Pork has been the victim of a series of consumer taboos, being seen as a low quality product and excessively fat. This preconceived idea, which was handed down from generation to generation, has now been totally discredited by scientific studies which have demonstrated that pork is really healthy and nutritive.
Demystifying pork meat
This fact is mainly due to two reasons. One is social and cultural and the other is concerned with advances in animal feeding.
For years, pork was practically the only meat available to most Spanish people since these animals, omnivorous and needing little physical space, were cheap and easy to keep. The result was that when Spanish society achieved a higher financial level and could have access to red meats, white bread and other “luxuries”, food habits changed substantially and considered the dearer meats as “better”.
This led to an impoverishment of the Mediterranean diet which, in additional to the indispensable olive oil, included pulses, cereals, pork and vegetables, among other foods. With the passing of the years, nutritionists have shown that wholemeal bread is more beneficial to health than white bread, and that red meats should be consumed in moderation because their composition contains saturated fats which are dangerous to human health.
Pork meat is more and more healthy
On the other hand, technological improvements in the feeding of livestock for human nutrition have been fundamental. Today’s achievement is to reduce the fat content of pork by nearly 30%, so that many nutrition experts now recommend including it regularly in the daily diet.
100 grams of pork supply approximately 110 calories, a quantity comparable to that supplied by 100 g of red bream or well-soaked salt cod.
Add new comment