Millions of dollars are spent each year to understand which foods are healthy and which are not. Did you know that this information was documented millennia ago?

BY BRADFORD G. SCHLEIFER

How is this affecting society's overall health? The result can be seen in the explosion of sickness, disease and overall lack of good health. But most never make the connection between what they eat and how they feel-and are doomed to a lifetime of illness and fatigue.

Much of the problem is directly tied to a social ignorance of health, diet and our bodies. Modern science has not helped. While having a discussion relating to health and diet, one nutritionist, who develops menus for high schools, stated that the link between what one eats and how one feels has been blown out of proportion. She went on to state that the origin of sickness is unknown, and that this is the reason we have doctors.

But what have doctors and medical science been able to accomplish? Very few illnesses and diseases are actually cured, and fewer still are prevented! Western medicine has been designed to react to an illness and not help one prevent illnesses and maintain health.

It is interesting to note that most recognize what poisons do to the body. They understand that if one consumes cyanide, he will die. Conversely, many parents tell their kids to "eat your vegetables." Yet, a broader connection to diet is never established.

There exists a book written millennia ago that details what mankind should and should not eat to maintain health and avoid disease. That book, man's overall Instruction Manual on how to live, is the Bible. As you will see, science continues to prove the laws contained in its pages! However, mankind has ignored this book as a source of knowledge and has spent the last 6,000 years trying to "figure out" what was already written.

In the second book of the Bible, a very detailed set of dietary laws are established. These set the basis for what creatures were designed to be eaten and which ones were created for other purposes. Leviticus 11 describes each of these animals in detail, but in this short article, we will cover only the most popular. We will look at the science of the matter, and show that the Bible has been right all along.

The body of evidence is vast and it may change what makes up your three square meals forever.

"The Other White Meat"

Without a doubt, the most popular of these animals are pigs. This pug-nosed "treat" is served in backyards as pork chops, at breakfast tables as bacon or as delicacies in five-star restaurants. Supporting its consumption are powerful organizations that push its health and safety in the media and political lobbies. The result is that swine comprises a large portion of the North American menu.

But is it as safe and healthy as some would have you believe?

Much insight into the pig can be ascertained by how they are raised and what they will eat. Many have heard the _expression, "you are what you eat," and what a pig will eat is shocking. We will also look at how pigs digest their food and how they differ from many other meats.

A pig's digestive system-unlike a cow's-is not designed to filter toxins from its system. These toxins work their way through the pig and are deposited in the animal's flesh-especially in its fat deposits. The pig itself is actually able to sustain very high levels of toxins in its system. As such, it can eat just about anything. So much so that it has actually been reported that in an effort to keep feed costs down, pig farmers will purchase garbage, such as rotting meat and vegetables from restaurants, to feed their pigs-and the pigs can be sustained on it. However, there is nothing in the pig's digestive system, or the processing of the meat, that removes these toxins.

Farmers have even reported pigs chewing and eating the cancer of other animals!

More interesting still is the time it takes for such things, like the garbage and cancer described above, to become flesh. For most animals, this is a much slower process, taking about 12 hours. This gives the animal's digestive system time to filter toxins, poisons and deadly parasites from entering the bloodstream and being deposited in its flesh. Also, because most food is turned into muscle, more time is required for that muscle to form.

The same is not true for the pig. Much of what it eats quickly turns into flesh in just four hours. Not only does this mean that toxins are not filtered, but most of the flesh takes the form of fat!

Even in humans, body fat is where most toxins are stored. Typically, when the body does not know how to deal with a substance, it surrounds it with fat and stores it to keep the rest of the body safe from that substance. The same is true in pigs. While they have other methods to dump the extremely deadly toxins from their system, the highest concentration will be in the fat tissue.

This is why a March 1950 Reader's Digest article stated that pork contains "myriads of baffling and sinister parasites." But this should not be a surprise.

Cleaners-Not Clean Meat

Pigs are designed as natural vacuum cleaners. They will eat just about anything-garbage, carcasses or even their own urine and feces. Most of this consumption causes no harm to the pig. They were designed to do such things. They are so efficient at the task that when land is cleared for a golf course, pigs are let loose to eat all the poisonous snakes-with no harm to the pigs.

