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Forum -> Yom Tov / Holidays -> Pesach
Is Pesach not healthy?
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amother
OP


 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 3:09 pm
I am finding that :
a) I can't function the next day if I go to sleep so late especially twice in a row. I wake up with a huge headache.
b) the amount of grape juice (or wine but that would be toxic) and matzoh consumed is so unhealthy and I cant force myself to have that much anymore.
c) first I get too hungry then I eat too much.
d) the non stop getting ready on erev yom tov was stressing me and making me very upset
e) Everyone is too tired in the first place to even want to enjoy the seder and then there is a second one.
Today I'm still feeling the after affects of being exhausted and not eating right;

How can we make this a healthier process? And no, I don't believe in making Pesach in one day. I actually found a challah cover this morning. Because no one ever puts anything away.
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ra_mom




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 3:16 pm
Hug
I sip some light (half calories - must be half water) grape juice from my kos, and that's it. When it's time to refill for the next kos, I just top off whatever is in the cup with some more.
Skip the matzah except where you need it for a mitzvah. Sweet potatoes, potatoes and quinoa can be more filling and better for you.
We stayed up really late first seder night when we went out, but we made sure to stay home for 2nd Seder and we had a grand family time and managed to all be in bed by midnight. We're sleeping in on chol hamoed and will try to reset our schedules a bit better.
Eat on schedule in small amounts often so you don't get to the famished state.
Take care of yourself. Hug
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ora_43




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 3:52 pm
What works for me:

- Outsource prep wherever possible (to kids, to paid help, shared among family eg if doing seder together).

- I can't do the prep in one day either - my house is waaaaay too messy for that - but I do try to condense it into 2-3 intense days. Eg one day dh and I both invest 5 hours and kasher the kitchen completely; the next day all I do is clean out my purse. (OTOH for some people the complete opposite is what works - doing a little bit at a time for 3-4 weeks.)

- More about cleaning: I took hours off from work this year for it, and didn't clean beyond the point where I started to feel worn out.

- OK I only have one seder; if we did two one of them would be faster. (even our one seder ends by around midnight, since we have relatives with us who don't want a long seder). Pesach songs and Torah thoughts can happen during lunch the next day, too.

- Only eat matza and grape juice when absolutely necessary.

- Have healthy snacks constantly available (salad, chopped fruit, nuts, etc). Make sure everyone eats before seder, including adults (I usually give everyone a bowl of soup just before candle lighting).

Nothing makes it easy. I mean, having a perfectly clean home year-round would make it pretty easy, but that's not my reality. In my reality it will always be a bit challenging... I don't think it needs to be unhealthy, though.
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amother
Denim


 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 3:57 pm
I feel gross after first days! All that matzah and wine. Yuck. I detox the rest of the week.

I make a fruit smoothie for breakfast and have salad or egg white omelet for lunch. For dinner tonight, I am making pulled bbq chicken with spaghetti squash. Tomorrow night, shakshuka. Wednesday night, cauliflower pizza.
All light, but still filling.
Snacks are raw nuts and/or fresh fruit.
Drink A TONNNNN of water. Like 50% more what you usually drink. Force it down. Drink water with every meal. Do walking activities/chol hamoed trips.
Second days- make a lot of salads and veggie sides. Skip recipes that call for frying or sauteing.
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amother
Gray


 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 4:06 pm
The first two days are rough (good reason to make aliyah I guess, then you only have to do one seder), but beyond that, I find pesach to be the most healthy week of the year. As long as you don't actually try to substitute the things you can eat, it's actually quite a healthy diet.
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amother
Brown


 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 4:17 pm
I generally don't stay up late and I find the seders grueling, and I'm a total zombie during the rest of the first two days. I cope by not hosting guests for lunch and by getting plenty of naptime. I regret missing out on the two afternoons of yom tov, but unless we start the seders before the correct time, I have no choice.
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notshanarishona




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 4:23 pm
The sedarim and night meals are definitely not healthy but no reason why the rest of yom tov has to be unhealthy .
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amother
Floralwhite


