The dangers of pork

[Sefardic Panther]

I am posting these basic biological facts for the benefit of any secular Jews who are under the delusion that Toranic laws are “old superstition”.

Pork
Pigs are notorious for eating anything including their own and any other urine, excrement, dirt, maggots and decaying animal flesh. They will even eat the cancerous growths off other pigs. A pig will eat sick and infected animals, including its own piglets that die from disease.

All the clean animals Hashem said we could eat live only on vegetation! Cows have 4 stomachs and they take over 24 hours to digest their vegetarian diet causing their food to be purified of toxins. In contrast, the pig's single stomach takes only about 4 hours to digest its foul diet, turning its toxic food into flesh.

When a pig is butchered, worms and insects take to its flesh sooner and faster than to other animal's flesh. In a few days the pig flesh is full of worms.

Pigs are notorious for being infected with parasites and tapeworms because they roll around in excrement most of their lives. Pigs have over a dozen parasites within them, such as tapeworms, flukes and trichinae. There is no safe temperature at which pork can be cooked to ensure that all these parasites, their cysts and eggs will be killed.

The trichinae worm is microscopically small, and once ingested can lodge itself in the intestines, muscles, spinal cord or the brain. This results in the disease trichinosis. The symptoms are sometimes lacking, but when present they are mistaken for other diseases, such as typhoid, arthritis, rheumatism, gastritis, MS, meningitis or gall bladder trouble.

Pig meat has twice as much fat as beef and people that consume pork products all the time tend to be overweight and unhealthy.

Pigs are so poisonous that you cannot kill them with strychnine or other poisons.

Doctors use pig fat as a good medium for growing cancer viruses.

I cannot understand why people thought pigs were a good food source. The same people who would never dream of frying slices of rat fry slices of pig all the time and a pig has the same diet as a rat!!! Doctors and scientists must stop wasting time demonising tobacco and instead make the above facts about pork known!!! I bet people who keep kosher and smoke the nargile are far healthier and live far longer than people who eat sausages and bacon for breakfast every day!!!

Shellfish
Shellfish consists of lobster, shrimp, oysters, clams, crabs, scallops, and mussels. All shellfish can be a serious health risk. Like pigs, they are scavengers that live at the bottom of the ocean and eat the waste of other animals and the waste that is pumped into the ocean.

Poisoning from shellfish can come from bacterial or viral contamination. Poisoning can also arise from heat-stable toxins derived from the food that the shellfish have been eating. Shellfish are notorious for being high in mercury, heavy metals, and industrial contaminants in the environment because they are bottom feeders that eat the ocean's waste.

There is a direct relationship between shellfish consumption and cancer. I think it is selfish that doctors don’t warn about shellfish!!!

Blood
Blood transports bodily wastes and poisons to excretory ducts in the body. Infectious diseases such as tuberculosis can be transmitted to humans by ingesting blood of diseased animals.

Kosher butchers are so hygienic that they have been exempted from many USDA regulations.

Circumcision
Bacteria flourish under foreskin! In 1947 a study of 1300 consecutive patients in a Canadian Army unit showed that being uncircumcised was associated with a 9-fold higher risk of syphilis and 3-times more gonorrhea. In Australia a study in 1992 showed that uncircumcised men had more chlamidia. Similarly in 1988 a study in Seattle of 2,800 heterosexual men reported higher syphilis and gonnorrhea in uncircumcised men. Uncircumcised men have a 12-fold higher risk of urinary tract infections. Penile cancer never occurs in men circumcised at birth.

[Lisa]

Interesting.

[muman613]

SP,

We must also be reminded that the reason we were commanded to not eat pork was not simply because it was an unclean animal. That is the simple understanding and sometimes people use it to justify not keeping kosher. The reasons for the mitzvot are to provide the Jewish people a way to come close to Hashem.

From http://www.askmoses.com/en/article/149,2136422/The-Mysterious-Tefillin.html

The essence of the Torah is its commandments, mitzvahs in Hebrew. The word Mitzvah comes from the root meaning "to bind." Every commandment or mitzvah serves to draw us close to G-d and strengthen this connection.

