Warnings about eating pork

[Zizzle]

Dr. Mercola is coming out against commercially raised pork. I tested moderately reactive on MTR, so I've been avoiding it, except for the occasional slice of bacon.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... _DNL_art_1

[tex]

Since pork is the primary ingredient in my diet, and has been for many decades, I'm not likely to switch. Pathogens have always been a problem in food, since the beginning of time, and they are the primary reason why we have evolved with a very sophisticated immune system.

Has Dr. Mercola ever actually endorsed any meat? It's easy for him to criticize pork (or any other basic food), because he's not the one who has to try to produce it. In the real world, virtually everything has warts.

Chicken is virtually always loaded with arsenic, salmonella and several other pathogens. Beef is claimed to be loaded with hormones and antibiotics, and who knows what. Fish are loaded with all sorts of heavy metals and other pollutants. Poultry, beef, pork, and fish probably constitute at least 90% of the animal protein available for consumption in this country. So what are we all supposed to eat? Soyburgers?

That said, he's probably quite correct, but realistically, it's probably of academic interest only, from a practical standpoint. We may as well face the facts — there's nothing safe left to eat anymore.

Tex

[JFR]

I had read the Mercola article too and decided to discount it, not that I thought he was necessarily wrong but I eat pork almost every day along with lamb. I am as careful as I can be about the source of my meats and I figure that's the best I can do. I don't eat either chicken or beef because of my enterolab results (I had suspected chicken was a problem long before that). I eat a little fish as well, also being very careful about the source of my fish. SInce I can't give up eating entirely, although I have often wished I could, I try to focus getting the highest quality foods I can. It seems to be working for me, not perfectly, but much better than before.

Jean

[wmonique2]

Z.,

thanks for the warning. I like Mercola (I get this daily newsletter) but sometimes I find him to be an alarmist.

Tex said:
So what are we all supposed to eat? Soyburgers?


Tex, I can't even do that. I'll continue with fish and occasional chicken. Just started eating pork. Not bad.


Monique

[Gabes-Apg]

i have not read the article and am not familiar with pig farming in the USA.

like all ingredients in MC world, you get what you pay for. As much as possible i buy GMO free /organic / gluten free feed etc etc, to minimise the aggrevants that are likely to cause inflammation.

i have a local butcher where all the meat (lamb, beef, pork) is from grass fed farms that are nearby, and the carcus of meat is cut up by the butcher who sells it to me. this butcher also does nitrate free bacon/ham etc.

i imagine that the pork that tex gets in texas is different source to what someone in Boston might have access to??

[MaggieRedwings]

I'm sticking with pork and am very selective about where I buy it.

Love, Maggie

[tex]

i have a local butcher where all the meat (lamb, beef, pork) is from grass fed farms that are nearby, and the carcus of meat is cut up by the butcher who sells it to me. this butcher also does nitrate free bacon/ham etc.

Back in the "good old days" we had the same arrangement. Every small town had a butcher shop. Thanks to the FDA's insistence on very specific restrictions on the types of facilities that are allowed, all but a handful of the small butcher shops are gone forever. These changes were made at the suggestion of (you guessed it) the big national and international meat processors, in order to eliminate the competition from all of the zillions of small shops across the country. At one time, if a batch of meat somehow became contaminated, it went no farther than across town, so there was always a very low limit on how many people might be exposed to any risk. Now, if a batch of meat is contaminated, the problem is almost immediately spread all over the country, because of the huge distribution systems, and millions of people are at risk each time it happens. This is true in almost every industry these days. Only the "Farmer's Markets" have so far managed to escape the clutches of the FDA and their industrial cohorts.

i imagine that the pork that tex gets in texas is different source to what someone in Boston might have access to??

Maybe. But as Maggie says, we have to be very careful, otherwise we can end up with pork that was shipped thousands of miles from some national/international processor.

Tex

[fatbuster205]

i have not read the article and am not familiar with pig farming in the USA.

like all ingredients in MC world, you get what you pay for. i have a local butcher where all the meat (lamb, beef, pork) is from grass fed farms that are nearby, and the carcass of meat is cut up by the butcher who sells it to me.

My sister and her partner had an organic farm in Virginia - Maurice was a chef and had a couple of restaurants and a patisserie - and the farm, which my sister managed, produced most of the produce for the restaurants! Unfortunately, 2008 saw both of them die in separate accidents but the point I am making is that with Whole Foods and stores like that in America I would be confident that there are producers who take the same approach to food production.

I have a local butchers (Jackson's in Ballynure, Co Antrim) which has its own car park!!! The fields all around produce the meat, poultry and eggs and it is awesome! A bit more expensive than supermarkets but there is always a queue irrespective of the time of the day! That says it all in my mind.

I also feel passionately about sourcing local produce, growing my own (on a very small scale) and supporting our farmers who have such a tough time - here in Northern Ireland the average age for farmers is 60! I am lucky enough that I am single and therefore I don't have to budget for a family so I can afford to pay a bit more for quality! I appreciate not everyone can but I would argue that if diet proves to be the best medicine then quality diet is better!

Anne

[Gloria]

I eat pork every three days. I worry more about the histames in it. One of the lists of foods high in histamines that I've found says that pork is relatively high in it.

Gloria

[brandy]

If I didn't have uncured bacon every morning I would starve. Brandy