Beef and mutton are comparatively the same in both nutritive value and popularity, but the use of pork has been generally condemned the world over. The reason for this is probably explained by prejudices of tradition and religion, rather than by scientific or hygienic knowledge. The prejudice against swine because of the filthy habits of the animal is more a matter of sentiment than of science. It is sometimes the custom among farmers to confine hogs in a pen, and to feed them upon swill and garbage. This makes of the animal a filthy creature. However, when left in the open fields or woods, they are as cleanly in their habits as any of their brother animals. Corn and alfalfa-fed pork is equally as wholesome as beef or mutton, when prepared in a similar manner, and eaten in temperate quantities, while the hog fattened upon acorns and herbs, in his native habitat (the woods), is much more healthy, and his flesh really superior to most of his brother animals.
2 ANIMAL FATS
Animal fats not a necessity
The use of animal fats as food is a very ancient custom, especially among the northern tribes. This custom was once justified owing to the necessity for the consumption of a liberal amount of fats in cold countries, but in this country where our marvelous system of international transportation places at the door of every northern home the delicious fats from the olive orchards of Italy, France, and Spain, the refined oil from the cottonseed, and more than a dozen varieties of nuts, including the humble peanut, there is but little necessity for the use of animal fats except in the form of butter and cream.
Chemical change in frying fats
Perhaps the most injurious way in which animal fats are used is in the process of frying, which is much practised in southern countries in the preparation of other food. The chemical change which takes place in fats, when treated in this manner, renders them exceedingly indigestible, and almost wholly unfit for food.
That per cent of animal fats contained in the ordinary meat diet is quite as wholesome as any other element of nutrition secured from animal sources. However, with the splendid supply of vegetable fats civilized people have to draw upon, the use of animal fats cannot be recommended in any form except that of cream and butter, and when we consider the expense of these by comparison with many pure vegetable fats, our sense of ordinary economy would bid us discard them.
Chemical difference between animal and vegetable fats
The chief distinction between animal and vegetable fats is in the proportion of olein compared with stearin and palmitin. The proportion of the two latter fats is much greater in fats of domestic animals than it is in the human body; this is especially so of tallow. For this reason vegetable fats, which are of a more liquid nature, are more desirable than those of animal origin, especially where we wish to add fatty tissue to the body.
COLD STORAGE OF MEAT