STOP EATING PORK!
Paul Wong
When I was studying in England I used to live in a “dig” (rooming house) in Highgate, North London. There were Chinese students from Malaysia, Singapore, Sarawak, Hong Kong and Vietnam rooming in the two houses that faced each other. We were all good friends and we spent the weekends cooking and sharing our favorite dishes. One of our friends called Luk studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and he would spend his summer vacation in London with us. Luk's special contribution was “Charsiu” the Cantonese barbecued pork. The way he prepared it was just exquisite, much better than those of any Chinese restaurant I have ever tasted. He had been coming to Highgate every summer for three years, and we always looked forward to tasting his “Charsiu.” The summer before his final year in the university Luk also came to stay with our group, but there was a radical change in him. He told us there would be no more “Charsiu” from that time onwards. The real shocker is that he vowed not to eat any more pork dishes and strongly advised all of us in the group not to do so either. He had such a strong conviction against pork that he would not eat with us if we insisted on having it.
Here is his explanation. Luk was with a team of medical students doing a research project on the effects of diet on stomach and intestinal diseases such as trichinosis. The research team’s method was to go to the hospitals and dissect corpses for autopsies. They based their studies on the diets of the various ethnic communities in the region. Their research uncovered the finding of the ethnic community with the highest percentage of cases with the trichinella spiralis worm belonged to a race that had pork as its main staple diet. Their research data showed a remarkably low percentage of Jews and Moslems with the trichinella spiralis worm in their bodies. It is significant that these two ethnic communities exclude pork and other biblically unclean meats in their diet.
My friend had seen such clear evidence in the co-relationship between pork consumption and stomach and intestinal diseases that he could make a determination not to eat that meat again in all his life. That was the first time I had ever heard a negative report on pork, but it has a lasting impression on my mind ever since that summer in London, England.
Trichinosis – from Encarta Encyclopaedia
Pronounced As: trikinosis or trichiniasis trikinisis, parasitic disease caused by the roundworm Trichinella spiralis. It follows the eating of raw or inadequately cooked meat, especially pork. The larvae are released, reach maturity, and mate in the intestines, the females producing live larvae. The parasites are then carried from the gastrointestinal tract by the bloodstream to various muscles, where they become encysted. It is estimated that 10% to 20% of the adult population of the United States suffers from trichinosis at some time. In many people the disease exhibits no symptoms and is discovered only at autopsy. In others it causes diarrhea and other gastrointestinal symptoms as the worms multiply in the digestive tract. When the larvae circulate through the bloodstream, the patient experiences edema, irregular fever, profuse sweating, muscle soreness and pain, and prostration. There may be involvement of the central nervous system, heart, and lungs; death occurs in about 5% of clinical cases. Once the larvae have imbedded themselves in the muscle tissue, the cysts usually become calcified; however, the infestation usually causes no further symptoms except fatigue and vague muscular pains. There is no specific treatment.
Bad Effects of Pork Consumption
Pig's bodies contain many toxins, worms and latent diseases. Although some of these infestations are harbored in other animals, modern veterinarians say that pigs are far more predisposed to these illnesses than other animals. This could be because pigs like to scavenge and will eat any kind of food, including dead insects, worms, rotting carcasses, excreta (including their own), garbage, and other pigs.
Influenza (flu) is one of the most famous illnesses which pigs share with humans. This illness is harbored in the lungs of pigs during the summer months and tends to affect pigs and humans in the cooler months. Sausage contains bits of pigs' lungs, so those who eat pork sausage tend to suffer more during epidemics of influenza.
Pig meat contains excessive quantities of histamine and imidazole compounds, which can lead to itching and inflammation; growth hormone, which promotes inflammation and growth; sulfur-containing mesenchymal mucus, which leads to swelling and deposits of mucus in tendons and cartilage, resulting in arthritis, rheumatism, etc. Sulfur helps cause firm human tendons and ligaments to be replaced by the pig's soft mesenchymal tissues, and degeneration of human cartilage.
