The baseline is not how swines are being kept under strictly hygienic conditions in other parts of the world. The baseline is

1. What do the major Scriptures say about swines?

2. The symbolic representation of swines in the society. How the swine does behave on its own?

3. What are the practical risks of consuming pork?

*SCRIPTURES*

The Bible:

“And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it is unclean unto you. Ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead carcass.” [Deuteronomy 14:8]

2. I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in a way that is not good, According to their own thoughts; 3. A people who provoke Me to anger continually to My face; Who sacrifice in gardens, And burn incense on altars of brick; 4. Who sit among the graves, And spend the night in the tombs; Who eat swine’s flesh, And the broth of abominable things is in their vessels; [Isaiah 65:2-4]

"And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be cloven-footed, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and of their carcase shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you." Leviticus 11:7-8 KJV

The Quran:

Forbidden to you (for food) are: dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine, and that on which hath been invoked a name other than that of Allah. [Al-Qur’an 5:3] The above verses of the Holy Qur’an are sufficient to satisfy a Muslim as to why pork is forbidden.

The Qur’an prohibits the consumption of pork in no less than 4 different places. Its prohibited in 2:173, 5:3, 6:145 and 16:115.

*SYMBOLISMS*

The pig is a symbol of filth, greed and idiocy. It eats faeces and dead bodies, snouts gutter water, wallows in sheer sordidness and a shameless animal which will invite its mate for sex bout. Pork consuming friends and families do share wives as well. George Orwell's "Animal Farm" has a better symbolic representation of pigs (swines).

*SICKNESSES*

As a Science student I am wary that most farm animals are carriers/hosts/vectors of varying pathogens, parasites and diseases. Even beef, the widely untaboo meat is a good carrier of the deadly anthrax and tape worm. However, the pig is guilty of most known, unknown and emerging disease-causing processes.

99% of helminthiasis, worms infestations is caused by pork (you can debate me on that) including round worms (Ascaris), pinworms, hookworm and the most dangerous Taenia solinum (a type of tape worm). Even, well cooked pork still carries viable worms that are injurious to the system. Eight out of ten is likely to be infested after consuming well-cooked pork.

Taenia solinum for instance has the destructive capability to migrate to any organ in the body:

· In the brain, you lose your memory,

· Blindness at the eyes,

· Deadly at liver (the liver is the most important organ in the body with over 500 known functions),

· In the heart, you can be rest assured of cardiovascular torments

The emergence of Swine flu was rippling and deadly and nearly almost half of the world’s pig population was decimated. According to the Pet Doc Chart of zoonotic diseases, the diseases from pigs are nearly double of that of goats, sheep and cattle combined.

Pork has large amounts of saturated lipids (fats). Every health science student understands that most heart, blood, blood-vessel diseases are importantly caused by animal fat. Notably among these diseases include hypertension, atherosclerosis, stroke and heart attack.

In countries where religion is practised like democracy with little or no food taboos, there is high prevalence of cardiovascular diseases. More than 50% percent of Americans have hypertension, the commonest cardiovascular disease. The CDC and America Heart Association have related this phenomenon to unrestrained consumption of “High-fat cuts of meat”. As a matter of fact, pork is richly generous with fat – no other meat can challenge pork in terms of fat.

Let's stop the needless diplomacy over pork and other technical jargons that sought to justify pork. This afore-expatiated trinity is enough of a reason!

Just trying to help you choose a healthy meat for your meals!

Abdulai Hanan R. Confidence

confidencegh@gmail.com