| IS PORK BAD FOR YOU? |
| It is a contentious topic, and here it’s not just the health gurus who are involved – it’s the religious gurus, too! |
| About 40 percent of all the meat produced on earth is pork. |
| Studies have been done showing the eating pork is not healthy, however some cultures and societies have pork as the main protein in their diets. |
| According to the nay-sayers, problems with pork are: |
| The Bible (and some other Holy works) tells us that pork is not meant for human consumption, because pigs are like vacuum cleaners and eat all the junk lying around. Maybe not in those words, because vacuum cleaners were not invented until a little while later. |
| Pigs eat literally anything – insects, animals (including their own young) and their own feces. So eating pork is like being licked by a dog who has just licked its own backside, and a little worse besides. |
| Whether it is Halal or Haram or Kosher, God has intervened, and pork is in many cases forbidden from the menu. |
| The pig digests everything within four hours. During the (normal) digestive process, excess toxins are processed and expelled. A pig’s digestive system is so basic that many of these toxins remain in its system and are stored in the tissue, ready for our consumption. |
| Processed meat – ham, bacon and sausage included – causes cancer, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). According to whom? According to WHO. Processed meat is classified as a carcinogen. And that includes bacon. |
| Swine flu jumped from pig to human. Flu or flu viruses can be directly transmitted from pigs to humans, and t’other way round. However, it cannot be transmitted by eating properly handled and prepared pork. Cooking pork properly should kill all viruses. |
| Over 95 percent of all pigs in the United States are raised in factory farms. These pigs spend their lives indoors, in cramped conditions with no fresh air or exercise, and are given drugs to keep them breathing and gaining weight. The drugs often cause pigs to become crippled under their own excessive and unnatural weight gain. The likelihood of pigs contracting diseases in those conditions is high, and the subsequent use of antibiotics necessitated. Pigs are developing diseases which are resistant to antibiotics. |
| Pigs carry a variety of parasites in their bodies, which are difficult to kill even when cooking. Human get an infection from eating undercooked pork that contains the larvae of the trichinella worm. If you eat undercooked or raw pork that contains the parasite, your digestive juices dissolve the cyst of the larvae, which releases the parasite into your body. The larvae mature into adult worms in your intestines and reproduce. You may experience abdominal pain, diarrhea, fatigue, nausea and vomiting. Eventually the larvae can burrow into your muscle or other tissue and you will get headache, fever, weakness, muscle pain or pink eye. |
| Surely not |
| Many farmers and people who live in rural areas state that pigs are among the cleanest animals in the yard. |
| Due to the number of animals that are processed on a daily basis, and the constant demand for meat, standards are questionable. Chickens are fed antibiotics, cows are fed grain and other cows. |
| Pork meat is very similar to human flesh, apparently, so when you eat pork you are eating something that tastes like human flesh. |
| Better than pork? |
| Other meats are protein rich and should be better for your health. Grass fed-cows have higher levels of Vitamin A, B, C and E and are more likely to be disease-free than grain-fed cows. |
| Lamb is meat of young sheep usually younger than two years old. Younger meat in considered healthier to the heart and prevents obesity. It’s rich in protein, vitamin B12 and minerals, and is arguably the healthiest red meat on earth. Grass-fed varieties are better, though, unlike grain-fed animals which are given genetically modified (GM) corn and additives. |
| Fish is a good choice, but again avoid farm-raised fish. Farmed fish have high concentrations of antibiotics and pesticides, and lower levels of healthy nutrients. Wild fish excludes the bad and includes the good. Salmon is especially good, with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids and other trace elements. |
| Yet another study has been done, and even though the group involved was very small, it is interesting reading. |
| The study involves a small droplet of blood, a glass slide and a high-powered microscope. The blood is monitored to show changes in response to nutrients, including red blood cells and their tendency to clot. Blood that clots too quickly has been linked to the development of chronic diseases. |
| This is a very basic explanation of what this type of testing involves, but the idea is simple. A test subject eats a particular type of food, a sample of their blood is taken at set intervals, and the blood is examined for symptoms like coagulation (clotting). If the red blood cells are sticking together, it’s a bad sign – an inflammatory response to the food. If they don’t, it’s a good sign – a sign of no adverse reaction. |
| This study tested unmarinated chops, marinated chops, bacon, prosciutto and lamp chops. This was done to test traditional pork preparation, which is marinated in Asia, but cured with salt and a sweetener (and often smoked) in Europe. |
| The typical results were: |
| After eating an unmarinated pork chop, the red blood cells were very sticky, and would disrupt microcirculation. |
| After eating a marinated pork chop, the red blood cells move quite freely, although some groups were stuck together. The blood was within a normal, healthy range. |
| After eating uncured bacon, the blood was completely free of clotting factors. |
| So from these results, it would seem unmarinated pork causes a bad reaction in the blood, but marinated caused no adverse reactions. |
| They did the same study on lamb chops and found no adverse reaction in the blood. In other words, the reaction to unmarinated pork is not the same to unmarinated meat. |
| I think they are saying it’s okay to eat prepared pork and sausages and bacon, but not unmarinated. |
| Whatever they say, there is nothing like bacon, pork bangers and eggs for breakfast. |
David Owen Nunes
David is many faceted, fascinating, fastidious, fair, fabulous and the other F word. He works in the Pensions Industry, plays occasional golf, and dreams of being able to write full time.
