Flesh of swine

Flesh of swine: scientific evidence supports the biblical prohibition

This article is provided by the Department of Health and Temperance of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

E. A. Widmer, Ph.D., is professor and program director of environmental health, School of Public Health, Loma Linda University.

The prohibition against eating pork is clearly stated in Scripture: "And the pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you" (Lev. 11:7, 8, NIV).

Those who avoid eating pork on biblical grounds do so because they believe that the Leviticus 11 prohibition against eating unclean meats was given for reasons relating to health, not merely as a ceremonial law belonging exclusively to the Jewish dispensation. They believe that our physical bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19, 20) that should be kept healthy through following biblical directions regarding diet.

The results of research in recent years can help us understand why the Lord included the pig among the animals that were not to be eaten by His people. Pork consumption is now associated with coronary heart disease, cancer, and certain communicable diseases.1

Pigs are noteworthy as hosts for the intestinal trichina roundworm, Trichinetta spiralis, which causes the disease trichinosis, 2 a disease with symptoms that doctors often attribute to intestinal flu, pneumonia, or rheumatism.

Pork and pork products are not the only means of human infection with trichinosis. Outbreaks from eating horse, bear, or walrus or other marine mammals have also been reported, 3 but pork is the most common source in most cultures. Since the eating of pork and other types of meat are the only routes of transmission, vegetarians and lacto-ovovegetarians are not exposed to this disease. 4

During the past two or three decades the number of reported human cases of trichinosis in the United States has significantly decreased. Apparently state laws prohibiting the feeding of raw garbage to hogs, widespread commercial and home freezing of pork, and consumer awareness concerning proper cooking of pork are factors in the decline.

This decline in reported cases of human trichinosis in the United States parallels a similar decrease in the number of swine trichinosis cases in this country5—yet this communicable disease is not under control. It is estimated that 1.5 million Americans carry live trichinae in their musculature. Annually 150,000 to 300,000 new cases develop. Outbreaks have become more numerous among Southeast Asian refugees and others who obtain their pork from farms and undercook their meat. Ready-to-eat products from processors that are not federally inspected are also a source of infection.

Does this decline mean that the biblical prohibition can now safely be ignored? Such a position might be justified if trichinosis were also declining in other countries, or if trichinosis were the only disease transmitted to man by eating pork. But although North America and Europe have the highest rates, trichina infections are not confined to the United States, and trichinosis is not the only disease pork transmits (see table).

Both human and animal trichinosis infections have been reported from Central America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe (this parasite does not exist in Australia and certain islands of the South Pacific regions. ) 7 The number of human cases varies from country to country, but accurate information of this type is difficult to obtain.

In the United States the reduction in the risk from trichinosis seems to be counterbalanced by an increase in the risk from toxoplasmosis, Toxoplasma gondii, a one-celled organism that uses certain wild animals, pets, and domestic animals including pigs as reservoir hosts, causes this disease.

Presently the number of toxoplasmosis- infected individuals varies with age. Five to 30 percent of individuals 10 to 19 years old have been infected, while as many as 67 percent of those more than 50 years of age are infected. 8

People catch this disease by ingesting infective cystlike structures from food, water, or dust contaminated with cat feces, consuming saclike structures in unpasteurized goat milk, or eating cysts in raw or undercooked meat such as beef, mutton, or pork.

Even an unborn child may be at risk, as the passage of the disease organism through the placenta has been reported. Maternal infections in early pregnancy may lead to fetal death or severe abnormalities, including hydrocephalus, microcephaly, and enlargement of the liver and spleen. Maternal infections in late pregnancy result in less-severe clinical manifestations.9

Toxoplasmosis is a general body disease with initial or primary infection being frequently asymptomatic; however, acute disease can occur with fever, enlargement of lymph nodes, and abnormally high numbers of lymphocytes in the blood. Other clinical symptoms include headaches, inflammation of the heart muscle, muscle aches, and pneumonia. Dormant toxoplasmosis may be reactivated if the person becomes unable to resist or overcome infection, as in AIDS. Even without the complication of the virus responsible for AIDS, drug therapy is difficult, and death may be the result. The development of a suitable vaccine is still in the experimental phase. Prevalence of T. gondii antibodies varies with age, geographical location, and occupation.10

Scientists recently found T. gondii in commercial cuts of pork. According to a report, 1 in 3 pigs and 1 in 10 lambs may be infected with the parasite. It can be killed by cooking meat to an internal temperature of at least 158 F. Since the risk of trichinosis is waning, consumers may be serving undercooked meat and thereby increasing the risk of toxoplasmosis infection. 11

Salmonella infection is considered one of the most prevalent communicable diseases in the United States, affecting nearly 2 million people each year. People generally become infected with salmonellae by eating contaminated foods. Many domestic animals carry salmonellae, and contamination of meat during the slaughtering process is common. Salmonella-infected feeds are often given to domestic animals, thus spreading the problem. As much as 50 percent of the raw meat purchased in grocery stores and meat markets is contaminated by salmonellae. 12

Studies have shown that a person who is taking or has recently taken antibiotics is more susceptible to this infection. It is felt the antibiotics destroy intestinal bacteria that normally inhibit salmonella growth.

