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Comment by vanattab | Hacker News Reader

Do Jews not eat beef? I thought it was mainly pork?

The prohibition is against meat and dairy simultaneously.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_and_meat_in_Jewish_law

Speaking as a Jew, while this is accurate, it’s not that common in the US among non-orthodox families. There was a poll of American Jews a while ago that found less than a quarter keep kosher.

That reminds me of the time I was in Jerusalem on Saturday (the Sabbath, so like everything was closed) and I stumbled upon a restaurant that reveled in being as un-kosher as possible: the main menu item was cheeseburgers and of course they were open on Saturdays. There were probably other things they did that rubbed people the wrong way because apparently the restaurant had been firebombed at one point.

And finding kosher beef. If you want a kosher burger, you usually need to buy the beef yourself and make your own burger.

Is it really that hard to find kosher beef in US restaurants? What about halal beef?

All the beef has to be kosher.

Not only that, but the kosher requirements (no dairy and meat together), depending on how kosher you are, also to apply to the plates the meal is served on, the equipment the meal is cooked on, and food storage areas; you need strictly segregated facilities, and washing between uses does not make it kosher. The requirements are strict to the point where rabbis have to regularly certify kosher restaurants as kosher.

I see. Thanks for the insight.

Calling American cheese ‘dairy’ is a little generous.

Why would you say that? The legal minimum is 51% cheese.

https://www.thedailymeal.com/eat/what-exactly-american-chees...

https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium.MAGAZINE-can-je...

They do not eat beef and dairy together. At least she does not. It doesn't matter if the dairy is kosher or not, the two are not mixed.

This religious rule comes from a well known scientific observation: meat blocks calcium absorption.

Per Wikipedia (and also this one time I was chatting with a Rabbi), the rule comes from a prohibition against ritual magic:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_and_meat_in_Jewish_law#Ex...

Well, any overlap with that scientific observation is, I'm sure, a happy accident.

Uh, check your sources. History suggests a ~5000 year old document probably had little to say about calcium absorbtion.

https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/15/why-does...

Of course not, but rituals that survive probably have some kind of objective survival value, so it's reasonable to try to figure out what these ancient food taboos origin really are.

For example, shell fish were probably or average unhealthy to eat back in the day. So claiming God commanded The People to not eat it was the FDA implementation of its time.

I've also heard the argument that it comes from an animal welfare perspective:

It seems a little ghoulish to eat a calf with its mother's milk.

That doesn't explain the rule as practiced.

Good point.

I'm definitely not an expert on Jewish law (my exposure to it is through reading Leviticus as a Christian). I suppose it's possible that the reason changed over time. However, now that I think about it the health reasons that others have pointed out seem to make more sense. Especially since I would presume that a cow wouldn't have the intelligence to actually be concerned about the precise manner in which you eat it.

> well known scientific observation

Is it though? I tried to find a source for your claim but came up with inconclusive studies, at best. Do you have any sources for this or is it just a well known myth?

You mean calcium blocks iron absorption. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1600930

Yes.

No. That's an extrapolation protein blocking calcium absorption. But unless you eat fake American dairy products like yogurt or "American cheese", there tends to be protein in that cheese.

Incidentally, oxalic acid found in spinach also blocks calcium. Also beans and such have similar effect.

American cheese and yogurt have significant protein. American-produced fat free Greek yogurt particularly is high in protein.

You may be thinking of Velveeta and Kraft Singles but they don’t qualify by the FDA to be called processed cheese, they’re a cheese product. But even they have significant protein, albeit less.

https://boarshead.com/products/detail/652-american-cheese-lo...

https://usa.fage/products/yogurt/fage-total-0

I would assume this refers to the prohibition on eating meat with dairy.

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