109. Kosher Eating Disorder Recovery for Orthodox Jews with Devorah Levinson

Understanding Disordered Eating: Eating Disorder Recovery and Body Image Healing

Addressing the impact of eating disorders within the Orthodox Jewish community holds personal significance for me. Within this community, there are many people who are struggling with eating disorders, and it’s crucial to explore how they are managing it and what actions they can take.

There are obvious questions around the topic of kosher. What does that mean? What does it look like? How do you deal with somebody who does keep kosher? What are the different levels of kosher and how do you personalize care?

Tweetable Quotes

"If someone is concerned their child isn't going to be religious anymore, that's going to be very painful to them. That's going to be very worrisome.” - Devorah Levinson

"Some people are much, much more careful with what they're going to eat." - Devorah Levinson

“Lay's potato chips is not a Jewish company, but they are kosher. So some people won't eat Lay's potato chips because they only want the Jewish supervision.” - Devorah Levinson

"Don't just assume because someone says they're a rabbi that we need to do everything that they're saying and that their word is law." - Devorah Levinson

"Well, we're not giving you a cup [to wash with] because you purge in these things and you throw them out before we notice." - Devorah Levinson

“At what point does somebody else have a say in what needs to happen and how do you come to that medium? There's no fine line here.” - Rachelle Heinemann

"I think that's why you have to have a therapist who really is very well trained in eating disorders and who you really trust." - Devorah Levinson

Resources

Grab my Healing Journal Prompts

Relief Resources

Project Everybody