Why is Kosher Food So Attractive?

When deciding which foods to throw in our shopping carts, we take cost, calories and cravings into consideration. But some of our food purchases are driven by emotional, cultural and social cues. Kosher shoppers purchase certain foods to comply with their religious beliefs and guidelines, yet a recent survey found that many of us who are not kosher are laying down extra cash for products marked as such for myriad reasons.

According to Google, "Kosher foods are those that conform to the regulations of kashrut" (Jewish dietary laws). Kosher Fest points out that there are more than 12 million kosher consumers in the United States. Over one million Jewish Americans identify as following a kosher diet year-round, and 3.5 million Muslims and other religions claim to eat kosher products. In fact, the American kosher market grew 10 percent from 2008 to 2010. The kosher food business is a $12.5 billion dollar-a-year industry. While 40 percent of these sales are on the eve of Passover, this one holiday alone definitely does not contribute to the majority of kosher food sales. There are now 125,000 kosher products in U.S. supermarkets. You may be thinking, oy vey, what accounts for this boom in sales?

[Read: Is Kosher Food Safer? ]

Believe it or not, the majority of people who buy kosher products are purchasing them for reasons that don't have anything to do with religion at all. And why has the word "kosher" on food labels become so trendy? Sixty-two percent of people shop kosher because they believe these items are "safer," since they're produced under stricter supervision than the basic food supply that is overseen by government inspection. Food safety, however, has more to do with how a food is handled (cleanliness) and stored (proper cooking and storage temperatures) than a religious practice.

Twenty-one percent of Americans buy kosher occasionally, simply because they prefer a specified product being kosher, whether for flavor, taste or personal preference. The most prominent example of this occasional kosher buy is the hotdog. Kosher hotdogs follow strict guidelines regarding the ingredients that are allowed to be included, which often results in a better quality product when compared with traditional non-kosher hotdogs. But even though they may have to "answer to a higher authority," that doesn't make a kosher hotdog a health food.

[Read: An Easier, Greener Passover Seder .]

So what is unique about kosher foods, and how can "kosher" on the label benefit you? You can be assured that the overseeing and certification of kosher food is done under rigorous conditions and by the use of guidelines that are never abandoned. Unlike government regulations, these are laws that will not change. These assurances, however, do not govern the calorie, sugar, fat or nutritional profile of a food. But when you buy kosher food, here is what you can be sure of:

-- If you're lactose intolerant or have an allergy to dairy products, or if you follow a vegetarian or vegan diet, you can be sure that if a product is marked "parve" it absolutely does not contain any meat, milk or dairy, nor has it come in contact with such products. There is not a chance there will be a mistake.

-- Colorants like carmine, derived from an insect, may be considered "natural" -- but would not be considered kosher, and therefore would not be allowed in kosher foods.

-- Kosher parve products are permitted to contain eggs, honey and fish. These foods may not correspond with the dietary laws of Hinduism or a vegan diet, so be sure to read the ingredient list carefully.

-- Kosher salt is lower in sodium content than table salt. By comparison, 1 teaspoon of kosher salt contains 1120 milligrams of sodium, while the same amount of table salt provides about 2400 mg. This is not an invitation to start shaking things up at the table. The only reason kosher salt is lower in sodium is because the larger the grain, the more space it takes up, therefore having less sodium by volume, not by weight. By weight, all forms of salt contain about the same amount of sodium.

-- If you choose kosher meats, and if you have certain health concerns like high blood pressure, you may need to take sodium content into consideration: Kosher meat typically contains four to six times the sodium content because of the salt used during the koshering process. If you have -- or are at risk for -- high blood pressure, keep this in mind when shopping.

[Read: The Best Foods for Lowering Your Blood Pressure .]

Interestingly, the word "kosher" means "fit." Although kosher foods are carefully watched over and controlled, choosing kosher foods won't automatically make you fit. It takes a little more work than that -- follow a diet filled with delicious, nutritious kosher foods, but don't forget to look beyond the word "kosher" on the label to make wise choices. Check out the book I co-authored with Susie Fishbein, " Kosher By Design Lightens Up , for some dishes that preserve tradition and your health at the same time.

Bonnie Taub-Dix, MA, RD, CDN, has been owner of BTD Nutrition Consultants, LLC, for more than three decades and she is the author of Read It Before You Eat It. As a renowned motivational speaker, author, media personality, and award-winning dietitian, Taub-Dix has found a way to communicate how to make sense of science. Her website is BetterThanDieting.com.