You Are How Much You Eat

Nutrition begins with food quantity. What to eat comes after that.

Dear Healthy Jew,

In his code of Jewish law and thought, Maimonides devoted an entire chapter of The Laws of Character Traits to healthy lifestyle instructions. Choosing health, he began, “is from the ways of God - because when one is sick it’s impossible to understand or know anything about the Creator.”

“The ways of God” isn’t a generic Maimonidean stamp of approval; the term refers to the biblical commandment to balance every character trait according to the mind’s guidance. In Healthy Jew’s debut column, we learned how entering humanity requires employing the mind to guide the body toward health - so healthy choices obviously play a critical role in emulating God’s ways.

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Here is Maimonides’ first principle of healthy living:

A person should never eat unless he’s hungry and shouldn’t drink unless he’s thirsty.

Several lines later, he begins advising on diet in detail:

A person shouldn’t eat until his stomach is filled but should withhold at around a quarter from fullness.

Later on, concluding his advice on nutrition and exercise:

Another principle of physical health: if a person exerts himself a lot and isn’t satiated and his bowels are loose, sickness won’t fall on him and his strength will increase, even if he eats bad foods.

After adding that overeating is “like poison and is the primary source of all disease,” Maimonides concludes by expounding on Proverbs (21:23):

Solomon said in his wisdom, “One who guards his mouth and tongue has guarded himself from troubles.” This refers to guarding his mouth from eating bad foods or satiation, and his tongue from talking more than necessary.

Food quantity, Maimonides tells us, is a critical component of healthy living - even more than food quality. (Important caveat: eating disorders like anorexia are possibly far more prevalent today than in the Middle Ages. So it’s particularly vital to take this advice with balance.)

Modern science too demonstrates the dangers of indulgence; it’s a primary cause of obesity, diabetes, and a host of other conditions. Studies also show inverse correlations between calorie intake and longevity, meaning that people who eat less generally live longer. And restricting calories while maintaining a nutritionally adequate diet is linked with lower risks for most common diseases.¹ So I have no reason to question the relevance of Maimonides’ statement in today’s world.  

One possible exception is Maimonides’ assertion that eating too many good foods is unhealthier than eating bad foods. Maimonides advises against eating many foods that today are considered healthy (more on that another time), and, on the other hand, he never met our ultra-processed junk foods. Because the definition of unhealthy foods has changed so much in the past eight centuries, we can’t know for sure that eating too many apples is unhealthier than fruitless fruit loops in moderation. Still, the boldness of Maimonides’ statement remains telling as ever. (See note for Healthy Jew’s general policy about Maimonides’ medical advice.²)

So are you now finished forever with overeating? Some people will read this, digest it, and easily comply. Many others, however, will continue struggling with eating more food than is healthful, no matter how deeply they appreciate the value of restraint. I’m a proud member of this second group.

Why doesn’t knowledge suffice? Because of a cardinal rule in human nature: the mind always loses to the will in a direct duel. I can know that I shouldn’t eat too much, but I won’t be able to figure my way out of the thousands of threadbare excuses that my imagination will conjure up – not because of brainpower deficit, but because I don’t truly want to.

The human mind guides the body’s actions, as we learned, but it cannot beat the body’s desires into submission. Therefore, the way to learn moderation is by taking actions that will teach the body moderation, not by sheer willpower. As the adage goes, it’s easier to act yourself into better thinking than to think yourself into better actions.

This includes the hard work of identifying triggering foods, situations, and habits, and learning new approaches to eating. No one method fits all, which is why health coaching can be helpful to find what works for you.

For today, I’ll conclude with two practical strategies that we’ve already touched upon.

First, Maimonides himself presented a valuable temperance tactic in his opening advice not to eat unless hungry. Put in other words, don’t mindlessly graze all day on snacks like a cow in the pasture, but eat organized meals like a person. Eat according to life’s rhythm, alternating between what nutrition science calls the fed and fasting metabolic states.

Many people, myself included, find that eating more smaller meals makes this suggestion easier to follow. It can be easier to feel a little hungry four times a day for a short duration than to be more hungry fewer times a day for a longer period. This can also make it easier to stop eating because I know that the next meal is four hours away, not seven.

Another point involves what I mentioned briefly about the changing nature of unhealthy foods. In today’s nutritional world, quantity can’t really be separated from quality, because modern junk foods contain ridiculous amounts of added sugar, salt, and fat for the express purpose of making us want more. Perhaps the most compelling reason to reject what food journalist Michael Pollan calls “food-like substances” is because they are designed to make us eat them all day long.

There are many more strategies to explore here: complementing carbohydrates with fats and protein, eating complex carbohydrates instead of simple ones, eating fiber-rich vegetables, and more. Even how much and when we drink also can be helpful.

We’ll return one day, I hope, to these important details. In the next post, however, we’re going to contemplate the meaning of what we learned today. Why are we all wired in a way that feeling hungry and avoiding satiety are critical for health? Doesn’t that imply that our bodies are built to lie?

In Defense of Desire

One Suggestion: Take an honest look at your eating habits. Do you eat between meals? Do you eat until you can eat no more, or do you leave some room? Do you recognize certain foods or habits that support eating in moderation, and others that make it harder?

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I look forward to hearing from you!

Be well,

Rabbi Shmuel Chaim Naiman

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1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3014770/

See also Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food pp. 184-185, 227.

2. When Maimonides doesn’t openly contradict modern science and the context of the situation hasn’t changed, I accept his advice as relevant - even if scientists don’t know the biological mechanism and there aren’t supporting clinical trials. Factors that give additional weight are if he’s advising on healthy lifestyle (not treating disease) and if he’s writing his works of Jewish law (not only in his medical writings). Most of Maimonides’ medical principles fit into this category. However, when scientific findings contradict Maimonides, or the context has changed, we can’t responsibly apply his instructions against our scientific observations or in a different world. Many details and drugs fall into this category; it’s often even unclear if the terms he used carry the same definition today (especially when translated from Arabic). (I hope to explain my reasoning for this in future articles.)