,” and so reach for the sugars. Either way, “people are governed by their own appetites,” he maintains.