Posted on 02/06/2008 9:11:20 PM PST by neverdem
AUSTIN, Minn. — If you have to come down with a strange disease, this town of 23,000 on the wide-open prairie in southeastern Minnesota is a pretty good place to be. The Mayo Clinic, famous for diagnosing exotic ailments, owns the local medical center and shares some staff with it. Mayo itself is just 40 miles east in Rochester. And when it comes to investigating mysterious outbreaks, Minnesota has one of the strongest health departments and best-equipped laboratories in the country.
And the disease that confronted doctors at the Austin Medical Center here last fall was strange indeed. Three patients had the same highly unusual set of symptoms: fatigue, pain, weakness, numbness and tingling in the legs and feet.
The patients had something else in common, too: all worked at Quality Pork Processors, a local meatpacking plant.
The disorder seemed to involve nerve damage, but doctors had no idea what was causing it.
At the plant, nurses in the medical department had also begun to notice the same ominous pattern. The three workers had complained to them of “heavy legs,” and the nurses had urged them to see doctors. The nurses knew of a fourth case, too, and they feared that more workers would get sick, that a serious disease might be spreading through the plant.
“We put our heads together and said, ‘Something is out of sorts,’ ” said Carole Bower, the department head.
Austin’s biggest employer is Hormel Foods, maker of Spam, bacon and other processed meats (Austin even has a Spam museum). Quality Pork Processors, which backs onto the Hormel property, kills and butchers 19,000 hogs a day and sends most of them to Hormel. The complex, emitting clouds of steam and a distinctive scent, is easy to find from just about anywhere in town...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Actually, it might be the nitrates and not the pork.
In ecological [2] and case-control [3] studies, the hypothesis was raised that the ingestion during childhood of smoked and nitrate/nitrite-cured meat products is a risk factor for MS in a multifactorial context. In the culinary literature, the predilection of Jews from Eastern Europe, and later from Western and Central Europe and North America, for smoked meat varieties was emphasized. [4] Dishes like smoked brisket, smoked goose, smoked frankfurters and Vienna sausages, and a variety of smoked fishes give an impression of that attitude. In contrast, diet in North African Jews is similar to the general food pattern in North Africa and the Middle East with a much higher weight on vegetables. Drying in the hot sun prevails for meat preservation [5], whereas smoking is virtually unknown. Christian Arabs in Israel consume pork [6] but the type of preservation has to be shown.
http://www.neurology.org/cgi/eletters/66/7/1061
Trichinosis?
cubes added to Kraft Mac shells with cheese is a standard menu item
Ditto cubes added to candied sweet potatos
“Spam,eggs,and Spam. Spam,Spam,sausage,and Spam.
Spam,Spam,Spam,Bacon and Spam. Spam,Spam,Spam,Spam,
Spam,Spam”,etc.”
Thought we weren’t allowed to spam on FR. ;^)
Acts 10 And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance 11 and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” 15 And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” 16 This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.
Gee, it sounds like pork is now OK.
(The sure sign of a good BBQ joint in the South, where pork is the preferred meat, is an abundance of Religious Tracts on the wall.)
I don't believe that we need to follow the dietary laws of the OT in order to be right with God. It is through our acceptance of Jesus Christ's sacrifice for our sins that we are made right with Him. But I do think it is in our best interests to follow the dietary guidelines of our Creator.
"If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee." (Exodus 15:;26)
Bad case of MN liberalism.
Sweet breads are the thymus gland. Not the brain. Used to love them when a child way-y-y-y back in the fifties. Doubt I’d eat them now that I know what they are.
SPAM cut into strips and fried in a little butter or olive oil with chopped cabbage is awesome.
Good to see another connoisseur of such a delectable treat.
LOL.
Unfortunately you're adding an interpretation to Peter's vision that Peter never saw or acknowledged in scripture.
1. Peter realized correctly that the vision meant that he shouldn't consider gentiles unclean or common:
Act 10:28 And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.
Peter, who actually had the vision, interpreted it to mean that he shouldn't call any man common or unclean. Nowhere does he mention that God showed him he could eat pork.
2. In chapter 11 or Acts, Peter recounts the events to Jewish Christians. He never mentions that they were all free to eat pork, instead he again recounts the correct interpretation of the vision:
Act 11:9 But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
Act 11:10 And this was done three times: and all were drawn up again into heaven.
Act 11:11 And, behold, immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me.
3. In context, reading Acts chapter 10 and 11 are all about the entry of the first gentiles into God's church and not about abolishing God's injunction about eating pork.
4. In the vision itself, Peter NEVER ate the unclean food. In fact, he affirms that in the 10 or 15 years since the death of Christ he had NEVER eaten anything unclean.
Act 10:14 But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.
So this proves that Jesus Christ never taught his disciples that God's injunction about eating pork was abolished.
In reality, the fact that many Christians believe that eating pork is acceptable is simply tradition. It has no biblical basis.
I would agree. God's laws are for our benefit and we disregard them at our own peril. I believe he designed certain animals to be used as food for humans and certain animals not to be food for humans. The meat he didn't intend for us to eat are incompatible in some way with the human body.
I used to have the same problem. Stopped taking statins 15 months ago. I keep my cholesterol at 190 by using flax meal. It's full of both omega 3 and 6. You can bake with it, or add it to soups, stews, oatmeal or anything you want to.
Ther is a batchelors casserole which uses ground round that would be an interesting change with SPAM. Layers of meat, green peepers, tater tots, onion, and mushroom soup, sprinkled with cheddar is the casserole. I hadn't thought of using SPAM on the bottom instead of ground round ...
I do that occasionally, but I place creamy cole slaw on top of the steaming cabbage and SPAM.
I put peanut butter in my bowl of chili, too. But then I don’t use as much meat in my chili recipe.
In days gone by, Spam and Mac was a standard backpacking menu item. Recently it was added to our “easy and clean” one pot camping menus. (purists won’t pack Spam, but it is ok by me)
The Kraft Shells and Cheese are considered by me to be better than the old stand by in the blue box. To make it one pot, the uncooked spam is added to the cooked Shells and Cheese and gently heated .
There is a new Spam with less salt that is very good. There is also Turkey Spam that is also good in the same mix. We were on the road for two months last year and this was good and easy after a 400 mile day
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