Every animal has its purpose. Scavengers, such as the pig, are designed to clean-not to be eaten! Some of the "cleaning" features of the pig are remarkable.

One such feature is located under its hooves. Often referred to as poison ducts or running sores, these "sores" act as a conduit for poisons to ooze from the pig's body. This is one reason pigs can eat poisonous snakes that would kill other creatures and not be affected themselves. However, these ducts will often become "plugged" from the amount of toxins pigs must excrete from their bodies. If this becomes the case, a farmer must quickly have the pig slaughtered and sent to the market before it dies. As you may well imagine, the meat from such an animal is riddled with parasites and toxins.

One case-in-point: A mink farm in New Holstein, Wisconsin ordered beef livers to feed their minks. The supplier accidentally shipped pig livers instead. The result? Every mink that ate the livers died!

The toxicity of the animal is not just limited to meat and organs! Even the saliva of the pig can be horribly infectious. In fact, one disease, called "mad itch," will cause a cow to rub all the skin from its mouth-to the point of suicide. All that is required for cows to contract this disease is to come in contact with a pig's saliva residue in shared food supplies!

Worm Civilizations

Inside the animal is a myriad of worms and parasites. For instance, a pig can sustain 19 different kinds of worms inside its body. Some have very minor effects in humans, but others have much more long-lasting effects.

One such organism is the worm responsible for trichinosis. This is also the most widely published of the worms found in pork that affect humans.

Like most organisms found in pork, this worm is contracted when one consumes meat containing trichinae larva. Once in your intestine, these larvae hatch from their protective cysts and grow into adult roundworms. These roundworms then produce offspring that can burrow through your intestinal wall. From this point, they enter your lymphatic system and can move throughout your body via the bloodstream. They then implant themselves in tissues that allow them to grow.

Studies have shown that their larvae have been found in heart, diaphragm, lung and brain tissue. Those infected with trichinosis can experience a wide range of symptoms-abdominal discomfort, cramping, diarrhea, muscle pain (especially muscle pain with breathing, chewing, or using large muscles) and fever. If the damage to the tissue is severe, the long-term problems are never-ending.

And this is just one of the 19 parasites found in pork!

SYMPTOMS OF TRICHINOSIS

Many assume that trichinosis is uncommon in the modern day. This is mostly due to the fact that this disease is extremely hard to detect in humans.

Trichinosis is often misdiagnosed as any of the following: Arthritis, acute alcoholism, conjunctivitis, food poisoning, lead poisoning, heart disease, laryngitis, mumps, asthma, rheumatism, rheumatic fever, rheumatic myocarditis, gout, tuberculosis, angioneurotic edema, dermatomyositis, frontal sinusitis, influenza, nephritis, peptic ulcer, appendicitis, cholecystitis, malaria, scarlet fever, typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, undulant fever, encephalitis, gastroenteritis, intercoastal neuritis, tetanus, pleurisy, colitis, meningitis, syphilis, typhus and cholera.

"¢ UNDER FINGERNAILS: Trichinosis, as shown here, can be manifested by splinter hemorrhages under the finger nails.

PHOTO: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

"¢ MICROSCOPIC VIEW: This micrograph reveals developing Trichinella cysts within human muscle tissue. After exposure to gastric acid and pepsin, the larvae are released from the cysts and invade the small bowel mucosa where they develop into adult worms. After one week, the females release larvae that migrate to the striated muscles where they encyst.

PHOTO: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<

This is why Dr. Maurice C. Hall, Zoology Chief at the U.S. Public Health Service, stated, "It appears to be a legitimate demand that, when a man exchanges dollars for pork, he should not do it, on the basis that he may be purchasing his death warrant." This statement was made many years ago, leaving some to wonder if the pork purchased today is much leaner and healthier (as asserted by suppliers).

