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"LIGNER! LIGNER!" (Liar! Liar!)
Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe
Syosset, New York
Jews love to eat. The Yiddish word meaning "to eat" is "esn."
The Seattle Times (12/21/05) carried the following headline: DOCTORS TELL SHARON: LOSE WEIGHT. Ariel Sharon, Israel's superweight prime minister (aka " the Bulldozer"), had a mild stroke. His doctors insist that he go on a diet; his weight has ranged from 258 to 313 lbs. Speaking at the beginning of the weekly Cabinet meeting, Sharon gave a "shmeykhlen" (smile) and said, "I hope you will all eat doughnuts and potato pancakes. You have permission to eat them, but I recommend that you don't overdo it."
On October 13, 2005, Rabbi Jonathan Perlman (Temple Israel, Athol, MA), gave a sermon titled, "A Day of Hunger."
He said, "Think about the concept of dessert. It occurs to me that human beings are the only animal in the world that can be trained to save room for desserts. If we are told that we are going to have a three course meal with dessert at the end, most of us can limit the portions that we take in initially so that we can get the sweet stuff at the end. We can control overeating because we have the expectation of a dessert. My father-in-law, who studies eating behavior at Columbia University, tells me that studies performed on people with memory loss tell us that they tend to overeat because they cannot remember when they had their last meal. He also told me that overeating may occur in people with tramatic memories of starvation. People who worry about starving eat more because they miss the food; whereas God taught the Israelites in the desert that the not-quite-full feeling was an orientation of looking ahead--that was their affliction but it was also their test. It was a test to see if they could save room for dessert. Of course, the promise of dessert would only come 40 years later when they settled in the land of Israel, in the land of milk and honey. In the meantime, the manna was a spiritual test to create a person who would always be hungry for more."
Examine your "shpayzkamer" (pantry). Does it contain a generous supply of Halvah, Mashugah Nuts, Jewish Fortune Cookies (Even if Bubbe doesn't make it to dinner, these cookies will provide words of wisdom in her absence), Yoo-hoo chocolate drinks--all essentials for "der nosh"?
Could you give up these sweets if your " dokter" informed you that you had " tsukerkrenk" (diabetes)?
I was fascinated to read about a study conducted by a team including Elizabeth Loftus, of the Univ. of California at Irvine. The study suggests that there's a surprising way to get people to avoid unhealthy food ("esnvarg"). She and her colleagues asked volunteers to fill out a lengthy questionnaire on their personalities and food experiences.
One "vokh" (week) later, they told the subjects that their data had been fed into a smart computer ("kompyuter") and it spun out a profile of their early childhood ("kindhayt") experiences. Some profiles included one key additional detail: "You got sick ("krank") after eating strawberry ice cream ("ayzkrem"). Subjects were also persuaded that they had become ill after eating hard-boiled eggs and dill pickles as children.
The researchers then converted this plausible detail into a manufactured memory through leading questions:
Who were you with? How did you feel?
By the end ("der sof") of the study, up to 41% of those given a false ("falsh") memory believed "ayzkrem" once made them "krank" and many said they'd avoid eating it. Mental manipulation? ("manipulatse")? False memories?
So, it seems that it is "miglekh" (possible) to convince "dos folk" (people) that they don't like certain foods--that food could make them "zaftik" (fat).
Now for the big problem: Attempts to implant bad memories about potato ("bulbe") chips and chocolate-chip cookies (kikhls") for instance, failed. When you have so many recent, frequent, and positive experiences with food, Loftus explains, " one negative thought is not enough to overcome them."
Additional work is needed to determine if the false-memory effect is lasting and if it is strong enough to withstand the presence of an actual bowl ("shishl") of ice cream ("ayzkrem").
I was concerned about the ethics of lying to the participants of this study. Yes, I know that children are lied to about The Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus! Rabbi Perlman--in an e-mail--wrote, "It seems like if you can reframe reality for people for their own benefit, that this is not lying. Therapists and doctors do it all the time. And there is precedent in the Bible (see story of Elisha and the sick King) and the Talmud (Hillel saying that all brides are beautiful)."
Rabbi Vernon Kurtz wrote, "Do we always need to tell the truth to someone who is ill or on their deathbed? Doctors, clergy and psychologists have debated this issue for many years and today most feel that telling the truth is really the way to go. Yet, sometimes for the patient's sake and sometimes for the family's sake, it may be advisable to be a little less truthful, or not divulge all information unless asked. It is sometimes helpful to be a little more hopeful than totally pessimistic."
My final thought
about the topic of Jews and food: how do Holocaust survivors
feel about food? Rabbi Baruch Goldstein--
in an e-mail--wrote, "Whenever I did food
shopping, I always included buying bread even if there was enough bread
in the
freezer. The trauma of hunger pain over a
period of years stayed with me for many
years. There are other signs of behavior
around food which are the result of having
suffered from hunger. If I travel long
distances and come to a place where I
could obtain food, I will buy even if I am not
hungry for fear that I may not have an
opportunity to buy goods when I am
hungry later before I get to my destination.
I get tense and nervous and cannot function
if I am hungry. I am terribly upset when I
see food wasted. I never throw away food
unless it is spoiled. I will reach for the stale
bread when there is also fresh bread on the
table for fear that everyone else will
naturally reach for the fresh and ultimately
the stale will be thrown away. I always finish what's on my plate not to
throw away
leftovers."
______
No "False-Memory Diet" could prevent
Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe from enjoying a
plate of Ben & Jewry's "Manishta Nut," "
Moishmallow," and "Choc-Eilat Chip"
"
eyzkrem." She is, however, willing to give
up the new dietary line, "Yassir Ara-lowfat."
