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I'm pretty sure it's possible to be intolerant of any food if your body is out of whack, but I want to know if anyone has heard of people being intolerant to pork. When I eat it I feel slightly queasy, and then I have to go poop like every time I go in the bathroom for the rest of the day (or even through the next morning, if I eat it at night). Solids. What gives?
Thanks for any insight you might have.

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Do you have any other food allergies? Except the few cases where a tick bite caused the problem, the sensitivity to meat often comes from an underlying issue, such as dairy/gluten/egg allergy, damaging the gut lining and opening it up for other food proteins. A cross reactivity could also be possible. – Thomy Jan 12 2012 at 10:45
I sometimes feel bad (stomach pain) after eating pork. I never get this from beef or chicken. I don't know why. – Dave S. Jan 12 2012 at 14:19
Dave, that sounds like me... Thomy, I may try an elimination diet. I do have psoriasis, which I've read may be exacerbated by eggs. My nightmare would be to be allergic to eggs! Thanks for pointing that out. I need to learn more about leaky gut. – legup Jan 12 2012 at 14:47
I noticed I would get a feeling of heat in my face after eating uncured bacon, which is the same reaction I get to raw nuts or coconut. It was too soon after eating it to be metabolic. – Travis Culp Mar 15 at 21:41

12 Answers

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I've heard of some cases where people can train their bodies out of certain meat intolerances, but I think it can also be highly dependent on the person. The two examples I know of are long term vegetarians trying beef or pork for the first time and westerners visiting Nepal and eating yak. Symptoms in both cases mirrored yours (and sound very similar to the symptoms lactose intolerant people suffer through).

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I hope that's true. I never eat port besides maybe a piece of bacon with coffee every few weeks....I have just been experimenting by cooking pork shoulder at home. Locally raised, great looking pork. Thanks for giving me some hope that it's not an actual sensitivity or allergy! – legup Jan 12 2012 at 14:52
I dunno about yak, but yak butter tea did that to me, for real. Phew. But chances are, if I'd stuck to it, I would have gotten used to it. – Krisha C. Jan 12 2012 at 15:16
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I used to have a mild allergic reaction (itchy mouth) when eating CAFO pork--especially pork chops.

Now that I only eat pastured, antibiotic-free pork I have not noticed any reaction!

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You don't happen to have a Jewish relatives? The pork thing tends to come with the territory. Although its not usually due to allergies. But I wonder if kosher laws have anything to do with common allergies.

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There's a better description on Wikipedia, but most of the kosher (and halal) requirements (once you remove the strictly religious aspects) deal with sanitary handling of food (in a day and age with no refrigeration or freezing) -- no pork (trichinosis), avoiding cross contamination (separate tools and surfaces for meat, poultry, and vegetable preparation and cooking), salting for preservation (kosher salt is not kosher itself, but named because it can be used to make something kosher) – cerement Jan 13 2012 at 6:36
No Jewish relatives, but good question. – legup Jan 13 2012 at 14:54
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I cannot eat it, either.

I'm not exactly sure why; I was a vegetarian for several years, but even before then, I rarely touched it (due emotional affection toward pigs, as well as a bad experiences with it when I was younger -- which may, in itself, explain my inability to consume it?). I hypothesize that my body never developed/lost the enzymes to digest it. I have no issues with poultry or ruminants, as far as I can tell.

A quick google search does reveal the possibility of a pork allergy (cross-reactive to milk), and some cursory skimming indicates that "abdominal symptoms" are a manifestation of it. Everything else, unfortunately, seems to be anecdotal.

I look forward to learning more about this, as I have suffered lately the delicious smells of slow-cooked pork shoulder and had nary a bite for fear of digestive upset. It's not my favorite thing to eat (due to aforementioned reasons), but dang. It was torture to smell it cooking all day and not even get a taste. >.<

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Thanks, Kaz. I googled it too, and figured if anyone would know about it, it would be the hackers here! The other day I made the Citrus Carnitas from Well Fed. It was one of the easiest and most amazing dishes I've ever made....but, alas, it didn't make me feel good at all. – legup Jan 12 2012 at 14:50
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Much depends on what the pigs were fed. There's a very wealthy farmer out in Las Vegas who gets food scraps from the casinos and feeds them to his pigs. From what I understand, there are special dumpsters and stuff, and he goes an picks the stuff up.
I used to read a blog from a pig farmer who got a dairy by-product (probably whey) from a local dairy. This farmer seemed to be a decent guy trying to make a decent product, but I'd imagine those pigs could be a problem for someone with a dairy problem.

