Pork, All Kinds

Being a World War II baby, I spent the first fifteen years of my life on food rations. It is said that we are the "lucky" generation: Many unhealthy foods like sugar, bacon, pork, beef, milk, butter, fat, cakes, and even bread were strictly rationed. Meanwhile, we could eat as much as we liked of cabbage, onions, and turnips!

A study carried out in the remote and tiny Okinawan island of Kohama found that the inhabitants eat even more fish, 144 g (about 5 oz), and far less salt, about 6 g per day, than their mainland neighbors. They eat seaweed and herbaceous plants and also sweet potato and tofu (soybean curd). They have adopted some Chinese practices from nearby Taiwan, eating some pork and drinking green tea. And they exercise a lot: 95 percent of the eighty-year-olds studied led active lives, working long hours every day in their fish-farming paddies.

There are dozens of fatty acids, most of which are either neutral or harmful to health. Saturated myristic acid and palmitic acid are aggressive to arteries. They are particularly found in butter, cream, cheese, beef, pork, and lamb. Palmitic acid is also the chief component of palm oil, which is used in processed foods. However, the body converts another saturated fat, stearic acid (particularly found in cocoa butter), into oleic acid (as found in olive oil). Oleic acid, which dominates the family of monounsaturated fats, is neutral on the body. Olive oil is "good" because it does no harm.

Common farm meats, such as beef, pork, and lamb, have become problem foods. The difficulty is their high fat content and the harmful nature of the fat. Stockbreeders are beginning to work on improving the nutritional nature of their herds, but for now we are better off avoiding these meats and everything that is made from them. In contrast, an uncommon farm animal, the goat, is acceptable.