Dig on Swine Man

I recently came across another ‘article’ letting me know what God doesn’t want to tell me himself. This time it was 15 reasons God doesn’t want us to dig on swine. The only reason this is getting the blog treatment is because there were SO many incorrect statements (spoiler alert: ALMOST ALL OF THEM) that I really just couldn’t let it pass me up. So please, fire up the grill, toss on some ribs and enjoy this post.

• A pig is a real garbage gut.It will eat anything including urine, excrement, dirt, decaying animal flesh, maggots, or decaying vegetables. They will even eat the cancerous growths off other pigs or animals.
  • So do a TON of other animals we eat. Hell, WE we eat some of the things in this list. Regardless, this statement relies on a misunderstanding of how digestion works. The items they eat are either broken down to their constituent parts or they are excreted. The ‘urine’ for example would not pass from the gut to the muscle (the part you eat) in any meaningful way. The pig doesn’t store the ‘feces’ it encounters in its muscles or fat. This is just basically tricking people who don’t understand biology.
• The meat and fat of a pig absorbs toxins like a sponge. Their meat can be 30 times more toxic than…beef or venison.
  • Toxins like what? An example would be nice… is there bleach in there? What? 30 times more toxic. Again, 30 times WHAT number exactly? Not to mention that modern farm raised pigs are give exceptionally good food and are not often allowed to forage or even access the urine and feces mentioned above. Just making a statement as if it is fact, does not in fact make it fact.
• When eating beef or venison, it takes 8 to 9 hours to digest the meat so what little toxins are in the meat are slowly put into our system and can be filtered by the liver. But when pork is eaten, it takes only 4 hours to digest the meat. We thus get a much higher level of toxins within a shorter time.
  • This simply is false or at the very least unfounded. It takes no less or more time to digest one mammal meat over another. Oh, and take note where he mentions the LIVER is the organ responsible for toxin removal.

• Unlike other mammals, a pig does not sweat or perspire. Perspiration is a means by which toxins are removed from the body. Since a pig does not sweat, the toxins remain within its body and in the meat.
  • First, pigs DO have sweat glands, just not very many. Sweating is a function used for cooling, not toxin removal. This is again a play on people that have no knowledge of general biological function. Fish don’t sweat, they drink urine and eat feces… why aren’t we against fish? Can Muslims eat sushi? If so, a lot of the rest of this article is going to make noooooo sense…
• Pigs and swine are so poisonous that you can hardly kill them with strychnine or other poisons.
  • A) this makes no sense, something BEING poisonous doesn’t make it resistant to poisons. B) It takes MORE strychnine to kill a person than a pig. The LD50 in dogs/cattle/horses/pigs is .5-1mg per kg. In people, its 1-2mg / kg. So, this is just a lie.
• Farmers will often pen up pigs within a rattlesnake nest because the pigs will eat the snakes, and if bitten they will not be harmed by the venom.
  • There are several animals that have been found to have convergently evolved ammino acids in their nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. So, if a pig were bitten, would it be unhealthy to eat? No. This is a play on people not knowing the difference between venom and poison. Poison is ingested venom is injected. We can safely suck the venom out of a wound, because it requires direct injection into the blood stream. There are also studies showing the significantly lowered efficacy of hemorrhagic toxins.
• 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 swine flesh is full of worms.
  • This might be true depending on the conditions the pigs are raised, butchered and stored in. Improper care of ANY meat can make it dangerous to consume.
• Swine and pigs have over a dozen parasites within them, such as tapeworms, flukes, worms, 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.
  • While there is a historical basis for caution regarding trichinosis, it’s no longer a threat that should concern U.S. pork consumers. In fact, the odds of getting trichinosis from eating pork sold at retail stores is only 1 in 154 million.

• Pig meat has twice as much fat as beef. A 3 oz T bone steak contains 8.5 grams of fat; a 3 oz pork chop contains 18 grams of fat. A 3 oz beef rib has 11.1 grams of fat; a 3 oz pork spare rib has 23.2 grams of fat.
  • Yeah, that’s why we trim the fat off pork products… Duh. Or, you could go with lean pork, which has less fat than most other meats.
• Cows have a complex digestive system, having four stomachs. It thus takes over 24 hours to digest their vegetarian diet causing its food to be purified of toxins. In contrast, the swine’s one stomach takes only about 4 hours to digest its foul diet, turning its toxic food into flesh.
  • Another attempt to confuse people who don’t know anatomy and physiology. A cow needs 4 stomachs to digest cellulose (its basically wood) which it eats. A pig doesn’t eat this, so it needs one stomach. Toxins, as we know, are cleared from the body by the liver and kidneys, which both cows and pigs have one of. (one liver, one set of kidney)
• The swine carries about 30 diseases which can be easily passed to humans. This is why God commanded that we are not even to touch their carcase (Leviticus 11:8).
  • First, its carcass. Second, if you COOK your food properly, there is almost a zero chance of disease transfer. Zoonotic diseases (ones that can actively pass between different species of animals) are fairly rare in the large scheme of things. But lets get detailed on this one. Pigs carry (or can carry) around 60 diseases. 10 of those are bacterial and 9 of those you come into contact with on an almost daily basis. Prevention is washing hands and proper food handling. 5 of the diseases are viral and influenza is the most common, the others are either rare or nonfatal in humans. 6 are internal parasites, fungi or mites ALL of which are preventable through hand washing and proper cook temperatures. ALL of the rest, are destroyed in proper cooking. Moral of the story? Cook your food.
• The trichinae worm of the swine is microscopically small, and once ingested can lodge itself in our 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, gall bladder trouble, or acute alcoholism. (In addition: One of the biggest concerns with eating pork meat is trichinellosis or trichinosis. This is an infection that humans get from eating undercooked or uncooked pork that contains the larvae of the trichinella worm. This worm parasite is very commonly found in pork. When the worm, most often living in cysts in the stomach, opens through stomach acids, its larvae are released into the body of the pig)
  • See above. I think we already discussed how rare this disease is. Again…cook. Your. Food.
• The pig is so poisonous and filthy, that nature had to prepare him a sewer line or canal running down each leg with an outlet in the bottom of the foot. Out of this hole oozes pus and filth his body cannot pass into its system fast enough. Some of this pus gets into the meat of the pig. (That is the reason why pigs’ feet are so sticky when cooked)
  • This is just simply false. Dissect a pig, look at a pig, or better yet just take an anatomy class. This is a ludicrous claim. Why are religious people seemingly so against doing any research at all?
• According to Jewish law, pork is one of a number of foods forbidden from consumption by Jews. These foods are known as “non-kosher” foods. In order for a meat to be kosher, it must first come from a kosher animal. A kosher animal must be a ruminant and have split hooves – therefore cows, sheep, goats and deer are all kosher, whereas camels and pigs (having each only one sign of kashrut) are not kosher.
  • True, but who gives a shit? There are a couple of historical reason pigs were off the menu, but they primarily lay with the fact that pigs required so much water.
• 15) Quran, Holy book of Muslims also prohibits consumption of pork.
• “HE has made unlawful for you that which dies by itself and blood and the flesh of swine and that on which the Name of any other than The One G-D has been invoked. But he who is driven by necessity, being neither disobedient nor exceeding the limit, then surely, G-D is Most Forgiving, Merciful.” Quran 2:173
  • Again, true, this is in Koran, but who gives a shit? The Bible says rabbits chew cud. Spoiler, they don’t.