pork

Question
What is your take on eating pork raw..have you???..If it is acceptable ...do I have to buy organic because I cannot find it where I live.Do they even use antibiotics and hormones on pigs??? Also....Do you buy into chinese medicine with the whole ying/yang thing???  

Answer
I've eaten raw pork many times in the past. These days I prefer the organ-meats from pigs or wild boar, especially pig's tongues and hearts. However, I do eat raw pork muscle-meat sometimes when organ-meats are unavailable.Plenty of other rawpalaeodieters eat lots of raw pork without any side-effects (re trichinosis or anything else). As long as you don't go in for extremes such as ,say,  eating  meat in a dirty environment in a tropical, undeveloped country, you'll be fine. Modern farming methods, even in the case of organic-status animals, all require animals to be given regular deworming medicines, anyway, so there's no reason to worry. And my experience with meats from wild animals, such as wild boar, leads me to believe that there isn't much to worry about that kind of meat, either.

Re organic:- It's pretty important to buy organic. If you can't find organic-status animals, go in for naturally-reared animals(the latter kind are usually raised hormone- and chemical-free, but are, unfortunately, often fed large amounts of grain) - if you can find nonorganic-raised pigs that are 100% grass-fed, that's another option. (I'm unable to get hold of genuine 100% grass-fed pork, here in the UK, so I tend to limit consumption of raw pork, as a result. I have heard, though, that pasture-fed pork is available in the US).

I used to think that it was impossible for someone to get truly healthy on a nonorganic diet. While I still think that's the case to a certain extent, there are, of course, some cases where people have recovered from certain very,serious illnesses from eating raw meat from intensively-farmed nonorganic-raised animals - they just take a lot longer to recover.  Most nonorganic-raised animals are given endless antibiotics and hormones, whether pigs/cattle or whatever. In the case of cattle, certain appalling practices exist such as farmers feeding their cattle with bubble-gum to fatten them up. So choosing organic-raised meat is the safest option.

That's not to say that all nonorganic farmers are this unscrupulous(or that all organic-raised farmers are 100% honest - some organic farmers cheat by feeding grain to their so-called grass-fed animals etc.). The only way to find out for sure  is to ask the farmer directly. If you ask enough relevant questions, the dodgy farmers tend, in the end,  to slip up, and admit to feeding their animals with grain, in the 3 months prior to slaughter etc.

Re food-sources:- My suggestion would be to look up local farmers' markets, and check  your country's/State's organic-food association - they're sure to have a links page with organic-food directories and local, organic farms listed, with contact details.  On my rawpaleodiet Yahoo group I happen to have a Links page where the more prominent UK and US grass-fed/organic meat databases can be found, along with contact-details for certain farms willing to do long-distance delivery of such meats.

Re Chinese Medicine:- As an environmentalist and fan of wildlife, I heavily disapprove of its practice of using parts of wild animals in its concoctions. I did experiment, in the far past,  with some standard Chinese herbs, such as ginseng etc., among many other supplements,  but, to be honest, it was  all a waste of time. There really isn't any such thing as a patented superfood or supplement.

The other aspects of Chinese medicine are massage and acupuncture. Obviously, I'm all in favour of massage as there is so much scientific evidence backing its use.

I keep an open mind about the practice of acupuncture - I've come across a number of  people who swear by it, and others who've complained of ear-pains and poor sucess-rates with it, so I'm not sure where I stand on this issue.

Geoff

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