Eating pork can also lead to gallstones and obesity, probably due to its high cholesterol and saturated fat content. The pig is the main carrier of the taenia solium worm, which is found it its flesh. These tapeworms are found in human intestines with greater frequency in nations where pigs are eaten. This type of tapeworm can pass through the intestines and affect many other organs, and is incurable once it reaches beyond a certain stage.
One in six people in the US and Canada has trichinosis from eating trichina worms, which are found in pork. Many people have no symptoms to warn them of this, and when they do, they resemble symptoms of many other illnesses. These worms are not noticed during meat inspections, nor does salting or smoking kill them. Few people cook the meat long enough to kill the trichinae. The rat (another scavenger) also harbors this disease. There are dozens of other worms, germs, diseases and bacteria which are commonly found in pigs, many of which are specific to the pig, or found in greater frequency in pigs.
Pigs are biologically similar to humans, and their meat is said to taste similar to human flesh. Pigs have been used for dissection in biology labs due to the similarity between their organs and human organs. People with insulin-dependent diabetes usually inject themselves with pig insulin.
Medical and Scientific Reasons for not Eating Pork
This is a direct quote from "What the Bible Says About Healthy Eating" by Dr. Rex Russell. He attended Baylor School of Medicine in Houston, Texas and did his residency at the Mayo Clinic at Rochester, Minnesota.
"One reason for God's rule forbidding pork is that the digestive system of a pig is completely different from that of a cow. It is similar to ours, in that the stomach is very acidic. Pigs are gluttonous, never knowing when to stop eating. Their stomach acids become diluted because of the volume of food, allowing all kinds of vermin to pass through this protective barrier. Parasites, bacteria, viruses, and toxins can pass into the pigs flesh because of overeating. These toxins and infectious agents can be passed on to humans when they eat a pig’s flesh.
In the "Biblical Archeological Review", Jane Cahill examined the toilets of a Jewish household in Jerusalem, finding no parasites or infectious agents, but only pollen from the many fruits, vegetables, and herbs they had eaten. A similar study done about Egyptians revealed eggs from Schistosoma, Trichinella, wire worm and tapeworms, all found in pork. All of these organisms cause significant chronic diseases. [ this is footnoted Jane Cahill and Peter Warnock, "It had to happen, Scientist Examines Ancient Bathrooms of Romans 586B.C." BAR May/June 1991]
In what is probably a strong illustration of the perils of pork, at one time no cases of trichinosis had been reported in the country of Bolivia for several years. [this is footnoted from "Veterinary Parasitology" May 1993] However, 25% of pigs tested were infested with trichinosis. People working on these farms and the population eating the pigs were also found to be positive for infestation with this parasite. The primary symptoms of this infection include muscle pain, headaches, fever and swelling in the extremities.[foot noted Baker, Bryant, Urban, and Lumney, "Swine Immunity to Selected Parasites", "Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology" October 1994] These are all nonspecific symptoms that do not necessarily indicate any one disease. Although this may explain why the trichinosis had not been diagnosed in Bolivia for several years, it is strong circumstantial evidence that many people became ill because of pork.
Dr. W.J. Zimmerman reviewed the diaphragm muscle from multiple autopsies done in the U.S. in the late 1960"s, and reported that trichinosis was not an unusual finding. [footnoted Zimmerman, Steele, And Kagan, "Trichiniases in the U.S. Population, 1966-70: Prevalence and Epidemiologic Factors", Health Services Reports 88:7 Aug/Sept 1973] It is well accepted that illnesses caused by parasites have a significant economic effect worldwide.
In the U.S., three of the six most common food-borne parasitic diseases of humans are associated with pork consumption. These include toxoplasmosis, taeniases or cysticercosis [caused by the pork tapeworm Taenia solium] and trichinellosis.
In Japan, the source of these infections was traced to the flesh of pigs, bears, horses, racoons and foxes. All of these animals are listed in Scripture as putrid or unclean.
Swine are also good incubators of toxic parasites and viruses- although the animal doesn't appear to be ill while carrying these diseases. A scientist at the University of Giessen's Institute for Virology in Germany showed in a study of worldwide influenza epidemics that pigs are the one animal that can serve as a mixing vessel for new influenza viruses that may seriously threaten world health.
