Are You Eating Tainted, Unhealthy Pork?

As if people weren’t panicked enough about the recent Menu Foods pet food recalls, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) now believes that several hundred hogs who may have eaten pet food tainted with melamine have entered the human food supply in three states: <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />California, New York, and South Carolina. Farms in Utah, North Carolina, Kansas, and Oklahoma also received contaminated pet food for use as hog feed. The USDA claims that the danger to humans is low, but it would nevertheless be prudent for people to stop eating pork products.

Even if melamine hasn’t entered the food supply, meat is still not safe to eat. Pork is high in saturated fat and cholesterol and can cause heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and cancers of the mouth, throat, colon, and stomach. Pork is known to carry staphylococcus, salmonella, listeria, and parasites such as those that cause trichinosis. Factory-farmed pigs are fed huge amounts of antibiotics and sprayed with pesticides, and scientists believe that meat-eaters’ involuntary consumption of antibiotics has given rise to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The bottom line? Pork is bad news.

But don’t despair if you like the taste of pork. Delicious healthy and humane mock meats—including Smart Dogs, Gardenburger Riblets, Gimme Lean meatless sausage, and Yves Canadian Veggie Bacon, Veggie Deli Slices, and Veggie Pizza Pepperoni Slices—are available in many supermarkets and health-food stores. See www.GoVeg.com for more information.