So-called experts will argue that properly cooking pork at 167 degrees Fahrenheit will destroy all the bacteria and worms in it. But studies have proven this not to be the case. One university heated trichinae-infested pig meat to an incredibly high temperature (nearly 500 degrees Fahrenheit) to test this theory. Even when the meat reached temperatures that could not be viably reproduced in one's home, it still contained living worms. Simple organisms like these worms are remarkably resilient, and thoroughly cooking the pork does not make it safe.

And some of these parasites, like trichinosis, can be incredibly hard to detect. Former chairman of the New York Trichinosis Commission, Senator Thomas C. Desmond, stated, "Physicians have confused trichinosis with some 50 ailments, ranging from Typhoid Fever to Acute Alcoholism.. .That pain in your arm or leg may be arthritis or rheumatism, but it may be trichinosis. That pain in your back may mean a gall-bladder involvement, but it may mean trichinosis. "

Body's Response

Another interesting fact about pork is related to how the human body digests animal fat. The process is called hydrolysis. Studies show that when you eat animal fat, it undergoes a conversion process that changes it from beef fat, for instance, into human fat-the form in which it is stored in the body. This allows the body to remove some of the toxins and to create tissue that is able to be converted into energy when needed.

Yet, pork is not subject to hydrolysis. Anytime you have pork chops or sausage, its fat is stored in the body as PORK FAT! As we have seen, fat stores much of the toxins. Therefore, you are storing the most toxic form of the animal!

As previously stated, when the body does not know how to deal with something-like toxins-it isolates it. In the case of toxins, it stores them in fat. Since your body was never designed to ingest swine fat, it does not know how to do deal with it. So it isolates it, unchanged as pig fat on your body!

And this tissue is not even useful for energy. To convert these pork fat deposits into usable energy, the body must burn up large amounts of glucose-an essential element of brain function. This can lead to a feeling of chronic hunger, which leads to the consumption of more meat-and the vicious cycle continues.

Studies have also shown that those who regularly eat pork are more prone to ulcerous skin infections. This should not be surprising, because ulcerous skin infections are COMMON on living pigs and, as we have seen, cooking does not kill all the worms and parasites in pork.

Other Deadly Creatures

We have focused on the most popular of unclean meats, but there are many reasons why certain birds, seafood and other creatures are also unhealthy. One example is that of clams and oysters. Typically, these shellfish are eaten raw. It has been found that 50 to 70% of all clams and oysters are contaminated with salmonella. Not only that, but such bottom-feeding creatures are typically saturated with heavy metals, such as mercury.

Another example would be that of armadillos. Not only are these creatures unclean to eat, but studies show they may even be dangerous to handle, as they may serve as reservoirs for leprosy.

One final study also bears some investigation. Though it was conducted many years ago, a modern "update" of this study, with a more exact toxicology analysis, would show similar results. A 1953 study published in the "Bulletin of the History of Medicine," and written by Dr. David Macht, M.D., tested a variety of biblically clean and unclean animals for levels of toxicity. His finding confirmed everything covered so far. Every animal that the Bible declared as clean was found to be non-toxic. Conversely, each animal declared as unclean was found to be toxic and inedible based on these tests. Keep in mind that this study took place in a much less toxic society, so the same animals would be much more toxic today! It took mankind 6,000 years to determine this fact that has always been in the pages of the Bible!

Time and time again, study of these scavengers show that they are well-designed to clean, but they are not clean to eat. Just as you would not go into a sewage plant for dinner, you should not eat these natural sewage processors!

It takes very little investigation to learn why the Bible teaches what it has for thousands of years. God declares certain animals unclean and they are designated as such for a reason!

The Bible itself has never wavered on these teachings. If you look at the first book of the Bible-Genesis- you will find that Noah was instructed to take seven pairs of clean animals and one pair of unclean. Even then, God wanted mankind to eat what was created to be food and not to eat things that would poison him.

This is particularly important in the context of the account of the Flood. God was cleansing the world to start anew. He could have easily allowed for anything to be eaten if that was His choice. But He inspired this grouping of animals and the recording of it in Genesis as a lesson for us today.

With wishes;

UBAID