Berachot 44: Which Foods Are Good For Us?

Today's daf reminds us that society has always been obsessed with which foods are "healthy" and which foods are "not good for us".  It begins with a new Mishna regarding bread and other foods.  The rabbis ask whether there might be a situation where salt is considered to be a primary "food", trumping bread.  We learn that fruit of Genosar, a place that was known to have wonderful soils and climates, is considered so sweet and sticky that we must consume salt with it, like that in sardines, to modify its flavour.  

It seems that the consumption of these fruits might be concerning for many of our rabbis.  in the end, these fruits might keep people awake or instil a sort of confusion or drunkenness. 

Rav teaches us that a meal without salt is not truly a meal.  Rabbi Chiyya bar Abba quotes Rabbi Yochanan in saying that there is no meal without hot food (meaning gravy, says Rashi).

A new Mishna begins with Rabban Gamliel teaching that when we eat grapes, figs and pomegranates (from the seven species), we recite the three blessings of the Grace After Meals as we would after eating bread.  The rabbis said that we are only required to recite one blessing in shortened form from the Grace After Meals.  Rabbi Akiva says that those three blessings need not be restricted to bread.  Instead, they can be used with boiled vegetables if this are one's primary substance.   Further, we are told that one who drinks water should say "by Whose work all things came to be".  Rabbi Tarfon suggests that we say, "Wh creates the many forms of life and their needs".

The rabbis disagree about which blessings should be siad over which foods.  It is suggested that Rav taught us to say "in Whose name all things came to be" before egg or meat and "Who creates the many forms of life" after eating.  But if one eats vegetables as one's meal, then there is no second prayer.  Rav Ashi believes that to be careful, he should recite blessings before and after all things, even drinking water.  

The rabbis turn to the values and dangers of consuming different foods.  Some of what we learn includes:

• a lightly cooked egg is superior to much more wheat
• a cabbage stalk when cooked is a primary substance
• spleen is beneficial to the teeth and damaging to the intestines
• this should be chewed and spit out
• leeks are beneficial to the intestines and harmful to the teeth
• this should be chewed and spit out
• all raw vegetables turn ones face pale
• only if eaten after blood letting; a more substantial food should be eaten at that time
• one cannot eat vegetables before four hours of the day because of the smell of their breath (Rabbi Yitzchak)
• anything not yet grown will stunt our growth
• including a small lamb but once it had reached one quarter of its growth, it is fine to eat
• eating a full grown creature whole restores the soul, for example eating a whole, grown fish
• anything close to the soul restores the soul
• meaning the neck, for that is where the animal was blessed at its slaughter
• cabbage is for nourishment
• beets are for healing
• turnips is harmful
• if eaten without meat, or perhaps without wood (not properly cooked), or perhaps without wine
• eating a small salted fish can kill, especially seven, seventeen, twenty-seven or twenty-three days after having been salted
• drinking beer after eating the salted fish will help
• roasting the fish will help
• one says a blessing before and after drinking water 
• unless one is choking on meat, in which case no blessing is required