 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 4:33 pm
The first two days are rough and I agree are not healthy. I try to remind myself it’s just once a year. I eat way less matzah and grape juice at the Seder than I used to because I used to get terrible heartburn so I go by a more literal understanding of what a kazait is ( for matzah). I stayed up for the first seder but the second one, I did the first part with company and the rest by myself and went to sleep because I need to be able to function and take care of a baby that’s wakes up 3-4 times a night
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PinkFridge




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 4:56 pm
I've greatly reduced sugar and white flour this year so yeah, the sedarim weren't easy. But as I ate the matzah I told myself this is food of emunah and it's nourishing in another way.

I don't plan on eating matzah again till the second days. It's possible I'll have a healthier alternative than straight white wheat. If not, so be it.

And while my family is eating the wonderful cookies, etc. that mean Pesach for us, I also try to have healthy alternative - fruits, veg., good proteins, so there's a balance.

I reframe: Pesach can be hard on the system but it IS healthy, for our souls.
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amother
Seashell


 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 5:00 pm
The actual shiurim of matza and arba kosos aren't that much, and a lot of the rest is self imposed. Though I spend the YT with family and I pretty much am obligated to much of their scheduling and menu choices. So self imposed can include that as well Wink But I don't feel that pesach is inherently an unhealthy week.
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Pamela




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 5:06 pm
Interestingly in that sense I love pesach. In my home pesach is a clean healthy yom tov. Matza and wine aside, since we don’t mish, whatever we eat is homemade, clean and with minimum ingredients. We all eat loads of fresh fruits and veggies, nuts, and simple poultry.
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mfb




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 6:13 pm
I find pesach healthier since for a full week we eat nothing with chemicals. Only natural ingredients
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trixx




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 6:43 pm
amother [ OP ] wrote:
I am finding that :
a) I can't function the next day if I go to sleep so late especially twice in a row. I wake up with a huge headache.
b) the amount of grape juice (or wine but that would be toxic) and matzoh consumed is so unhealthy and I cant force myself to have that much anymore.
c) first I get too hungry then I eat too much.
d) the non stop getting ready on erev yom tov was stressing me and making me very upset
e) Everyone is too tired in the first place to even want to enjoy the seder and then there is a second one.
Today I'm still feeling the after affects of being exhausted and not eating right;

How can we make this a healthier process? And no, I don't believe in making Pesach in one day. I actually found a challah cover this morning. Because no one ever puts anything away.


A) end your seder earlier or take a nap.
B) drinking most of a reviis ends up being not that much combined. The matzah is like two pieces all together.
C) eat smaller, more frequent amounts
D) plan better or do things earlier so you're not last minute stressing
E) again, end earlier or take a nap

Pesach isnt NOT healthy. (as mentioned, if you don't use products, it should actually be the healthiest week of the year) you're doing things that aren't working for you. So change them.
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amother
Jade


 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 6:45 pm
PinkFridge wrote:
I've greatly reduced sugar and white flour this year so yeah, the sedarim weren't easy. But as I ate the matzah I told myself this is food of emunah and it's nourishing in another way.

I don't plan on eating matzah again till the second days. It's possible I'll have a healthier alternative than straight white wheat. If not, so be it.

And while my family is eating the wonderful cookies, etc. that mean Pesach for us, I also try to have healthy alternative - fruits, veg., good proteins, so there's a balance.

I reframe: Pesach can be hard on the system but it IS healthy, for our souls.


Me too, I cut out a lot of carbs and sugar too and shabbos during yr I only have czauis. So, seder with shiur of grape juice (4 cups) and shuir of matzo for afikomen, matzo, korech was hard, but what made it harder was I couldn't give my stomach a break. We did it again the second night too.