From http://www.milknhoney.co.il/torah/shabbat.html

To this I will give the classic answer that the purpose of the Mitzvot is to come closer to G-d. The humanistic Mitzvot bring us closer to G-d. When we perform humanistic Mitzvot we are actually mimicking the ways of G-d. This is discussed by our Rabbis of blessed memory. Just as G-d is merciful so you should be merciful... just as G-d is slow to get angry so that is how you should be.

It is only human to try to seek out the 'reason' for the mitzvah but we must remember that our reason is only our understanding of why we have a special command. I often don't seek to answer questions about why I do any particular command.

One more quote: http://www.torah.org/features/spirfocus/whatisamitzvah.html#

Mitzvah: Relationship with God

The greatest question of them all is "What is the purpose of life?" The Torah explains that the purpose of human existence is to achieve closeness to God. This is attained via living in accordance with the 613 commandments because each mitzvah, in its own unique way, contains the means for man to forge a relationship with God.

Judaism is not as much a religion as it is a relationship. It is only through mitzvah observance that man can build a deep, enduring, and meaningful relationship with God. The Jew knows that the key to every good relationship is the obligations that it confers. It is a given that the stronger and more intimate the relationship, the more intense the level of responsibility. A husband's commitment to his wife is naturally in a different league than his commitment to a casual acquaintance. Every mitzvah is a demonstration of the fulfillment of obligations because of the close relationship between man and God. That a mitzvah is the very process of forging the bond is contained within the very word mitzvah "commandment," closely related to the word tzavta, meaning "a connection" or "a binding." Mitzvah performance creates a connection between God, the Commander, and man, the one being commanded.

Baruch Hashem!

[Tzvi Ben Roshel1]

(Only glanced at the article), but would like to add that it's not only pork that is terrible. All non-kosher foods have a negative effect on the spiritual "body" of the person, the Tzelem, which is also connected to the physical actually.
  But about it being also disgusting, etc. I would also like to add that non-kosher beef for example also is disgusting because w/o the proper koshering method all the liquids remain in the animal. That is why their are those who say that non-kosher beef is tastier then kosher. That is b/c the piss and all the other juices aren't taken out properly (glatt-kosher Beit Yosef takes is out quickly within 72 hours I believe by salting).

[Sefardic Panther]

Yes indeed muman613. I think Hashem made pork, foreskin etc. dangerous to punish Jews for not performing Mitzwoth and to compel them to perform Mitzwoth.

[JewishAmericanPatriot]

That first post reminds me of things my Italian grandmother used to tell me, lol.

[Ulli]

There is no safe temperature at which pork can be cooked to ensure that all these parasites, their cysts and eggs will be killed.

Wrong! All proteins break at ca 70 degree celsius temperature.

Pig meat has twice as much fat as beef and people that consume pork products all the time tend to be overweight and unhealthy.

True! But the gain of weight depends on your physically work. I.e. there are farmers in Switzerland on the mountains, who eat much more sausages and ham than every other people and they didn't gain weight, because they work so hard. Actually they are very skinny.

Pigs are so poisonous that you cannot kill them with strychnine or other poisons.

This is wrong. Strychnine is a neurotoxin. It will kill any pig very fast.

Shellfish consists of lobster, shrimp, oysters, clams, crabs, scallops, and mussels. All shellfish can be a serious health risk. Like pigs, they are scavengers that live at the bottom of the ocean and eat the waste of other animals and the waste that is pumped into the ocean.

Some of this is true, but you put thousands of species in a container.

Scallops filtrate the water and they take a lot of poisons out of them.

But there are other species like lobster and crabs that basically live like fishes.


I think the sentence of Tzvi is right (for Jews):

All non-kosher foods have a negative effect on the spiritual "body" of the person, the Tzelem, which is also connected to the physical actually.

But this sentence is wrong:

But about it being also disgusting, etc. I would also like to add that non-kosher beef for example also is disgusting because w/o the proper koshering method all the liquids remain in the animal. That is why their are those who say that non-kosher beef is tastier then kosher.

People are willing to pay much higher prices for kosher animals than to non kosher animals. I mean a kilo of pork is a lot of cheaper than a kilo of beef.

This is obviously true. If pork would taste better than beef it would be contrariwise, because more people would like to buy pork than beef.

I personally prefer kosher animals. The taste is better and the texture is better.

