Some religious groups avoid eating all pig products. Do they know something that’s not obvious the rest of the world? Maybe and maybe not, but their avoidance of pork, bacon and other meats from pigs is sound advice in the face of a growing base of medical research.

It has even been suggested, in a BBC News medical report, that Mozart died from a disease contracted through eating pork: “The world famous Austrian composer, who died in 1791, showed the symptoms of a disease caused by eating badly-cooked pork infected by a worm, an American doctor has said. Mozart’s symptoms, including a fever, rash, limb pain and swelling, match those brought on by trichinosis, according to Dr Jan V Hirschmann of Seattle’s Puget Sound Veterans Affairs Medical Center.”

Dr. Joseph Mercola writes, “Granted, the occasional consumption of pork might be fine, but it’s a risk, and the more you consume it the more likely it is that you will acquire some type of infection, because …. the antibiotic-resistant bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is NOT your only potential health hazard.” Here are some key disease-related notes that Dr. Mercola relates to the eating of swine products:

• According to a 2006 study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, eating bacon five or more times a week was linked to increasing your risk of bladder cancer by 59 percent. Aside from the processing of the meat, another likely cause for bacon’s negative influence on your health is the heterocyclic amines that form when meat is cooked at high temperatures.
• Eating undercooked pork causes trichinosis.*
• The high salt and sugar content of pre-cooked canned hams provides an ideal growth medium for the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria.
• “Swine mystery disease,” “blue abortion,” and “swine infertility,” is a disease now called “Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome” (PRRS), and may afflict about 75 percent of American pig herds. This disease is now airborne, making eradication efforts very difficult.
• Discovered in 1999, the Nipah virus has caused disease in both animals and humans, through contact with infected animals. In humans, the virus can lead to deadly encephalitis (an acute inflammation of your brain).
• According to the Mayo Clinic and an article in the Journal of Clinical Biology, pork may be the reservoir responsible for sporadic, locally acquired cases of acute hepatitis reported in regions with relatively mild climates as HEV has been found to transmit between swine and humans.
• In 1998, the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases reported that a new virus infecting pigs was able to jump to humans. The menangle virus was discovered in August 1997 when sows at an Australian piggery began giving birth to deformed and mummified piglets.

* Trichinellosis, also called trichinosis, is caused by eating raw or undercooked meat of animals infected with the larvae of a species of worm called Trichinella. Infection occurs commonly in certain wild carnivorous (meat-eating) animals but may also occur in domestic pigs.

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