4 pre-fast dinner party ideas for Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur is a day of fasting and it's a popular tradition to have communal meals before the sun goes down on the holiday's first night. Check out this list of dinner party tips to make it a great one.

• One of the most important steps to prepare for a Yom Kippur fast is hydrating. Make sure you place multiple pitchers of water on the dinner table so that people can continuously hydrate as they eat.
• Check the water pitchers regularly, and make sure that they always stay full. When people leave your house to go to services, give them bottles of water if the sun is still out so that they can have one last minute bit of hydration before the fast begins.

• Instead of serving extremely high carb meals that are sugary, make sure you serve a good mixture of healthy proteins and carbs at a pre-fast meal.
• Simple carbs, such as white pasta and white bread, cause spikes and crashes in people's blood sugar. They also make it difficult to not eat during the day of fasting.
• Try serving sweet potatoes and roasted chicken to ensure that you nourish everyone while also giving them something to provide sustenance throughout the next day.

• When serving guests for a pre-Yom Kippur dinner, you should also decide to skip dessert and coffee. One thing that makes Yom Kippur fasts so difficult is withdrawal from addictive substances.
• White sugars and caffeine are particularly addictive, and having them before the fast can cause feelings of jitteriness and headaches when the inevitable caffeine crash occurs.
• By skipping dessert and coffee, you can help people feel stable and healthy during the Yom Kippur fast.

• One of the worst things people do before a fast is overstuff themselves. Eating tons the night before the fast will not help people from wanting to eat the next day. Instead, it will make them hungrier and stretch their stomachs while also spiking their blood sugar.
• Additionally, make sure to provide a dish that uses oil and fats since these ingredients are slow to pass through your digestive tract. This means they'll keep your stomach full for longer.