If a pig is exposed to a human's DNA virus and then a bird's virus, the pig mixes the two viruses - developing a new DNA virus that is often extremely lethal for humans. These viruses have already caused worldwide epidemics and destruction. Virologists have concluded that if we do not find a way to separate humans from pigs, the whole earth's population may be at risk. [footnoted Scholtissek,M.D., "Cultivating a Killer Virus" National History Jan. 1992]
The 1942 Yearbook of Agriculture reported that 50 diseases were found in pigs, and many of these were passed on to humans by eating the pig's flesh.
Additionally, just the handling of swine has an element of risk. A large hog-raising facility in the area where I live wisely requires its employees to wear gloves, masks and protective clothing while working in the pig barns. The workers are required to shower each day before going home.
Little wonder that GOD would inspire His prophet to include eating pork among the disobedient acts of stubborn people in addition to idolatry and conjuring spirits of the dead, "a people who continually provoke Me to My face,...who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of unclean meat" [Isa. 65:3,4]"
"JUST SAY NO TO SWINES’ FLESH"
by Jim Bramlett
(Our note: This gentleman is not a Messianic believer and therefore most likely doesn't understand the spiritual, as well as physical concepts, of following the Kosher laws, but nevertheless this is an interesting article. We believe he may be avoiding pork, right now, mainly out of fear, but that doesn't mean that G-d isn't bringing him to a fuller understanding at a later point. After all you have to start somewhere!)
Dear friends:
(This will make you think!)
On March 15, 2000 I posted a news item saying that "cloned pigs could provide organs for transplants into humans on the NHS within six years, it emerged yesterday.." I commented: "If pigs were an abomination in the ancient Jewish temple, how much more will they be an abomination being made a part of G-d's New covenant temple--our bodies! six years away? For this and many other reasons, I suspect G-d will pull down the curtain before then and say, 'No more.'"
Combining swine flesh with human flesh will not just be a spiritual abomination, there are also extreme concerns physically, no doubt why G-d did not (DOES NOT) allow eating of swine. I used to think that G-d had this restriction about pigs, only to protect those poor, primitive Israelites, from the deadly trichinella worms found in swine. But we modern, sophisticated humans are so smart that we do not have this problem. Yeah, right!
Not true, according to Dr. Gordon S. Tessler, in his excellent book, "The Genesis Diet," He says:
"Obviously, the indiscriminate eating patterns of omnivores like pigs, make them disease carriers. Pigs are known to carry up to 200 diseases and 18 different parasites and worms, including the deadly worm called trichinella spiralis. This worm is commonly called trichinosis and there is no known cure for these spiral worms. The trichinae worms are so small and transparent that only trained inspectors using high-powered microscopes can detect their existence. Trichinosis can cripple or even kill anyone that eats as little as a forkful of contaminated food! Trichinosis can mimic other diseases such as arthritis, rheumatism, or typhoid fever. (NOTE: On his video, Dr. Tessler says that even cooking does not kill the trichinae worm!)
"Pigs have more incidences of arthritis than any other known animals in the world. Arthritis may be a virus or a parasite that is transmitted from pigs to humans as a direct result of eating the flesh and blood of hogs and pigs. Perhaps many other diseases are misdiagnosed and their real cause is roundworms, gullet worms, hookworms, thorn-headed worms, trichina worms, stomach worms, nodular worms, tapeworms, as well as many other parasites found in the flesh of the unclean swine. A person may be committing slow suicide when he or she eats bacon, ham, sausage, or pork chops.
"Even hog farmers who insist that corn fed hogs are safe won't give you a guarantee that their indoor hogs haven't eaten any rats, mice, fecal waste, or maggots within the past few days. The metal doorknobs in pig nurseries, become corroded after a year or so, due to the gases produced by the pigs urine and feces. The same gas and pig dander that eat away metal doorknobs are harming the respiratory tracts of hog farmers. Their unusually high incidences of respiratory ailments, from coughing and sniffles to lung scarring and pneumonia can no longer be attributed to weather and allergies alone. The hog waste spills from hog farms are contaminating our land, our rivers, and our water supply. Pork should be considered a homotoxin (human poison) and the probable cause of many common sicknesses and degenerative diseases.