Like toxoplasmosis, salmonellae can easily be passed from one source to another by contact. Preparing other foods on a counter that has been used for trimming infected meat can lead to transmission through foods other than meat. Not washing one's hands between the handling of infected and uninfected foods can also spread salmonellae.

Pork tapeworms

Tapeworms are yet another problem that eating pork poses. The adult pork tapeworm can reach a length of 10 feet, and it can live for several decades in the small intestine. This worm can have as many as 1,000 segments, each with a uterus and the ability to produce eggs that can infect humans and swine through fecal-oral contamination or by reverse transport of the eggs from the intestine to the stomach. In either case the embryos penetrate the stomach wall, enter the blood, and are transported throughout the body. The embryos form small cysts, and these develop into bladder worms (the immature stage) in muscle, internal organs, eyes, and/or brain. The bladder worms can survive for as long as five years. If infection is wide spread, it can simulate a brain tumor, epilepsy, or other neurological or psychiatric disorders. 13

People become infected with the adult tapeworm by eating undercooked pork infected with bladder worms. Once in the intestinal tract, the worm develops into its adult form.

The eating of pork also puts one at risk of catching undulant fever. This bacterial disease is usually transmitted by raw milk from infected cows or goats, but it may also be transferred to humans via direct contact with infected tissues from any animal, including pigs.

Chronic diseases

Pork contributes not only to the spread of communicable diseases but also to the development of the chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, strokes, and cancer.

The occurrence and severity of coronary heart disease increases with an increase in dietary cholesterol, total dietary fat, and especially saturated fats. Pork contains only a moderate amount of cholesterol, but is a major source of fat. Even the leanest cuts of pork derive more than 34 percent of their calories from fat, and most pork products derive 50 to 75 percent of their calories from fat. 14 Because it is high in saturated fat, pork con tributes to increased cholesterol production. This in turn increases the blood cholesterol levels so strongly connected to coronary heart disease and strokes. Compounding the problem, many pork products contain a very high level of sodium, a factor in high blood pressure, which is also a strong risk factor for both coronary heart disease and strokes.

Pork is also implicated in breast cancer, prostate cancer, and cancer of the colon. Mortality from breast cancer rises as a woman's consumption of pork (specifically) and total fats increases. 15 Prostate cancer is associated with the consumption of a high-fat diet, both saturated and animal fats. 16 Studies on the incidence of colon cancer show that those having the disease consume more refined wheat bread, meat (especially pork) > and beer, and have a low intake of dietary fiber. 17

These health issues draw us back to the biblical record. It is interesting to note that the scriptural prohibition in Leviticus 11:8 was a dual one. Not only were the Israelites to refrain from eating pork but they were also to avoid direct contact with the carcasses. One of the preventive measures recommended to control infections is to wash hands thoroughly after handling raw meat. Direct contact such as Leviticus prohibits is a factor in disease transmission. 18

The scriptural texts in Leviticus may seem rather dictatorial and arbitrary, but when they are considered from the vantage point of the science of communicable diseases, we can see that the prohibitions are significant public health measures for prevention of several potentially serious diseases.

1 J. A. Scharffenberg, Diet and Heart Disease
(Bakersfield, Calif.: San Joaquin Community
Health Center, 1987), pp. 1-25. See also E. A.
Widmer, "Pork, Man, and Disease," Review and
Herald, May 7, 1970.

2 W. C. Campbell, "History of Trichinosis;
Paget, Owen, and the Discovery of Trichinella
spiralis," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 53:520-
552. See also N. D. Levine, Nematode Parasites of
Domestic Animals and of Man, 2nd ed. (Minneapolis:
Burgess Pub. Co., 1980), pp. 452, 453.

3 Levine, p. 452. See also World Health
Organization, Weekly Epidemiological Record 61 (38):
289-296.


4 H. W. Brown and F. A. Neva, Basic Clinical
Parasitology, 5th ed. (East Norwalk, Conn.:
Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1983), p. 108.

5 Trichinosis Surveillance Annual Summary,
1981 (Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control,
1982), p. 3.

6 E. Braunwald, K. J. Isselbacher, R. G. Petersdorf,
J. D. Wilson, J. B. Martin, and A. S. Fanci,
Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, llth ed.
(New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1987), pp.
805, 806.

7 G. W. Hunter, J. C. Swartzwelder, and D. F.
Clyde, Tropical Medicine, 5th ed. (Philadelphia:
W. B. SaundersCo., 1976), p. 525.

8 Braunwald, pp. 791, 792.

9 A. S. Benenson, ed., Control of Communicable
Disease in Man, 14th ed. (Washington, D.C.:
American Public Health Assn., 1985), pp. 392-
394.

10 Ibid.

11 J. Rolf, "Another Hazard in Undercooked
Pork," Science News 130 (3): 37.


12 Braunwald, pp. 596-599.

13 Ibid., pp. 825, 826.

14 Composition of Food--Sausages and Luncheon
Meats--Raw, Processed, and Cooked, Agriculture
Handbook 8-7 (U.S. Department of Agriculture,
1980).

15 Committee of Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer,
Assembly of Life Sciences, National Research
Council, Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer (National
Academy Press, 1982), pp. 383, 408.

16 Ibid., pp. 74, 410.

17 Ibid., pp. 398, 399.

18 Benenson.


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E. A. Widmer, Ph.D., is professor and program director of environmental health, School of Public Health, Loma Linda University.

May 1988

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