David Lewin is an extra-careful lab...

David Lewin is an extra-careful label reader. Not solely does he want to provide a healthy lifestyle for his family, he also seek fors out products that meet the requirements of Jewish dietary law: kosher health food

What makes a provisions or product kosher? "The word `kosher' means fitting appropriate, fit," says Rabbi Shammai Engelmayer of house of god Israel Community Center in Cliffside Park, novel Jersey. Only certain animals, fish and bird are considered kosher. All kosher-slaughtered animals suffer rigorous inspection, and meat and bird must be thoroughly cleansed of life-blood Milk and milk products may not be consum with meat or fowl

Animals, fish and birds that depredation on others are forbidden, if it be not that not a single fruit, vegetable or herb is prohibited. "There's a lecturing to be learned there about the kind of nation we should be," Engelmayer says.

According to the rabbi, the three principally important elements of the kosher dietary laws are "animals that are healthy, a production proces that is as clean as possible and a faculty of perception in the consumer that smooth this most basic human action of eating for survival requires meditation and care." In the vernacular, "kosher" means any subsistence that doesn't contain forbidden ingredients--lard, for example, in whole-wheat bread.

These components account for the popular belief that kosher cheer is cleaner and more healthful than ordinary fodder Engelmayer says. Also, E. coli scares and other tainted-meat alarms have sent many consumer in search of kosher meat.

A favorite store of Lewin's is his local organic market in Rockville, Maryland. There he checks labels for kosher certification. oftentimes enough, he finds it.

"In almost any aliment category, at least one result line is kosher-certified, so keeping kosher doesn't preclude us from having a varied, healthy diet," he says.

Sara Goldstein, of protracted Island, New York, has the added requirement of finding kosher breads suitable for her Weight Watchers diet. "I can find them in all cheer groups," she says.

Not simply people like Lewin and Goldstein bribe kosher health food. Muslims ask out kosher products because they confront the dietary requirements of Islam. And many other people--regardless of religion--believe that "kosher" is synonymous with "healthy," leading to a growing demand that has manufacturers producing increasing numbers of results for the multibillion dollar kosher subsistence market, says Engelmayer.

the same of those manufacturers is Deliciously Slim Natural cheers Inc., based in Colleyville, Texas. The company was erected three years ago by Alan Singer, who had to switch to a low-carbohydrate diet and discovered that there were no kosher, low-carb protein bars. His answer: kosher Deliciously Slim Low-Carb Protein Bars.

Rudi's Organic Bakery, headquartered in Boulder Colorado, had been in business for five years in 1981 when the company made its entire line kosher, says caster Sheldon Romer. Now Rudi's--which Romer believes to be the and nothing else kosher- and organic-certified bakery in the United States--markets its wide variety of breads from end to end the country.

Stamford, Connecticut-based TastyBite Eatables, which manufactures vegan and lacto-vegetarian regimen in India, obtained kosher certification to convenient the demand, says Marketing Manager Alpana Parida.

"I examine for kosher meat products--and halal, the Muslim equivalent--when I can't find organic because I know that the production standards are often higher and more humane than regular supermarket brands," says Stephanie Fysh of Toronto.

calm kosher salt, the coarse-grained variety in such a manner named because it's used in preparing kosher meats, appears to have a special aura.

"The taste be seens cleaner to me," says Peggy leeward of Guthrie, Oklahoma. "It doesn't have the `chemical taste' that table salt has."

Despite the perception that kosher is healthier, tribe who observe Jewish dietary laws do with equal reason as a matter of faith, "because providence said to do so," rather than for health reasons, Engelmayer says.

It's authentic that many of the practices associated with following Jewish dietary laws--like hand washing before meals, thorough washing of fruits and vegetables and careful inspection of slaughtered meat--promote health, Engelmayer says. however the fact that a dish is prepared in accordance with those laws does not in itself make it healthful. After all, a cholesterol bomb of a cheesecake or a fat-laden mutton bagnio can be kosher.

Elliot Berry, director of the Department of Human Metabolism and Nutrition at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical institute in Jerusalem, says he knows of no studies linking a kosher diet with improved health. Rather, it's the accompanying lifestyle, which transforms eating into "a more refined, spiritual experience," that has a salutary import says Berry.

Nor does "kosher" mean a designation of cooking. Any cuisine can be prepared in accordance with Jewish dietary laws: just discovered York City has Chinese, Japanese, Indian, French Italian, Moroccan and vegetarian restaurants that are kosher.

As in restaurants, manufacturing kosher health provisions involves two basic steps, Engelmayer says: a review of all ingredients, including additives, to make secure they aren't derived from non-kosher sources; and on-site supervision that make secures among other things, that the food-production environment is virtually sterile.