Pork you can only make tasty by doing lots of cooking tricks with it.

But beef, goat or sheep you can put in the pan with only oil, salt and pepper and it is devine. 

[Tzvi Ben Roshel1]

"People are willing to pay much higher prices for kosher animals than to non kosher animals. I mean a kilo of pork is a lot of cheaper than a kilo of beef."

 I meant the same animal (one properly killed and salted, the other not).

[Ulli]

"People are willing to pay much higher prices for kosher animals than to non kosher animals. I mean a kilo of pork is a lot of cheaper than a kilo of beef."

 I meant the same animal (one properly killed and salted, the other not).

Oh sorry. I apologize.

[Sefardic Panther]

Pheasant those swiss farmers are probably very skinny because they have worms from all the pork they eat.

I advise people to research the above facts I posted. The diseases people can get from eating pork and the diseases men can get from not being circumcised are very serious! Trichinosis, cancer and syphilis are very difficult or impossible to cure. Is Hashem punishing people for not fallowing the Torah?

Yeshayahu 66:17 –
Hamithqadshim wehamitaharim el-haganoth ahar ahath batawech ocheley besar hahazir wehasheqets weha'achbar yahdaw yasufu neum-Ahdoshem

(Those who sanctify and purify themselves, in the gardens, behind one in the midst, eating pig's flesh, detestable things, and the mouse, will perish together, says G-d)

Shabat shalom and enjoy your kosher meal tonight!

[Cato]

Personally I believe the religous rules against consuming pork are just that, and as a matter of honourable tradition and culture are entirely fine. However, with regard to attempting to justify it on health grounds I have a problem - I would respectfully disagree with most of these arguments, except for the tapeworm danger. Probably this is why the Muslims and Hottentots also refrain from eating pork. As for the character of pigs,  I am told that in the wild they are very clean, and devoted to their young. But why the passion? If you don't want to eat it, don't. Personally I find pork and it's derivatives (bacon, ham) delicious. If someone doesn't like the taste then, again, why eat it? It's a personal matter. As for circumcision, which to my mind is a totally different matter, again the muslims and hottentots would agree with you forcefully. My understanding is that circumcision is not the only cause of sexually transmitted diseases, but again this is a personal matter and I cannot understand why anyone should wish to dictate on this except on grounds of religous tradition. As a medical lecturer once said, you can indeed catch syphilis on a toilet seat but this is one hell of a place to do it.

[Tzvi Ben Roshel1]

Personally I believe the religous rules against consuming pork are just that, and as a matter of honourable tradition and culture are entirely fine. However, with regard to attempting to justify it on health grounds I have a problem - I would respectfully disagree with most of these arguments, except for the tapeworm danger. Probably this is why the Muslims and Hottentots also refrain from eating pork. As for the character of pigs,  I am told that in the wild they are very clean, and devoted to their young. But why the passion? If you don't want to eat it, don't. Personally I find pork and it's derivatives (bacon, ham) delicious. If someone doesn't like the taste then, again, why eat it? It's a personal matter. As for circumcision, which to my mind is a totally different matter, again the muslims and hottentots would agree with you forcefully. My understanding is that circumcision is not the only cause of sexually transmitted diseases, but again this is a personal matter and I cannot understand why anyone should wish to dictate on this except on grounds of religous tradition. As a medical lecturer once said, you can indeed catch syphilis on a toilet seat but this is one hell of a place to do it.

 You are somewhat correct, that the main intention and reason is because G-d said soo, BUT it is also great to then say the logical reasons that are discovered hundreds or even thousands of years later. This goes for circumcision, for Tefillin (meditation tool, makes one reach high auro levels smarter, etc.) , not wearing shatnez (which was discovered by Japanese to cause cancer), and many many more. When said correctly it causes people to see that G-d is Great and what He says is for the best and for our welness in this world and the next.
 When used innapropriatly then it is bad. For example someone saying- pigs are not kosher because (and only because) at the time of the giving of the Torah, pigs were dirty, but now we can raise them clean so therefore they are okay to eat.

[Ulli]

Pheasant those swiss farmers are probably very skinny because they have worms from all the pork they eat.

I advise people to research the above facts I posted. The diseases people can get from eating pork and the diseases men can get from not being circumcised are very serious! Trichinosis, cancer and syphilis are very difficult or impossible to cure. Is Hashem punishing people for not fallowing the Torah?

