3 Reasons to Eat on Yom Kippur

If you’re in recovery from an eating disorder, from dieting, or are healing your relationship with food, it’s okay to eat on Yom Kippur – and you don’t need a rabbi to tell you that, because you have autonomy over your own body and decisions.

For me, fasting is a destructive reminder of the days I’d starve myself. In the thick of my eating disorder, I did fast on Yom Kippur, and I felt so proud of myself. Something about it made me feel a little extra spiritual; maybe I was lightheaded, or high on moral superiority fed to me by diet culture, which glorifies eating less. 

But since I’ve been in recovery, I’ve stopped fasting. Admittedly, it does feel sort of strange to eat on Yom Kippur while many others do not. If you feel that way too, here are some reminders about why eating the way you normally do on Yom Kippur is the best choice for those in recovery.

You Shouldn’t Fast if it’s Detrimental to Your Health

A rabbi would probably say that you should eat on Yom Kippur if you need to for health reasons. Eating disorders are serious health issues, so if you’re in recovery, eating is crucial for your health. Fasting can easily send you backwards in your recovery, and potentially to a really bad place. And if you haven’t been diagnosed with an eating disorder but still struggle with food, eating on Yom Kippur is a healthful practice to prevent you from slipping into more disordered behaviors. 

You don’t owe anyone an explanation. If it does come up, you can just say, “I can’t fast for health reasons.” 

Taking care of your health in recovery or healing your relationship with food means eating 3 meals a day and staying hydrated, even on Yom Kippur. 

You Can Feel Spiritual in Other Ways

There are other ways to feel spiritual without compromising recovery: 

Take a walk

Sit still in nature

Do some journaling

Pray

Meditate

Be in community

Sing

Move your body/dance

Have a deep conversation

Observe other Yom Kippur customs like wearing white

The idea that fasting is physically cleansing is harmful in itself (we have organs that detoxify our bodies and we need food for those to function properly), let alone the idea that it leads to spiritual cleansing. 

Yom Kippur is not about punishing yourself. It’s about returning to your highest self. Your highest self knows that you need food for nourishment. The idea that we fast so that we can focus more on our souls rather than our bodies is really weird to me; how can anyone focus on anything being hangry all day?! 

You don’t have to feel guilty for feeding yourself; there’s enough guilt in Jewish culture, and actually, eating may be the most sacred thing that people in recovery can do on the “Holiest Day of the Year.” It may actually be harder to eat than to fast if you’re in recovery, so there’s a spiritual challenge if you’re looking for one. 

Fasting Can Lead to Binge Eating

If you’re thinking, “my problem isn’t that I don’t eat enough, it’s that I eat too much,” consider that binge eating and feeling out of control around food is rooted in restriction. Fasting is likely to lead to a binge since your body is deprived of food and naturally wants to make up for that – it’s a biological drive. It’s better to eat consistently throughout the day, even on Yom Kippur.

On the Day of Atonement, forgive yourself for the times you didn’t feed yourself the way you needed to. Do what will be best for your physical, mental, and spiritual health. Goddess wouldn’t want it any other way.