Would You Like Some Ractopamine On Your Pork Chop?

​​My advice is do what YOU can to keep yourself healthy and if you happen to get sick see a healthcare provider to help you see your way out of the sickness! Today we have an issue going on in Health Care and Policy that has heated up! I wrote awhile back about the trouble with the meat industry and some advocacy opportunities. Check it out here

The U.S. has asked China to lift the ban on U.S. pork that is fed the additive Ractopamine, but so far China has REJECTED the request and with good reason. The news reports that farmers are divided about how to respond to China's demands. Some farmers don't want to abandon ractopamine as a matter of principle. Using it, they point out, means cheaper pork for consumers and less stress on the environment (because pigs on ractopamine don't need as much feed, and don't produce as much manure.) 

​So, what is ractopamine you might be asking? It is a beta agonist drug used to increase the weight gain of pigs, help them eat more efficiently and cause leanness in pigs, cattle, and turkey. This drug is banned in most countries, including China, Russia, Taiwan and the European Union. Basically, only 26 major meat producing countries allow Ractopamine use, while over 160 countries have banned it.

This drug is a health concern not only in pigs but a major one for humans. This issue is causing tensions during the talks aimed at the US-China trade war. Take home message for patients is to realize that 80% of American pigs receive this drug to boost growth rates. My concern as a healthcare provider is that the FDA approved ractopamine for use after only just one human health study and there is no legislation requirements to label the meat for the consumer. The side effects of this pharmaceutical in pigs causes the animal to become lame or unable to stand, and starts trembling with also experiencing or suffering with a host of other ailments. Ractopamine causes pigs to collapse and become “downers” which are then dragged into the slaughter house because they cannot walk. People who eat animals care about the way their food was treated while it lived.

Research reports that most animals in our food system live under dismal conditions, and the pitifully low bar for their treatment was set in directives from the same industry’s leaders who today are so upset about being vilified. “Forget the pig is an animal—treat him just like a machine in a factory,” recommended Hog Farm Managementin 1976. Two years later, National Hog Farmer advised: “The breeding sow should be thought of, and treated as, a valuable piece of machinery whose function is to pump out baby pigs like a sausage machine.”

Back in the Ancient Torah giving days,  God specifically instructed Moses to record, write down, and teach His people to not eat pork or shellfish. God taught in Leviticus 11 that He created the pig as a "scavenger" and this animal was not created for human consumption. Christians really don't like to hear this because they love bacon, pork chops, pepperoni and ham! Right! Christians love to quote 1 Timothy 4:4 a verse often cited to support the typical understanding that God has abolished some of His commandments, specifically in this case, the dietary instructions.

This appears to be a valid claim when the verse is examined in isolation. However, as soon as we employ sound hermeneutical principles by incorporating surrounding context, we find that 1 Timothy 4:4 actually teaches us that God's dietary instructions are not abolished at all. In fact, we find that 1 Timothy 4 actually proves that we should still be keeping God's dietary instructions. Surely no one thinks God's Law or Instructions is an "old wives fables?" (1 Timothy 4:7) And no one thinks God's commandments are profane (1 Timothy 4:7), I would never say keeping God's law/instructions is no longer Godliness? (1 Timothy 4:7), will anyone go on record saying Leviticus 11 is no longer good doctrine? (1 Timothy 4:6), Is obeying God "departing from the faith?" (1 Timothy 4:1), Is Leviticus 11 no longer scripture and thus no longer instructions in righteousness? (2 Timothy 3:16). These questions are easy to answer and will keep you healthy at the same time! 1 Timothy is a letter and should be read as such, do not pull a sentence out of it as doctrine. Extreme carefulness as Peter warned us in 2 Peter 3:17 God’s Law is declared by scripture to be truth and there is no in between. You have to be able to distinguish between the unclean and the clean and between the animal that may be eaten and the animal that may not be eaten. These statements by God are either still true or they are not true. The Command is either true or not. Paul says Your righteousness is a righteousness, and your law is truth! So Godly behavior is walking in God's commandments, Holy and set apart. 

The farmer will tell you that the pig is a very dirty animal. They are the "garbage and waste eliminators on the farm" and they will eat anything! Bugs, insects, feces, dead carcasses of sick animals, even their young! That is the way they were created by God. They are garbage collectors! The facts are weather you heed the biblical dietary warnings or not , the meat of a pig is saturated in toxins. The pig does not digest well or not at all, remember a cow has a 24-hour digestion cycle. Digestion is how we all get rid of toxins and the pig does not do this process, they were not created to digest. So, if you eat pig based products, you better have an excellent digestive and detoxification system because your body just ate a whole load of poisons that tasted really good!

Your cancer rate is elevated from processed meat like ham, bacon and sausage says the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research. It was reported that eating 50 grams of processed meat each day raises your risk of colorectal cancer by a significant 18 percent! These agencies classify processed (pig) as a carcinogen.  Processed meat includes bacon, hot dogs, some deli meats, sausage, ham, and pork-derived products. You might want to check out some healthier cattle that is grass fed and grass finished such as lamb, beef or bison. 

Swine flu is a very worrisome virus that has made the jump from pig to humans. Influenza can be directly transmitted from pigs. Swine influenza got a re-branding make-over and is now called "variant virus infections in humans", aka - H1N1 or H3N2. The CDC tells us these code names are endemic among pig populations in the United States. If this isn't bad enough pigs carry a variety of parasites and some of these worms are hard to kill even when cooking with the worst being the trichinells worm. So, if you should be unlucky enough to swallow the trichinella larvae encased in a cyst you need to understand that the digestive juices in your stomach dissolve the cyst, but that only lets the parasites out into your small intestines, where they then mature to the adult stage. At this point you may experience physical symptoms that will bring you into healthcare.

Now here is the scary part, once the adult female is inside you she produces larvae that can enter your bloodstream and burrow into muscle or any tissue. The CDC recommends freezing the pork meat prior to cooking to "KILL" off any worms! If I have to freeze meat to kill parasites before I cook it I can promise you I will never eat it!

A little fact about Mozart's death was that he recorded in his journal just 44 days before his death that he ate pork and the archives of Internal Medicine in June 2001 stated he suffered the infected pork "symptoms" of trichinellosis. I recommend people stay away from pork products and just avoid altogether the worms, parasites, tapeworm (Taenia solium), Hepatitis E virus (HEV), Nipah virus, Menangle virus, and Paramyxoviridae viruses. There are so many other meats to eat we can leave this toxic one alone and protect our health, blood and spirit man. .

My advice is "if you are going to eat pig, make sure it is labeled "produced without the use of ractopamine." Check out Tendergrass Farms, which sells pork products from pigs that are raised the "all -natural" way, on pasture! 

Blessings, 
Dr. Carly