From what I understand from the Mangalitsa blog, it is best for the animal to be fed on foods high in monounsaturated oils. If the pig gets too many Omega-6s (And I would suspect Omega-3s too) the fat will go rancid very quickly. Heath believes pigs raised on acorns are far superior to what is generally available to Americans.

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I had a neighbor that was convinced Pork was toxic (mainly due to their feeding and the tendency for the muscles to absorb toxins.

I'm not sure how accurate she was but I know I've read in studies you are at high risk for parasites if you consume pork.

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Higher risk if it is raw. Properly cooked pork shouldn't be a problem. Ham shouldn't be a problem either. – Warren D Jan 13 2012 at 10:44
I never thought about how their digestive system works and how that might affect the quality of their meat. Huh. I've also read that pork is a great medium for growing cancer on in the lab. Not sure if that's true; can't remember where I got that from. – legup Jan 13 2012 at 14:54
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When I was a kid I always got sick from pork chops, pork loin, etc but never seemed to have issues with ham or bacon. Maybe the curing does something to it?? I kind of have an aversion to lean cuts of pork unless I've marinated it to death these days... (Except pork belly... omg I love to roast pork belly but I only buy pastured.) I Brined and slow roasted a pork shoulder for new years this year and it gave me some indigestion issues. Anyway, I don't have a clear answer for you but it wouldn't surprise me if pork had something odd about it. Even pastured generally gets a bunch of corn and soy.

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Me too! Bacon doesn't bug me either, but I didn't say earlier because I thought it was too much info. There must be something about the curing process that makes it okay. Thanks so much for the input; it makes me feel like I'm not crazy (in that way at least). – legup Jan 13 2012 at 1:59
P.S. Does pork belly taste like pork shoulder? I like that, and I have easy access to locally raised and pastured pork. Have no idea how to prepare that. – legup Jan 13 2012 at 2:01
Pork belly is the same cut they make bacon out of. You can get giant slabs of it and then cook it a variety of ways or even make your own "uncured" bacon. It's mostly fat. – Aughra Jan 13 2012 at 2:58
Here in Spain they call pork belly "Pancetta". It's one of the cheapest cuts of pork. LEGUP, if you go on Youtube you will find plenty of videos of how to prepare just about any cut of eat you can think of. – Warren D Jan 13 2012 at 10:50
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My neighbor, a small-scale hog farmer, and I have had a few conversations about hogs' diets being consequential beyond the fatty acid profile of their flesh at slaughter. He tells me that given their comparably simple digestive system various irritants/allergens from soy and the like can be absorbed into the flesh of hogs much more easily than would be the case with ruminants.

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I'm definitely looking into this more. Not so simple,this! – legup Jan 13 2012 at 14:56
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I don't really like pork, it makes me feel sluggish, so I usually avoid it. Being brought up in a Polish family we ate lots of it, and I remember suddenly becoming intolerant to ham around age 10 or so (gives me loose stools for days). To this day I can't tolerate American or Canadian ham products at all, but when I was in France I ate their ham almost daily without incident. Why I have no idea. Something in the processing? Trace allergens from the animals' feed? Natural uncured bacon doesn't affect me at all (I gave it up as an experiment during my whole30 start on Paleo). You could get an allergy test done, but the easiest thing is- if you don't like it or it makes you feel crappy, just don't eat it.

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Much to my disappointment, I appear to have a marked pork intolerance. I never ate pork as a kid (refused even sausages and bacon) and then went vegetarian for 22 years. After reintroducing meat when I went paleo, it took me a while to realize it was the pork making me feel super queasy and faint.

It's a travesty.

Anyway, in answer to your question, based on my personal experience the answer is a resounding yes. My daughter has medically diagnosed intolerances to multiple food proteins (e.g. soy, dairy, gluten, egg, pork, shellfish, fish) so I suppose for me it should be a 'd'oh!' thing.

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I asp ate bacon as achild went veg and reintrodouced meat and a paleo diet

Definate reactions to pork. I found out the hard way by switching to a pork based thuroid medicine.
I can take small quantities of bacon but nothing else stays down.

Ps there are bovine based thyroid meds instead. But the longer i am paleo the less need for them.

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I once had a co-worker who was allergic to all read meat, which she defined as pork and beef. So it can happen!

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