The Adverse Effects of Pork

[Narnian]

I can't give up my salt cured ham - mmmmmmmmmmm.

I wonder if there is a way to make sushi kosher?

My daughter tried horse sushi in Japan.

[Shyal_malkes]

I'll just follow the LDS guidelines for food and drink...


...right after I'm done downing all these cookies.

[Rangers]

And the coffee's done.

[Earl McClaw]

hm. I'll have to give deporkification a shot.
well. after I finish that slab of bacon I got in the fridge for BLTs.....

There's an incident during the Entebe hijacking that goes along with this idea. (Remember the terrorists who kept their hijacked plan in Idi Amin's country and the Israli raid that recovered the passengers? Made into the TV movie Raid on Entebe?)

It seems that at least once when the passengers were fed, those who kept kosher were fine. Those that didn't got sick.

[UncleMonty]

I've never noticed any increase in illness during the times I was eating more pork than chicken or beef, but we're all different I guess... Maybe I was just lucky.

I can understand why some creatures were banned, though. Pigs, dogs, shrimp, crabs, and a lot of others will readily consume carrion... In a primitive setting, "carrion" might include human flesh. Eating the meat of an animal that has been feeding from a human corpse could be a possible vector for the spread of disease.

[Solarfox]

Don't be so hesitent to dismiss the dietary laws just because certain diseases have been done away with. I read a book that stated there's research proving a pig's digestive system is not so great. Toxins that other animals filter out ends up in the meat of the animal.

Now, I don't know what study this was, or if it's even true

Unless you can cite an actual peer-reviewed source for this, I'd have to categorize this solidly in the "urban legend" and/or "PETA propaganda" categories. I can find no definitive source for these claims in Google; all I can find is a bunch of websites (a number of which have somewhat suspect credentials) all repeating the same scary-sounding talking points with no hard sources or attributions for their claims.

[Shyal_malkes]

I'm not sure but has anyone mentioned that God may have just been trying to test their faith?

[TMLutas]

Don't be so hesitent to dismiss the dietary laws just because certain diseases have been done away with. I read a book that stated there's research proving a pig's digestive system is not so great. Toxins that other animals filter out ends up in the meat of the animal.

Now, I don't know what study this was, or if it's even true

Unless you can cite an actual peer-reviewed source for this, I'd have to categorize this solidly in the "urban legend" and/or "PETA propaganda" categories. I can find no definitive source for these claims in Google; all I can find is a bunch of websites (a number of which have somewhat suspect credentials) all repeating the same scary-sounding talking points with no hard sources or attributions for their claims.

Try looking up "trichinosis". While you can get it from other animals, pork products are the worst risk or so says the NYS Dept of Health.

[UncleMonty]

I'm not sure but has anyone mentioned that God may have just been trying to test their faith?

Humanity does tend to remember things longer if a little bit of ceremony and ritual are added, but look at some of the things Leviticus contains... Instructions to dig a hole in the ground away from your camp to bury your excrement? Imagine what a reaction that radical new law must have created, with some people arguing that they've been just dropping a load wherever and whenever the need occurred all of their lives and dangit - THEY never got sick from it!

[Solarfox]

Try looking up "trichinosis". While you can get it from other animals, pork products are the worst risk or so says the NYS Dept of Health.

Thank you, Mr. Obvious. I am aware of trichinosis and its association with pork, yes. Such association is why pork tartare is generally not a good item to have on the menu.

That, however, was not the object at issue. The claim under dispute is that pork contains high quantities of chemical toxins, which end up in the meat due to the animal's "poor digestive system," which cannot be removed or neutralized even by cooking. It is this claim (along with the other whacked-out claims that generally accompany it on the aforementioned sites with somewhat suspect credentials and agendas) that, unless someone can produce a documented, scientifically peer-reviewed source, I am calling a load of fetid dingoes' kidneys.

[Narnian]

<snip> unless someone can produce a documented, scientifically peer-reviewed source, I am calling a load of fetid dingoes' kidneys.

Hmmm, I wonder how one would properly prepare fetid dingoes' kidneys?

[Sharuuk]

<snip> unless someone can produce a documented, scientifically peer-reviewed source, I am calling a load of fetid dingoes' kidneys.

Hmmm, I wonder how one would properly prepare fetid dingoes' kidneys?

Probably smothered in "feta'd" cheese?

S'aaruuk

[Tbolt]

* Walks in with a snack tray, filled with oblong brown objects *

Hors-d'oeuvres anyone?

=O.O=

What?!

They're vienna sausages!

...

Seriously!

...

...

I think...

[RHJunior]

The claim under dispute is that pork contains high quantities of chemical toxins, which end up in the meat due to the animal's "poor digestive system,"

Not to be too simplistic--- but dang, look at what they eat!

Pigs will eat anything. Literally ANYTHING. And it doesn't take much to figure that what they eat will have detrimental effects on the flesh of the animal.

But let us stop and take note that the law didnt just apply to pigs. It applied to many animals. In order to be kosher an animal had to have both a cloven hoof and chews the cud. Cows, sheep, and goats do. Pigs do not. However, rabbits are also mentioned in this regard.... which shows a rather advanced knowledge of biology. Rabbits DO "chew the cud" for the same reason that cows and sheep do; in order to more thorougly digest their food

The main difference being that in the case of rabbits, the "cud" passes all the way through the body.

Yup. They reconsume their own poop. Isn't that a lovely thought?


Not to say that they had zoology professors running around at that time that figured that out. But one can suppose you can learn a lot about nature when you're a shepherd with nothing better to do than stare at it for days on end.....

[Squeaky Bunny]

The claim under dispute is that pork contains high quantities of chemical toxins, which end up in the meat due to the animal's "poor digestive system,"

Not to be too simplistic--- but dang, look at what they eat!

Pigs will eat anything. Literally ANYTHING. And it doesn't take much to figure that what they eat will have detrimental effects on the flesh of the animal.

But let us stop and take note that the law didnt just apply to pigs. It applied to many animals. In order to be kosher an animal had to have both a cloven hoof and chews the cud. Cows, sheep, and goats do. Pigs do not. However, rabbits are also mentioned in this regard.... which shows a rather advanced knowledge of biology. Rabbits DO "chew the cud" for the same reason that cows and sheep do; in order to more thorougly digest their food

The main difference being that in the case of rabbits, the "cud" passes all the way through the body.

Yup. They reconsume their own poop. Isn't that a lovely thought?

Not quite. Rabbits produce the bacteria that breaks down cellulose in the cecum and it goes through the same plumbing as fecal matter, so the two are easily confused. Your standard bunny bullets are (usually) hard and round while cecal pellets look like a small cluster of shiny grapes. Rabbits do not eat their own waste, but just the bacteria to break down the grasses they eat.

Not to say that they had zoology professors running around at that time that figured that out. But one can suppose you can learn a lot about nature when you're a shepherd with nothing better to do than stare at it for days on end.....