grass fed pork? page 2

[healthymama]

I recently bought pastured pork from a local farm. It was by far the best pork I have ever tasted -- completely different from anything I've ever had before! I finely chopped a bunch of vegetables -- onions, celery, red and green peppers and carrots, mixed it with the pork and used it to stuff poblano peppers. Cooked in a casserole dish in the oven in a little mushroom broth with plenty of chopped tomatoes on top. YUM!

[periquin]

Pastured beef has a fine situation with omega 3 and omega 6. Pastured pork does not. It is way bad with the omega 6 - omega 3 ratio. Since these elements are mainly in the fat, the bacon just ain't all that great. In my opinion, you may as well eat super market beef that was fed it's own excrement. I honestly don't think that pig is meant to be eaten.

[Bushrat]

I've just found out about a new free range pig farm in my area and after asking they told me that their piggies were fed grains, the family's fruit and veg scraps, milk from their jersey cows and eggs from the chickens. I would say most free range pig farms would have to feed them mostly grains and then supplemented with other things.

Why aren't they feeding the pigs their meat scraps?

Pastured beef has a fine situation with omega 3 and omega 6. Pastured pork does not. It is way bad with the omega 6 - omega 3 ratio. Since these elements are mainly in the fat, the bacon just ain't all that great. In my opinion, you may as well eat super market beef that was fed it's own excrement. I honestly don't think that pig is meant to be eaten.

Think of pigs as humans. They share many similarities with us and are meant to eat a similar diet. So a grain fed pig is equivalent to a grain fed human. A grass fed pig is equivalent to a vegetarian. So if you want a healthy (and tasty) pig feed them what makes a healthy (and presumably tasty) human - a paleo/primal diet.

Also, pig fat is close to human fat. Easier for us to digest.

[Lewis]

A grass fed pig is equivalent to a vegetarian. So if you want a healthy (and tasty) pig feed them what makes a healthy (and presumably tasty) human - a paleo/primal diet.

I doubt pigs can digest grass.

I guess the difference is between pigs fed on some commercial feed - or solely on that - and "free range" pigs that are allowed to root around and pick wild food up for themselves. That'll include roots they grub up, acorns and beech mast, fall-down apples. They probably take some insects, too. Farmers used to take them to the woods when particular foods were available to make use of those.

Their flesh is said to taste similar to human flash - at least, cannibals have said so. In Polynesia they called human flesh "long pig". But I don't know how similar their digestive system is to ours. I wouldn't try eating uncooked roots or acorns myself, which makes me wonder. Some tribal peoples have eaten acorns, but I think you need to bury them with ash and water them first.

[Bushrat]

I doubt pigs can digest grass.

I guess the difference is between pigs fed on some commercial feed - or solely on that - and "free range" pigs that are allowed to root around and pick wild food up for themselves. That'll include roots they grub up, acorns and beech mast, fall-down apples. They probably take some insects, too. Farmers used to take them to the woods when particular foods were available to make use of those.

Their flesh is said to taste similar to human flash - at least, cannibals have said so. In Polynesia they called human flesh "long pig". But I don't know how similar their digestive system is to ours. I wouldn't try eating uncooked roots or acorns myself, which makes me wonder. Some tribal peoples have eaten acorns, but I think you need to bury them with ash and water them first.

Grass eating pigs...fuck I am distracted. Anyway, I meant pigs that don't eat meat.

Long story short, best pigs I've ever seen were raised on a poultry farm and a large chunk of their diet was dead poultry.

[periquin]

Either way you want to put it, Pastured pigs, those that eat what nature intended them to eat, do not have a good ratio of omega 6 and omega 3 in their fat. I am depending on the author of "Primal Body, Primal Mind" for that. I trust her. I believe it. She compared their fat to that of grain fed cattle.

Pigs are not meant to eat a similar diet. They are part of nature's clean up crew.

I can't follow your post very well. Good pigs are the ones that don't eat meat, yet the best pigs you ever saw ate a lot of dead poultry. What flag do you want to wave?

[healthymama]

Wow. Now I'm confused. Also kind of grossed out. Guess I'll stick with salad until the nausea passes.

[MalPaz]

Buy a gun and shoot your own wild pig.

hahaha that would be a bore...we do that here in Mississippi

[Lewis]

Either way you want to put it, Pastured pigs, those that eat what nature intended them to eat, do not have a good ratio of omega 6 and omega 3 in their fat. I am depending on the author of "Primal Body, Primal Mind" for that. I trust her.

She's OK. It's a strange patchwork of a book, and she's a bit of an obsessive. I wouldn't take her as an authority on anything.

Omega 3/6 isn't the main reason to eat grass-fed beef:

One of the claims made for grass-fed beef is that the fat from grass-fed animals is much richer in omega-3 fatty acids than the fat from animals that have spent many weeks in the feed lot. ... But this is one claim that should NOT be made for pasture-fed beef. ...

http://www.westonaprice.org/farm-a-r...the-grass.html

And that's from a lady with a doctorate who's a world authority on lipids.

Saturated fat is a necessity for humans, too. So are fat-soluble vitamins, which good fat pork has a reasonable amount of.

In short, it's a good food.

[Diktynna]

Forested pork is the equivalent. Check out the farming practices at Polyface Farm... http://www.polyfacefarms.com/

I found a local beef/pork/lamb/chicken farm near me that works on the Polyface model. My community is now buying from this farm on a "buying club" model -- once a month deliveries ordered in advance. I'm buying 1/4 cow, a full lamb, 1/2 pig in the fall and putting it in my brand new (to me) chest freezer.