"The Great Physician, the Creator of all life, admonishes us to separate the clean animals from the unclean ,for physical health and well being. Many faithful church people who would never defile G-d's temple with cigarettes, even though smoking is not mentioned in the Bible, continue to ingest bacon, ham and pork chops which are disease-carrying, parasite-infested unclean foods which G-d commands His children not to eat! It would be futile and absurd to ask G-d to bless the smoking of cigarettes, yet we pray that He bless a pork chop on our dinner plate! Can we expect our Creator to disregard His word to us so we can indulge our appetites?"
Dr. Tessler's book, "The Genesis Diet" and his video, "Eating G-d's Way" are highly recommended.......
Read about the Pig Virus Outbreak in Malaysia on the Next Page
May God bless you.
Paul Wong is a Christian minister and the President of ARK International.
His ministry also serves as an architectural service company in Houston.
The ARK Forum on the Internet is international and non-denominational.
T
IME (Asia Edition)
Asia - Apil 5, 1999 - Vol. 153 No. 13
HOG HELL IN MALAYSIA
Malaysia resorts to mass slaughter in a struggle to contain an outbreak of a deadly virus that is plaguing its pigs, worrying its people and threatening its tourism and export industries. Workers kick pigs into a huge grave. Over one million pigs have been killed since the pig virus outbreak. --AP Photo--Andy Wong
Malaysian Virus Mystifies Doctors
By Alvin Ung
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, April 8, 1999; 2:18 p.m. EDT
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- A tropical virus that has killed dozens of people in Malaysia is the first of its kind and virologists are stumped as to how it spreads, an American health official said today. Nine scientists from the United States and other experts from Australia, Taiwan and Japan arrived in Malaysia several weeks ago to help the Southeast Asian country determine the nature of the virus believed to be spreading from pigs to humans. The CDC said Thursday that 229 people are believed to have been sickened in the last six months in Malaysia. At least 111 have died.
"This is a new, previously unrecognized virus found in humans," Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta told The Associated Press by telephone. "This virus has never been seen before."
The scientists have been tramping through pig pens and farming communities where the deadly virus first appeared, wearing gloves, gowns and battery-operated respirators while visiting the worst-hit areas. "We don't know if it's highly infectious. We don't know how people are being infected," Skinner said. "It doesn't appear, right now, that this is being transmitted from person to person, but we're still not going to rule that out."
Government health experts initially said the outbreak began with the deaths of 15 people last October who succumbed to the Japanese encephalitis virus, which is transmitted by the Culex mosquito. These findings were confirmed by World Health Organization officials from Japan who came to help investigate. But in late February, the number of deaths among villagers and farmers in the hog-rearing district of Bukit Pelandok in central Negeri Sembilan jumped dramatically, prompting health officials to seek further help.
Malaysian virologists flew to the United States on March 17 with samples. Lab analyses quickly proved that the virus wasn't Japanese encephalitis. Instead, it resembled a very rare Hendra virus, first detected in Australia in 1994. Symptoms are the same for both viruses -- high fever, aches, eventual coma and death.
A similar illness afflicted 11 slaughterhouse workers in Singapore last month after they handled imported pigs from Malaysia, the CDC said. One of the workers died. It's not clear what proportion of the illnesses were caused by infections with the new Hendra-like virus or how many were due to Japanese encephalitis, the CDC said. But some of the dead had been vaccinated against Japanese encephalitis. The CDC finding plunged Malaysia into further confusion. Pig farmers deserted their homes after police cordoned off their villages. To curb the outbreak, soldiers dressed like astronauts swept through a half-dozen pig-farming districts in an attempt to slaughter 1 million pigs.
Malaysians have been left wondering which virus is which. A 24-hour government hot line set up Wednesday provides detailed information on the Hendra virus. It encourages all workers on pig farms -- the only victims of the virus so far -- to wash their hands with soap and water after handling pigs. But it's not Hendra," CDC spokesman Skinner said Thursday. "It's a Hendra-like virus, and it has a high mortality rate."
