Diets other than Robert's Archives

Pork hard to digest?

Is pork harder to digest than other meats, specifically beef & chicken? The owner of our local health food store refuses to carry pork because she says that it is hard to digest and she won't recommend it to any of her "clients" (she also has some sort of "natural" medical practice, although I'm unsure of her qualifications for this.) This is of great concern to me as we are the fourth generation to raise hogs ON PASTURE, with organic grain, protein, & mineral supplementation. From the research that I've read, I've concluded that a diet should not be based on a non-ruminant meat source, such as pork or chicken, but rather on a GRASS-FED ruminant source - beef or lamb. But if all production practices are equal (pasture-raised, no antibiotics, etc.) is pork really worse than chicken for an additional source of protein? Are there any known digestive problems associated with pork?

Follow Ups:

• Re: Pork hard to digest? ARCHIVE in diet. Walt Stoll 07:22:49 3/29/00 (0)

In Reply to: Pork hard to digest? posted by grassygal on March 27, 2000 at 11:44:19:

Hi, Grassygal.

I was born and raised on a mixed farm in northern Ohio and we raised lots of, commercially raised, porkers. However, 20 years after I left the farm to become an MD, I began to understand some physiology:

First of all, wild meat contains all of the essential oils most of us are now deficient in. A lack of these oils is basicaly caused by their absence in commercially fed animals.

Many chronic conditions are at least related to their deficiency. Your porkers are likely not nearly so deficient but, you are asking about the average--are you not? The way you are raising YOUR animals is another advertisement for why people should use them at twice the price of the ersatz stuff sold in the supermarket.

The higher the fat in meat, the harder it is to digest. This relates to gallbladder disease, among other things. The way you raise your pigs, their fat content is likely no more than the other animals fed in feedlot conditions. However, if the other animals were raised the way your pigs are THEY would have lower fat content in THEIR meat. The essential oils help our bodies METABOLIZE the other fats, so without them present, we tend to develop high cholesterol, certain cancers, etc.

IF everyone only ate YOUR pork, and only used it as poorer countries do--as a flavoring--I would see no problem with it and actually would favor it being included in the general diet. However, the way comercial pork is raised in this country, and the way it is used, I would agree with your health-food store owner.

NOW, considering that your friend who owns the health food store has studied this a lot more than you have (probably more than I have), I have no doubt that she knows all of this. However, I have only scratched the surface of the total explanation of your questions and you can see how much I have put into it. How does she explain the nuances of this to everyone without doing it full time? She practically has to just take a stand. In the reality of this culture she will help more people with what she is saying than she would trying to teach what she knows so people can make their own choices.

I hope this has been an opening to what you need to know to help promote your product. A good reference would be Udo Erasmus' classic "Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill".

THEN, if you still have questions, write again.

Keep up the good work you are doing. The world will eventually come to you. In the meantime, do your best to become an expert in all of this and teach your community.

Namaste`

Walt