Monday, February 20, 2012

Kosher

For Lent, I decided to eat kosher. However, as Lent technically ends on Resurrection Day, I decided to extend my kosher eating until after Passover, since this year Passover falls after Resurrection Day. I know, odd. It didn't seem right to quit eating kosher right before Passover. Anyway, I've found that my diet has changed far more significantly than I thought it would. To eat kosher, there are three main things that have to be followed:
1) Only meat from an animal the chews the cud and has a cleaved hoof. Basically, that means no pig or equine animal. I highly doubt that they'll be serving horse or donkey in food service, though.
2) No shellfish or bottom-feeding fish. That's been pretty easy.
3) Don't mix dairy with meat. This means no meat and cheese sandwiches, no sour cream and shredded cheese in chili, no alfredo sauce with meat in it, etc.
Now, all of these sounded really simple to me, and they are. The elimination process is very easy to follow. However, because of this, I eat a lot more vegetables. On top of this, I've been under the weather with some sort of congestion illness that's been going around. So, guess what I've been drinking a lot of? Orange juice. So, with the combination of lots of vegetables and orange juice, I have to relieve myself far more often than I used to.
I have a Messianic Judaic friend who, upon hearing that I was eating kosher until after Passover, told me that I ought to go kosher full-time. I don't think I will, because I like having sour cream and shredded cheese in my chili, and one of my favorite sandwiches is ham and swiss.