It was hard and I got stomach burps and was wondering why we need to eat so much matza in one sitting to get the lessons. But, ill still do it because its what we are supposed to do. However, aside from ppl who usually dpnt eat so many carbs...or don't eat so much late at night, why is it unhealthy??? Most ppl have a lot of challah during yr so instead, they are eating matzo. But, nobody has to make unhealthy kugels or too much. Healthy proteins and salads can be served, and nobody has to overeat. Nobody has to serve meals with 3000 calories in it. Aside from kezeyzim of matzo Marir korech and cups of wine, other foods are optional.
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amother
Tangerine


 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 6:54 pm
Pesach takes a toll on my health every year. This is the first year I'm not already sick and dying from back pain. But I'm still exhausted and in a total fog. And it's almost time to start cooking again. Crying

P.S.... My kids had the chutzpah to complain about being served leftovers for dinner tonight instead of something fresh. Nobody gets how hard it is; nobody appreciates it and that's I think for me even harder than the physical toll.
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gila-rina




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 7:08 pm
Got food scale this year and my kids prepared the matza for both seders - 17g matza =kzais. Ended up eating much less matza at the seder than usual and made the seder flow much faster. Best purchase ever.
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amother
Green


 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 10:07 pm
Many people who feel ill on Pesach are reacting to the cottonseed oil that so many use. Try olive oil (can be light if you don't like the taste) or, even better for high temperatures, grapeseed oil.

Also we make homemade mayo which is a bit risky for me bec. of the raw eggs, so when my kids made salads w mayo they made some for me with just oil

I use spelt instead of wheat & my Rov said I can have the minimum shiur (what the charts say for korech=k'zayis) instead of k'baitzah.

I do half grape juice & half water & don't drink the whole kos.

I can't handle the matza at 12:30 (which is about when DH gets there) so I go ahead in Magid (my own 3 spelt matzos for Yachatz etc) & eat my matza closer to 11 pm.

First night I did have a little soup, chicken & kugel. Bad idea. So second night I had a drink & ate my afikomen pretty soon after the korech. So no more eating!

Today I basically ate potatoes. Bad for my sugar but about all my stomach could deal with. Potatoes with yogurt. Potatoes with eggs. I cooked a big pot erev YT & I just oven roast w a little oil, or occasionally hash brown them.
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miami85




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 10:09 pm
I have found that the type of wine makes a huge difference. Going back years already when I'd get a very strong reaction to Cream Malaga--I thought it was just "wine" doing it to me, when Bartenura Moscato came out I didn't have that reaction so I tried that, preferring a red wine, I usually use the Malvasia/Rosco by Rambam and I'd just get a very, very slight reaction. This year I was stuck with Bartenura Moscato and I noticed that I didn't have that reaction at all! I don't even like full grape juice as its too sweet.

For us shulchan orech is just a simple meat-veggie stew. We've figure that by the seder the whole wheat carbs=matza, veggies=maror (romaine), and we don't even have dessert.

This year for the first days afternoon I made some salmon and cauliflower rice.
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smss




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Apr 22 2019, 11:43 pm
The shiurim aren't that much but it's eating them at 11:30 that's the real killer. 2nd seder I really felt like I was going to throw up. I had to force the matza down. It's a real challenge.
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Mommyg8




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Apr 23 2019, 12:17 am
OP, I'm sorry that you have had bad experiences, but you absolutely CAN change things for the future.

For wine- do you have a big cup? Ask a Rav what the minimum shiur is; you may be pleasantly surprised. And you only have to drink more than half for the first four kosos. So that technically, you may only need to drink maybe 12 ounces altogether. Not a crazy amount. Also check into different types of wine or grape juice. My son got an organic grape juice without added sulfites, this can make a huge difference as to how you feel afterwards.

As for matzah - again, double check the shiurim. You may not really need to eat as much as you think you do. Also, I used whole wheat matzah this year and I liked it. But there is spelt, which is lighter on the digestive system, etc...

You can easily eat healthy throughout pesach. Like many, I find that pesach food is often healthier than the food we eat year round. Vegetables, fruit, plain cooked potatoes, sweet potatoes, nuts... this year my family got very into avocado. We love it with everything and it just feels healthier. Also, we use olive oil instead of cottonseed... I'm sure there are more things you can do, I just haven't thought of them right now...
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