Yeshayahu 66:17 –
Hamithqadshim wehamitaharim el-haganoth ahar ahath batawech ocheley besar hahazir wehasheqets weha'achbar yahdaw yasufu neum-Ahdoshem

(Those who sanctify and purify themselves, in the gardens, behind one in the midst, eating pig's flesh, detestable things, and the mouse, will perish together, says G-d)

Shabat shalom and enjoy your kosher meal tonight!

I think, that the worm danger is only serious, if you don't heat the meat enough.

In my country there is a tradition to eat raw pig meat, which is put into a passing machine. It is called "Mett". It is served with salt & pepper as well as fresh thin sliced onions.

This is indeed dangerous. I have eaten this kind of dish twice. Friends of me have invited me to.

But this is dangerous, like pufferfish.

All protein-chains break at ca. 70 degree celsius. The DNA is destroyed too at this temperatures.

Please read this issue on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denaturation_(biochemistry)

[Cato]

I have never eaten raw pork, and would never do so for obvious health reasons. However, I did once attend a German Embassy reception in which they served raw minced beef mixed with onion - a sort of "steak tartare". I ate it voraciously and thoroughly enjoyed it. In France I pursue steak tartare but rarely find it nowadays - I believe that there are again parasite concerns, which has lead to them often using horse meat instead of steak. But I guess a rare steak is much the same sort of thing, though there the variant CDG is probably nowadays a far more serious threat.

Now I'm going to shut up and get out of this Torah-Jewish Idea forum before I seriously offend someone..

[Sefardic Panther]

Carreg the way I look at it is this the Torah and Judaism is not a religion it is fact!!! The Torah was revealed to the Yehudim just as in a manner of speaking the law of gravitation was revealed to an english man sir Isaac Newton. I am not an english man so if I jump out the window will the law of gravitation not apply to me?

Don’t get me wrong I am not saying that the Toranic laws were only given for health reasons. My interpretation is if Hashem said pork was kosher and beef was’nt then it would be the cow that lived like a rat diseased and eating waste. I think Hashem made the pig dirty because He gave a rule not to eat pork. He has set a trap for people who break this rule.

In the wild pigs are even dirtier and live like rats. In third world countries where there is no sewerage system pigs come and eat the human urine and excrement out of the toilets. Raising pigs clean on modern western farms would not make them clean. I think trichinosis is a physical manifestation of the spiritual damage caused by eating pork and I would bet that if you ate a pig with no diseases (if there is such a thing) the spiritual damage would manifest in some other way.

[Cato]

I'd still recommend condoms over circumcision as a way of avoiding syphilis.

[Fortis]

If a non-Jew avoids eating meat, fish, eggs, onion, garlic, mushrooms, fermented products (including yeast, all year round) coffee, tea and chocolate, are they actually keeping kosher without realising it?

I am only asking because this is the diet recommended to yoga practioners, and it is known as the 'satvik' diet in India.

 

[Cato]

If a non-Jew avoids eating meat, fish, eggs, onion, garlic, mushrooms, fermented products (including yeast, all year round) coffee, tea and chocolate, are they actually keeping kosher without realising it?

I am only asking because this is the diet recommended to yoga practioners, and it is known as the 'satvik' diet in India.

 

Mushrooms, like all fungi, store carboydrates as glycogen, and do not have cellulose cell walls. In the opinion of most independent taxonomists that places them firmly as animals.

[Fortis]

If a non-Jew avoids eating meat, fish, eggs, onion, garlic, mushrooms, fermented products (including yeast, all year round) coffee, tea and chocolate, are they actually keeping kosher without realising it?

I am only asking because this is the diet recommended to yoga practioners, and it is known as the 'satvik' diet in India.

 

Mushrooms, like all fungi, store carboydrates as glycogen, and do not have cellulose cell walls. In the opinion of most independent taxonomists that places them firmly as animals.

How interesting. In any case, I just avoid them as they are dirty to me.

[Zelhar]

If a non-Jew avoids eating meat, fish, eggs, onion, garlic, mushrooms, fermented products (including yeast, all year round) coffee, tea and chocolate, are they actually keeping kosher without realising it?