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press
Malaysian Hog Virus Resurfaces
Wednesday, July 05, 2000, updated at 15:05 (GMT +8)
Health authorities put eight hog farms in eastern Malaysia under quarantine after tests showed some pigs could be infected with a virus that killed more than 100 people last year, news reports said Wednesday.
The discovery in Sarawak state on Borneo island came during routine blood tests on pigs, agricultural official David Teng Lung Chi told The Sun daily.
Such tests were ordered after last year's outbreak of Nipah virus that destroyed pig farms across Malaysia, the region's largest pork producer. Nearly 1 million pigs had to be killed to contain the deadly new strain of viral encephalitis.
Last month, authorities ordered the killing of 1,700 pigs in northern Penang state to prevent a recurrence of the disease.
Any hog farm found with even one infected pig must destroy its entire stock. Owners of the farms in Sarawak were barred Tuesday from transporting pigs anywhere until investigations were completed.
PUBLIC HEALTH
The Virus That Wouldn't Die
The deadly Nipah virus has resurfaced on Malaysian pig farms.
Scientists say urgent measures and regional coordination
are needed to avert another outbreak
By Simon Elegant/KUALA LUMPUR
Issue cover-dated August 17, 2000
NIPAH IS BACK. The virus that killed more than 100 people last year and led to the slaughter of over a million pigs has reappeared on pig farms both in peninsular Malaysia and--much more worryingly--650 kilometres across the South China Sea, in the Borneo state of Sarawak.
What's more, antibodies to Nipah have been found in previously uninfected human subjects in Sarawak, indicating exposure where the disease has never been detected before. Malaysia's Society of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine will convene on August 12 to review the country's state of preparedness for the return of Nipah and other such viral outbreaks.
Nipah does not pose an immediate threat to humans, and for the moment the controls put in place by Malaysia's government seem to be keeping the threat to pigs under control as well. But scientists are concerned by two discoveries: Indications that bats with a huge geographical range are a probable source of the disease, and confirmation from the virus's appearance in Borneo that pig smuggling could spread Nipah outside peninsular Malaysia.
Even within the Malaysian government there are people who believe greater vigilance is warranted. "The situation, if not controlled, could develop into a full-blown outbreak in a few years," says Aziz Jamaluddin, who heads the government-run Veterinary Research Institute of Malaysia; he says, though, that his comments are made in a private capacity, not as a government official.
While there is still confusion about the exact nature and extent of the virus's re-emergence, the chief threat of Nipah is to Malaysia's 1.4 million pigs, to Malaysia's pork industry, which earns roughly one billion ringgit ($265 million) annually, and to the pig population in the rest of the region.
Nordin Mohamad Noor, director-general of the government's Veterinary Department, assumed before his department began recent tests that the virus had been eradicated. "We thought we had a clean slate," he says. In "a routine surveillance programme" mounted to test that supposition, Nordin says he was shocked to find a significant concentration of the virus in a peninsular-Malaysia pig farm as well as antibodies in humans on Sarawak.
"It's like putting out a fire," says Aziz, the veterinary-research chief. "When you come back the next day it's still smouldering and you find it's burning underground."
In the last few months, Nordin's Veterinary Department has culled some 9,000 pigs and quarantined 37 farms in both peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak; four remain sealed off. Aziz says the rediscovery is cause for major concern: "That it seems to be re-emerging in several parts of the country should be a wake-up call to the government."
In late 1998, the previously unknown virus began killing livestock on Malaysian pig farms, and spread with deadly speed. By March last year, when the outbreak peaked, farms and villages were being abandoned wholesale, tens of thousands of pigs were being slaughtered daily, and patients were flooding into hospitals. By the time the crisis ended, the government had shut down hundreds of farms and culled more than a million pigs. About 100 of the 240 infected people died--including one abattoir worker in Singapore--and another 80 were permanently disabled.
Despite calls by some Malaysian scientists in the last months of 1998 for an investigation into the possibility that a new virus had emerged, the Health Ministry classified and treated the disease as Japanese encephalitis, which is well known, until March 1999, when a research team at the University of Malaya led by microbiologist Lam Sai Kit identified the new virus. The apparent bureaucratic inflexibility demonstrated by that delay, and the concurrent delay in putting in place the relatively simple precautions that prevent infection of humans, is of deep concern to a number of scientists working on Nipah.
