The Harmfulness of Pork: A Secular-Based Statement

According to the research carried out by the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet project for the Vital Signs Online, the world’s production of meat has tripled over the last four decades, increasing 20 per cent in just the last 10 years out of which Pork is the widely consumed meat in the world followed by poultry, beef and mutton.

Hernando de Soto is called “The father of the American pork industry,” going back to the history and beginning of the pork consumption in the United States of America. In 1539, de Soto landed in Florida with 13 porks at Tampa bay, and since then pork consumption spread and grew from then on in America. Currently China is the largest producer of porks followed by Thailand and United States of America.

Theologically, Islam, Christianity and Judaism have clearly banned its people from eating pork due to it being a very impure animal and when this topic is actually being discussed about with the other consumers and lovers of pork is when we realize that the other majority of the people aren’t quite aware about how Pork being detrimental is a secular based statement too due to the disadvantages it causes to the human beings and their body’s functional systems. Here are a list of common cons of consuming pork:

1. The problematic digestive system: Human beings and every other animals get rid of their excess toxins as well as other components they’ve eaten that might be harmful for their health while digestion. However, pork’s digestive system rather operates basically as a result of which many of these harmful toxins remain in its system.
2. Few functional sweat glands: Another major drawback of pork is that they have very little functional sweat glands, which means it can barely sweat. Sweat glands help the body get rid of excess toxins which means the very less functional sweat glands of pork leave more of the toxins in its own body without getting rid of it. Hence, when human consume pork, all these toxins that weren’t eliminated from the pigs body passes onto the consumer’s body after they’ve eaten it.
3. Processed Pork meat increases the risk of cancer: It’s not a secret about how processed meat such as ham, bacon and sausages increase the risk of cancer. As a matter of fact, pork is already detrimental due to it having a number of drawbacks like the ones being discussed here about its digestive system, dysfunctional sweat glands etc and in addition to that it’s the chemicals involved in the processing of pork meat which makes it even more harmful and increases the risk of cancer.
4. Swine Flu: Swine influenza virus infections that pass on from pork to human beings have been named as ‘Variant virus infections‘ since the authorities have removed the word ‘Swine‘ from it on 2009. Researching about why the authorities have come to such a decision of removing the word ‘Swine‘ from the influenza name is what seems to be quite suspicious. Was it because it was threatening people away from eating pork and certain countries banning the imports of pork products?… H1N1 and H2N2 are swine flu viruses that are endemic among pig populations in the United States and something that the industry deals with routinely according to the centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a result of which the only precaution one would take to avoid getting affected by swine flu is staying away from pork regardless of whatever name the authorities decide to call the disease in order to cover up the falling of demand for pork based food.
5. Hepatitis E: It’s not a secret about how pork livers are one of the highly consumed pork products as a result of it being a rich source of Vitamin A. What majority of people are unaware about is that Pork liver is ALSO very commonly poisoned by Hepatitis E virus. Hepatitis E is one of the 5 types of hepatitis viruses that causes vomiting, stomach pain, jaundice, fever and on a few rare occasions liver failure and death. Better to avoid it completely than taking the risk of going through all the painful symptoms and risky consequences.
6. Trichinosis: Porks are omnivores. There were two incidents that shook majority of the people around the world about how a farmer was eaten by a pig on 2012 followed by a toddler being eaten by a pig in late 2014. Hence, porks being omnivores who eat anything found on their way including their own feces, carry numerous parasites in their bodies. Certain parasites are even difficult to be killed when cooking. Trichinosis is an infection that humans get from eating uncooked or undercooked pork which contain the larvae of the trichinella worm. This parasite is commonly found in pigs. How this parasite’s breeding inside the pig works is:

When the worm living in cysts in the stomach opens through stomach acids, its larvae are released into the body of the pig. These new worms make their homes in the muscles of the pig. Hence, the next stop is in the human body after they’ve consumed the infected pork flesh. The same breeding process of the worm takes place in the human body.

Hence, this just makes it clear that not just theological reasoning makes sense about why one should avoid the consumption of pork but secular reasons throw bright light on why and how the rulings on avoiding it makes complete sense to human beings.

Photo: Alex Lau