So-called experts will argue that properly cooking pork at 167 degrees Fahrenheit will destroy the bacteria and worms in it. However, most who cook pork are not as careful as those conducting a laboratory study. Simple organisms like these worms are remarkably resilient, and just cooking the pork does not make it safe.
And some of these parasites, like trichinosis, can be incredibly hard to detect. Former chairman of the New York Trichinosis Commission, Senator Thomas C. Desmond, stated, "Physicians have confused trichinosis with some 50 ailments, ranging from Typhoid Fever to Acute Alcoholism...That pain in your arm or leg may be Arthritis or rheumatism, but it may be trichinosis. That pain in your back may mean a gall-bladder involvement, but it may mean trichinosis."
The Body's Response
Another interesting fact about pork is related to how the human body digests animal fat. The process is called hydrolysis. Studies show that when you eat animal fat, it undergoes a conversion process that changes it from beef fat, for instance, into human fat--the form in which it is stored in the body. This allows the body to remove some of the toxins and to create tissue that is able to be converted into energy when needed.
Yet, pork is not subject to hydrolysis. Anytime you have pork chops or sausage, its fat is stored in the body as PORK FAT! As we have seen, fat stores much of the toxins. Therefore, you are storing the most toxic form of the animal!
As previously stated, when the body does not know how to deal with something--like toxins--it isolates it. In the case of toxins, it stores them in fat. Since your body was never designed to ingest swine fat, it does not know how to do deal with it. So it isolates it, unchanged as pig fat on your body!
And this tissue is not even useful for energy. To convert these pork fat deposits into usable energy, the body must burn up large amounts of glucose--an essential element of brain function. This can lead to a feeling of chronic hunger, which leads to the consumption of more meat--and the vicious cycle continues.
Studies have also shown that those who regularly eat pork are more prone to ulcerous skin infections. This should not be surprising, because ulcerous skin infections are COMMON on living pigs and, as we have seen, cooking does not kill all the worms and parasites in pork.
Cleaners--Not Clean Meat
Pigs are designed as natural vacuum cleaners. They will eat just about anything--garbage, carcasses or even their own urine and feces. Most of this consumption causes no harm to the pig. They were designed to do such things. They are so efficient at the task that when land is cleared for a golf course, pigs are let loose to eat all the poisonous snakes--with no harm to the pigs.
Every animal has its purpose. Scavengers, such as the pig, are designed to clean--not to be eaten! Some of the "cleaning" features of the pig are remarkable.
One such feature is located under its hooves. Often referred to as poison ducts or running sores, these "sores" act as a conduit for poisons to ooze from the pig's body. This is one reason pigs can eat poisonous snakes that would kill other creatures and not be affected themselves. However, these ducts will often become "plugged" from the amount of toxins pigs must excrete from their bodies. If this becomes the case, a farmer must quickly have the pig slaughtered and sent to the market before it dies. As you may well imagine, the meat from such an animal is riddled with parasites and toxins.
One case-in-point: A mink farm in New Holstein, Wisconsin ordered beef livers to feed their minks. The supplier accidentally shipped pig livers instead. The result? Every mink that ate the livers died!
The toxicity of the animal is not just limited to meat and organs! Even the saliva of the pig can be horribly infectious. In fact, one disease, called "mad itch," will cause a cow to rub all the skin from its mouth--to the point of suicide. All that is required for cows to contract this disease is to come in contact with a pig's saliva residue in shared food supplies!
Worm Civilizations
Inside the animal is a myriad of worms and parasites. For instance, a pig can sustain 19 different kinds of worms inside its body. Some have very minor effects in humans, but others have much more long-lasting effects.
One such organism is the worm responsible for trichinosis. This is also the most widely published of the worms found in pork that affect humans.
Like most organisms found in pork, this worm is contracted when one consumes meat containing trichinae larva. Once in your intestine, these larvae hatch from their protective cysts and grow into adult roundworms. These roundworms then produce offspring that can burrow through your intestinal wall. From this point, they enter your lymphatic system and can move throughout your body via the bloodstream. They then implant themselves in tissues that allow them to grow.
Studies have shown that their larvae have been found in heart, diaphragm, lung and brain tissue. Those infected with trichinosis can experience a wide range of symptoms--abdominal discomfort, cramping, diarrhea, muscle pain (especially muscle pain with breathing, chewing, or using large muscles) and fever. If the damage to the tissue is severe, the long-term problems are never-ending.
And this is just one of the 19 parasites found in pork!