"The Ministry of Health still doesn't have a grasp of what this is about," says Charles Calisher, coordinator of the most important on-line site for the exchange of information on Nipah. "There are still people going around talking about Japanese encephalitis instead of Nipah. To me that is very frightening. The fact is, it's a very bad disease and the people in charge still don't seem to understand exactly what it is." Health Ministry officials declined to be interviewed for this article.
So far, there's virtually no evidence of human-to-human spreading of Nipah, which is believed to be transmitted to humans through exposure to bodily fluids of infected animals. Armed with knowledge gained from last year's outbreak--most importantly that Nipah can be destroyed by ordinary detergents--scientists say the likelihood of Nipah becoming a threat to humans again in the near future is relatively low. But the fact that livestock smuggling can spread the disease puts an added burden on the governments of Malaysia and its neighbours, particularly Thailand, which is the primary recipient of smuggled Malaysian pigs.
Both Thailand and Singapore banned the import of Malaysian pigs and pork at the height of the Nipah crisis. Those bans remain in place, as does a ban on any inter-farm movement of pigs even within Malaysia itself. Scientists and government officials agree that smugglers must have carried Nipah-infected livestock to Borneo. Smuggling increases when the price of pork rises, as it has done in recent months, according to Aziz. But Nordin says the government doesn't believe the current level of pig smuggling between Malaysia and Thailand is extensive enough to be a health problem.
One bright spot in this picture is the recent discovery by a team of Malaysian scientists of what they say is the original source of the virus: a species of fruit bat called the Island Flying Fox. Other fruit bats may also carry Nipah, though that remains to be proved.
Research points strongly to a combination of environmental destruction and intensive pig breeding as the root causes of the outbreak of Nipah last year. That makes Nipah a forceful reminder of the way scientists say other viruses--possibly much more virulent and contagious--can be expected to emerge in coming years (see Ground Zero, above). Chillingly, in the course of their research the Malaysian scientists also discovered two previously unknown, so-far dormant viruses that are very similar to Nipah.
Calisher, who teaches microbiology at Colorado State University in the United States, notes that the virus could already be present in other bat populations outside Malaysia. Fruit bats are widespread, their habitat stretching all the way to Africa and China.
"What if some fruit bat in northern Burma already is carrying the virus? The real danger is if it gets into a country where pork is a much greater part of the population's diet," says Calisher. In Thailand, pork is the primary source of meat, as it is in Taiwan and China, which has nearly one billion pigs on its farms.
Scientists like Calisher advocate greater international cooperation to monitor emerging diseases like Nipah, particularly in what Lam at the University of Malaya calls the epicentre of the phenomenon, the Asia-Pacific region. Lam points out that help from the U.S. Centres for Disease Control was critical in helping identify the Nipah virus.
Aziz believes that the research efforts being conducted at his institute and at the country's universities need an infusion of between 10 and 15 million ringgit in government funding. "The lackadaisical attitude of the authorities and scientists is wrong," he says.
Malaysian government officials like Nordin retort that the lack of qualified scientists to do the research is the main problem, not funding. They also say that the Health Ministry is now considering a proposal to build a "Level 4," or high-security, lab to do research into Nipah that now must be conducted in Australia or the United States.
As to what can be done in Malaysia itself, the country needs to set up a "completely nonpolitical" mechanism for immediate reaction to crises like the Nipah outbreak, says C.P. Ramachandran, a professor of medicine at the University Putra Malaysia and president of the Society of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine.
"So far it's all been very ad-hoc, fire-brigade sort of activity," Ramachandran says. Rather than a purely government-controlled response, he advocates the establishment of a group composed of scientists, doctors and other experts who could help to speed the reaction in the critical first stages of an outbreak.
It isn't a question of whether there will be outbreaks, Ramachandran says, but when. "We're living out of ecological balance, and from time to time you are simply going to have outbreaks like this."
May God bless you.
Paul Wong is a Christian minister and the President of ARK International.
His ministry also serves as an architectural service company in Houston.
The ARK Forum on the Internet is international and non-denominational.
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