I never thought this day would come… I feel like I’ve avoiding it for the last decade of my life. I was having a conversation with a friend….about meat… more specifically, pork. Now, I’ve heard people say that pork is disgusting (the people who don’t eat it of course). But I’ve never personally known someone that didn’t consume pork. I mean… I’ve been known to eat a pig from the ‘rooter to the tooter’ for lack of better words. I mean, I eat bacon, sausage, bologna, potted meat, Vienna sausages, hotdogs, chitterlings, pork chops, pork steaks…. YOU GET THE PICTURE. I lovedddd pork. There was nothing ANYONE could tell me about it.
Let’s be clear, I’ve heard people say pigs are disgusting. But I’ve never heard anyone say why. I just assumed it was because they lived in pigsty’s, and rolled around in dirt for fun (later found out they roll around in dirt to cool off, because THEY DONT SWEAT …EWWW). But sorry to tell you. It gets worse. Did you know that pigs are considered ‘unclean’ in both the Muslim religion and Christianity? In the Muslim community, pork is considered “Haram” meaning prohibited. Now I know that we don’t typically follow the bibles commandments/ rules to the ‘T’. But there must be a reason why this is the case. I’ve looked into it and there is actually a list of food that is considered unclean in the Bible. See the insert below: For more information or more animals considered unclean, see Leviticus Chapter 11.
The most common unclean animals that we consume on the regular are:
Pig (hog, bacon, ham, lard, pork, most sausage and pepperoni)
Crab
Crawfish / crawdads
Lobster
Mussels
Oysters
Scallops
Shrimp (prawn) (often referred to as cockroaches of the sea)
Catfish
Now, that’s just a short list of the unclean animals listed in the Bible. You may be wondering. Why are these animals considered unclean?
1.A pig will eat ANYTHING.
I mean, they are some straight savages. They’ll eat dirt, they’ll eat shit, if they’re hungry. Hell, they’ll eat each other (their friends, their kids), if that’s the only option. Unfortunately, the conditions in which pigs live, are cramped and disgusting. Many pigs don’t leave their living quarters for anything (not even fresh air). You know the saying, don’t shit where you eat? Well, farmed animals are an exception to that rule. While many animals would just wallow around in the shit, if the pig gets hungry, they’ll eat it. In addition, those tight living quarters are a breeding ground for sickness. Some pigs die, and there are carcass in their living quarters. If it takes the farmer too long to remove the carcass and the pig is hungry, the pig will eat said carcass.
This is because a pig is considered a scavenger (think of a vultures). If you don’t remember from grade school lessons, a scavenger is an animal or organism that feeds on dead, organic matter. Don’t get me wrong, scavengers play an important role in our ecosystem. They eat the waste in our ecosystem, to help prevent diseases. By eating these dead carcasses or organisms, they prevent that dead animal from rotting and breeding flies. If flies eat the rotted animals or organisms, they can carry those ailments and transfer them to humans, in the form of bacteria, salmonella and disease. The pigs role in this is to consume the animal or organism, so the flies aren’t able to transfer those diseases to us humans (as we can get sick and die from these diseases and viruses). The pigs body is able to process these carcasses and turn it into compost, without getting sick.
2. If the pig eats any thing and we eat the pig.. then we could be eating anything.
So I’m sure you’re thinking, THIS SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD THING!! And it can be… if we let it. However, when we consume that pork (bacon, sausage, pork chops, porksteaks, etc.) we may be consuming those viruses and diseases. I say that because (from my understanding and research), a pigs digestive system isn’t nearly as good as ours. So they eat all of those things that have toxins and bacteria inside them, and are quite disgusting, only for those things to remain in their body. A typical pigs digestive system takes 4 hours to process. Our bodies take about 24 hours to process. The problem with that is this, if they’re body processes so quickly, it can’t possibly be efficient. So while they may be passing somethings out of their system, a large amount of those toxins are left in their body, and becomes apart of their flesh. So if a pig eats shit at 9 AM, is killed at 12 PM. When the butcher gets that meat at the slaughter house, the shit is still in the pigs body. When you consume that food at home, guess what? You could be eating meat, actually, you probably are eating meat that has toxins in it.
3. Their living conditions can be deplorable.
Just like many other farmed animals, pigs live in crowded conditions with poor ventilation, and very minimal, if any access to outdoors. These conditions often cause pigs (and other farmed animals) to get sick. In order to keep the pigs alive (and other animals) alive in those conditions, they are regular given a steady diet of antibiotics. Could you imagine what would happen if we constantly took the same antibiotics over and over again? (1) the antibiotic would stop working or (2) our body would come resistant to the anti biotic or create a new strand of the illness that we have. So when you think about it, consuming pork (or other farmed animals) that have been given antibiotics over and over again, that may make the antibiotics we use when we get sick ineffective, as our bodies may become immune to them.
Maybe all of this information isn’t a big deal to you.. I’m not here to judge. I’m just here to share the knowledge from the little amount of research that I’ve done. There are definitely more things to considered when consuming particular foods.. and I’ll probably go into more detail about that information in another post. When I learned this information it was about 6 months ago. I haven’t had pork since. You’ll make your own mind up. But I’ll say this. Please don’t be discouraged because everybody seems to be avoiding meat after watching the ‘What the Health’ documentary… It upsets me to think that we can wear the same hairstyle that’s in style.. or wear the same type of shoes or clothes that are in style.. but when it comes to something beneficial that everyone seems to be doing, we speak negatively about the people that decide to follow the trend for whatever reason.
In 2018.. let’s not be mad at those who say, ‘New year, new me,’ or those who attempt to follow New Year Resolutions. It should never be frowned upon for someone to try to improve themselves. Even if they fail, at least they tried and you know what they say, ‘Nothing beats a failure, but a try.’
astoldbymickb 