The very first thing that comes to mind is the prohibition of eating pork meat among Muslims. Usually they simply say that it is written in the Koran and that this is the meat of dirty animals.
And the Jews do not eat pork, and this prohibition is much older.
What is wrong with pork and why was it banned by world religions hundreds and thousands of years ago, when all cattle were not much cleaner, like the people themselves, who lived in unsanitary conditions?
Food bans have always interested people. And if earlier for this they could be stoned or sent to the stake, like a heretic, then modern researchers can afford to delve into the past, even the Pope, even the entire pantheon Greek gods.
And when scientists looked into history, they realized that every food taboo for religious reasons is very easily explained by the simplest and most logical.
It turns out that this is not the desire of the high priests or rulers of that era, but the most precautionary measures and the first sanitary control in the history of mankind.
In fact, when religions were born, all human experience was recorded in the Torah or the Koran. Everything in a row: from folk tales and legends, to myths and legends. This also included stories about life, food, illness, wars and much more useful.
It turned out to be a set of rules or a guide to survival in that terrible dirty world.
So what about the pork?
It’s better to start with why pork is eaten at all? We will omit about taste and nutritional properties. Let's analyze the nature of the pig.
What now, what thousands of years before us, pigs were eaten, whatever you say, and they loved this meat very much. It's all about the abundance of pulp, a small amount of bones and a large amount of fat in which these products can be cooked. The leather was used to make straps or sandal laces.
Pigs are omnivores, unlike sheep or cows, which consume nothing but grass and water. Therefore, they can pour slop, the very ones that people have not eaten.
Also, pigs reach maturity very quickly (5-7 months), breed easily - only 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days (4 months) and at least 5 kilogram piglets are born, which can be immediately there is.
The sow recovers quite quickly, manages to feed her offspring (4-8 weeks is enough) and she is ready to become a mother again.
Sheep, on the other hand, give offspring on average no more than 1-2 lamb, and they will have to wait 5 months or a little more. Lamb was and is still valued as ritual meat, and it is already clear why.
Why, then, beef and horse meat have always been expensive, but this meat has never been banned?
For a heifer to become a cow, you need to wait at least a year, then cherish it for another 9 months in anticipation of a calf. It is extremely rare for cows to calve with twins, mostly 1 calf. After that, she needs to recover for several months.
The calf has always been important. If this is a bull, then it will come in handy in the field. And if it's a heifer, then it's a new cow. It can be well sold live or kept as a second cow. Therefore, only bulls were allowed for meat.
With horses, the story is even more complicated, as foals are born for 11 months. Horses in ancient times are expensive cattle. Comparable today with a decent car in value.
From here, there seemed to be no direct ban on eating beef, horse meat or lamb / goat meat, but still this meat rarely got on the table due to its "uniqueness" and labor costs. And pork is always available, so thousands of years ago everyone ate it, without exception.
Until the taboo on this type of meat came.
Jews and Judaism - that's where the roots of these food prohibitions grow. It is believed that this was the first attempt to put together something important and necessary for the purity of the soul of a believer. This is how a collection of extremely strict food restrictions, known as kosher or kashrut, was born, which are based on the Talmud and the laws of the Torah.
If you go through the meat, then it only talks about ruminants and ungulates, at the same time. It turns out that Judaism allows you to eat lamb and anything with hooves... to giraffes.
But pigs are not in the rules, because they do not chew the cud, although they have hooves.
So let's recap a little. It turns out that Muslims consider pigs dirty, and Jews cannot eat them because of the lack of chewing gum? Basically so. And yet it is worth remembering that all these food taboos appeared for a reason, but from hopelessness, increased mortality, temperature and time.
Both Muslim and Jewish religions appeared in a very hot climate. After all, there were no refrigerators then, any food was stored very poorly. And people have been eating meat for thousands of years, maybe only on holidays, but they did! Preserving a meat product is now difficult if there is no equipment.
Can you imagine how it was 500 or 3,000 years ago?
By the way, pork is considered the most perishable meat. Just 30 minutes after the slaughter, a skinned pork carcass begins to attract flies and other insects, which lay larvae in the meat... And besides the larvae, pork in the summer is covered rather quickly with a kind of film or mucus-like substance, from which it deteriorates.
A little gape with cooking and all! You can either get poisoned or get acquainted with parasites and E. coli.
Until now, in our villages, those who drive pigs always keep fresh meat before cutting and freezing, let it cool for several hours. And if it happens in the summer, then the carcass must be covered with fresh nettles or other vigorous grass. Depends on the region, but nettle or oregano/mint is most commonly used to repel flies and as a cheap antiseptic.
Wise they were, the ancients! How to make people wash, wash their food, cook only fresh and certain things so that the people survive?
Scare him with heavenly punishment!
Now it is difficult to explain why some product is harmful, even when it is very tasty. And then it was almost impossible because of the illiteracy and ignorance of the public.
Priests or priests acted wisely and came up with the idea to include all these items about taboos and prohibitions on food in their holy books, so that through the Torah or the Koran to inspire people that pigs are not food, but the machinations of the Devil and their meat gives off human flesh, that they are dirty, eat their excrement or relatives, do not chew gum... So you can't eat them!
Hard? And you remember that from childhood we all teach our children not to put anything into the outlet. It's just not possible, that's all! They cannot explain the physics and nature of electricity.
So it was before, but about pork.
But what about Christians?
In Christianity, there are no prohibitions or taboos on any food, especially pork. Because everything that was written in the Old Testament (Torah and Talmud) was canceled in the New Testament.
We will not quote the Bible, but literally Jesus said that his followers can eat everything that God sent.
This is where we end for today.
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