To eat or not to eat pork on carnivore diet comes up every now and then. Some people love it some people can’t stand it. What’s up with Pork?
PORK IS RED MEAT
Sometimes people will discuss pork as though isn’t red meat and therefore inferior to beef.
It is true that when you cook pork it gets paler in color, however because of its content of myoglobin, and nutritional profile, it is red meat.
PORK ISN’T RUMINANT
Pigs don’t have rumen in their stomachs. Rumen is part of the stomach that allows cows and sheep digest things like cellulose. Pigs are classified as omnivores with digestive systems like humans. Some people also believe that because pigs don’t have rumen pork is inferior to beef.
PORK IS CONSUMED IN LARGE QUANTITIES
Pork is consumed all over of the world in large quantities in much of East Asia, Europe, and Americas. Based on a comparison of 146 countries in 2018, Poland ranked the highest in pork meat consumption per capita with 57.6 kg followed by Hungary and Spain (Source: Faostat)
Hong Kong which has the highest meat consumption per capita has also highest life expectancy, and they consume the most of pork in Asia.
PORK ISN’T DIRTY
For some reason pork has a reputation of being dirty meat. One wonders where this came from, so let’s look at some historic records.
Wherever there are humans there are pigs. They evolved from boars and as human settlements started to expand and forests shrunk, pigs adapted from foraging to scavenging for scraps they found around towns and villages. In the Medieval Europe it was normal to defecate in the streets, and pigs were often seen going through human poop in search of food, hence the perception of pigs being dirty.
In the Middle East not eating of pork is a matter of religion. The most common belief in the Middle East, though debunked, is that pigs are full of parasites.
Some nonreligious scholars explain this as that this was in fact dictated by economics. It takes lots of water to raise pigs and that always was a concern on the African continent.
Watch my video version of pork or no pork on carnivore diet here:
POLY UNSATURATED FATS IN PORK
There has been a debate here in the USA about polyunsaturated fats in pork. Therefore, some people in the carnivore community advise caution when consuming pork.
It has been demonstrated that pigs fed their natural grain free diet have the greatest Omega 3 fatty acids and a healthy Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio. The pigs that were fed grain free diet had their omega 3 ratio at 5.15, and pigs that were fed 100% of grain diet 13.84.
Check out the link to the studies here:
It is always best to buy pasture raised, organic meat, but if you had to make compromises, do it with beef and get pork organic.
PALEOMEDICINA
Just like the rest of the Eastern European countries, pork is common in Hungary. As I referenced above, Hungary takes the second place when it comes to pork consumption.
My favorite clinic, Paleomedicina, doesn’t seem to be concerned with the omega 3 ratios in pork. Granted, they only advocate that you eat meat from the best sources.
Only once, I came across Dr Toth being asked by somebody what about pork, and he just casually said to eat some other meats then.
NIH STUDIES
The below studies show that people who ate lots of pork improved their health and lost visceral fat without increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3407990/
I EAT PORK
I grew up on pork, my father raised pigs and sold it all over the country. I eat pork because:
- I like the taste of it
- Helped me revere autoimmunity
- Adds variety to my diet
- Is cost effective
FINAL THOUGHTS
I haven’t found any evidence to show deleterious effects of pork on health. Instead, it seems that negative perception of pork is all in the realm of belief.
If you enjoy the taste of pork, but are concerned about PUFA, and are budget constrained, you can get away with conventional beef but buy organic pork.
