Princeton, NJ – Being Jewish is good for your health.
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U.S. adults who say they are very religious have higher overall well-being than their counterparts who are moderately religious, so says the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, a newly released survey that asked more than half a million Americans about their physical and emotional health, workplace satisfaction and health-related behavior. Jews scored the highest of any religious group, achieving an overall score of 69.8, placing them above the atheists and agnostics, Catholics, Mormons, and other religious communities. Protestants scored the lowest, with a 64.8.
The link between religious observance and good health is not entirely clear.
Jews have the highest well-being of any of the faith groups, followed by atheists/agnostics, Catholics, Mormons, Muslims and Protestants. However, 55 percent of U.S. Jews were classified as non-religious and 16 percent say they were very religious.
This suggests a well-being benefit to the church-, synagogue- and mosque-going experience that is independent of religious faith, but may capitalize on the social aspects of attending services, Gallup officials say.
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index research is based on an analysis of more than 372,000 interviews conducted Jan. 2, 2009, to July 28, 2010. The margin of error is 5 percentage points to 6 percentage points.
So 16% of the Jewish People who call themselvs “very religious”, are the considered the most happy people, followed by atheiest etc.
The report is somehow omitting the cardinal queation, of the 16% percent of “very religious Jews”, which group sect are they:
Rachmistrivke, Chabad, Bobov, Breslov, Satmar, Litvak’s, Skver, Viznitz, Pupa, Gur, Belze, Munkatch, Boyan, Slonim, Toldas Aharon, Toldos AY, shomer Amunim, Modzitz, Premishlan, Sadiger, Sephardic, Yamenits…. And the list goes on and on.
Greats news! Add to that regular exercise, maintaining one’s weight in a reasonable period, avoiding cigarette smoking and excessive alcohol intake, and we can have even more reason to be happy.
Given the prevalence of smoking and obesity in the frum world, I’d take this information with a huge grain of salt (if my doctor would let me).
To #1
You forgot Breslav and Lubavich
16% is such a gross exaggeration – no more than 5% of jews in this country can possibly be qualified as very religious (frum), with at most other 5% as moderately religious (modern), the rest being completely secular (conservative reform and nothing at all) – that it puts the veracity of whole survey in big doubt. I don’t think it’s legitimate.