I am only asking because this is the diet recommended to yoga practioners, and it is known as the 'satvik' diet in India.

 

Mushrooms, like all fungi, store carboydrates as glycogen, and do not have cellulose cell walls. In the opinion of most independent taxonomists that places them firmly as animals.

How interesting. In any case, I just avoid them as they are dirty to me.

I am vegan and of course I eat mushrooms too. They don't taste like anything from the animal kingdom, well granted there may be some resemblance to shell fish and jellyfish but I don't expect these to taste the same too.

Anyway mushrooms compose a different kingdom of life- not Animal and not Plant.   

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

If a non-Jew avoids eating meat, fish, eggs, onion, garlic, mushrooms, fermented products (including yeast, all year round) coffee, tea and chocolate,

None of this is unkosher.    Only the meat brings an issue of kashrut, which would require proper kosher slaughter to be eaten by a Jew, but a non Jew is not required to keep kosher.    And there are other types of food (which you have not mentioned here) which are in fact forbidden for consumption by a Jew, but a non Jew is permitted to eat them.

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

Mushrooms, like all fungi, store carboydrates as glycogen, and do not have cellulose cell walls. In the opinion of most independent taxonomists that places them firmly as animals.

Anyway mushrooms compose a different kingdom of life- not Animal and not Plant.   

Indeed, mushrooms and other fungi are NOT considered part of the animal kingdom.   Fungi make up a separate kingdom.

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

Carreg the way I look at it is this the Torah and Judaism is not a religion it is fact!!! The Torah was revealed to the Yehudim just as in a manner of speaking the law of gravitation was revealed to an english man sir Isaac Newton. I am not an english man so if I jump out the window will the law of gravitation not apply to me?

This is not a valid comparison because our understanding of the Torah is that the mitzvoth are not binding on the non Jews aside from the 7 mitzvoth set out for bnei noach.   It goes without saying that a person can strive for more and is welcome to convert if they wish to commit to all the Torah, but it is not true that mitzvoth "apply" to them (in the way that the law of gravity applies to all things) if they have not converted and are a non Jew.  They are simply not chayav (not obligated).

Don’t get me wrong I am not saying that the Toranic laws were only given for health reasons. My interpretation is if Hashem said pork was kosher and beef was’nt then it would be the cow that lived like a rat diseased and eating waste. I think Hashem made the pig dirty because He gave a rule not to eat pork. He has set a trap for people who break this rule.

That's nice and all, but it would seem that the way our chachamim understand the Torah is that the prohibition against pork was under the class of mitzvoth known as "chukim."  Rashi states this explicitly in several places in his commentary on chumash, and I believe he was citing the gemara.   But it seems clear that today there is no logical reason why pork should be forbidden.   Medically there is not a problem with eating it.   And usually the people who want to argue that there were medical problems with eating pork in the past, and that there were medical reasons for the mitzvoth when they were given, are the people who wish to say that because it is no longer an issue, and no longer a medical problem, the mitzvah no longer applies.   I'm not sure how you can argue that eating pork is medically damaging or dangerous today.

[ProudAndZionist]

Pork is disgusting food. Brrrrr...chicken is the best! 

[Sefardic Panther]

Nonetheless the kosher dietry laws are still proven to have scientific basis.

The Rambam said that all Mitzwoth including chukim have rational basis (Moreh Nevuchim 3:26).

Worms from pork have infact been found in peoples brains. I BS you not!!!

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/PainManagement/Story?id=6309464&page=1

The argument that pork is alright if you cook it enogh is ridiculous! It’s a well known fact that pigs eat worms and excrement so what you are saying is that worms and excrement are good to eat if you cook them enough.

Even if pigs are raised on modern clean farms their meat will still contain an enormous amount of fat in contrast to other types of meat such as beef and lamb. Pigs are physically very obese animals and they are so enriched with fats that anyone whose diet consists of pork outwardly resembles the animal they eat. Even so-called “lean pork” has more fat because a pig’s fat is intra-cellular (particles of fat inside the cells themselves) while in other animals the fat is found almost exclusively outside these cells in the connective tissues in the form of fat cells. This can be seen when even “lean pork” is fried. It immediately releases fat in a hot frying pan and is usually fried in its own fat.