I suppose question one would be whether or not to eat meat at all. I'm not going in depth on the ethics of it except to say that in my personal opinion, if you're not willing to slaughter an animal yourself, you've got no business buying a steak in a resturaunt. Those who disagree are the same people who have no problem shooting off a missle and killing 30 people but wouldn't have the gall to look in their eyes stab them all to death. As if there were a moral difference. I would strongly suggest researching what goes on in slaughterhouses, on factory farms  and the other costs associated with megafarms.  Compare that to the benefits of sustainable farming.

    Here's a cute animation starring Leo

    the pig and Moofeus.

 Now, on to the health info.

    Beef: A good source of iron, protein, and vitamin B12. The most lean and nutrient dense cuts of beef are the round, tenderloin, sirloin, and flank. All beef however is not created equal. Just as you are what you eat, so the nutritional value of the beef depends on it's diet.

    A sirloin steak from a grass fed steer has about one half to one third the amount of saturated fat as a similar cut from a grain fed steer or approximately equivalent to that of skinless chicken. If you eat a typical amount of beef (66.5 pounds a year), switching to grassfed beef will save you 17,733 calories a year. If everything else in your diet remained constant, you'd lose about six pounds a year from this alone. Although grassfed meat is lower in saturated fat, it gives you from two to six times more "omega-3 fatty acids." Grassfed meat is higher in conjugated linoleic acid and vitamin E. Grassfed steers are not fed poulty litter, (read “chicken crap”) and offal (meat scraps from animals including bone meal from other cows mixed with pig blood), a know cause of mad cow disease.

    Lastly, feed grain is not organic so cows get to pass along all of the pesticides and fertillizers they consume and absorb. Prefer lean cuts of organic grassfed beef guaranteed free of antibiotics and growth hormones. 

    Poultry has one of the lowest fat contents of the common meats as long as you remove the skin which is a must (many toxins absorbed by the body are stored in the fat cells). The white meat has less fat than the dark. A baked skinless chicken breast has only ½ gram of saturated fat. Obviously the same breast deep fried with the skin is a different story. Turkey, ostriches and emus are similar while ducks and geese have higher fat content. Growth hormones and antibiotics are not widely used in poultry production however genetic engineering is a concern. Prefer organic, free range chicken to factory farmed (2). Healthier animals means more nutrtious, better quality meat. 

    Fish are an excellent source of high quality easily digestible protien. They provide trace minerals such as magnesium, phosphorus, iron and copper as well as the following doses of vitamins in an average serving: 10% of thiamin, 15% riboflavin and 50% niacin + some B's. A serving of fatty fish such salmon, mackerel and sardine will supply about 10% of the daily allowance of Vitamin D along with high levels of poly-unsaturated fatty acids, especially Omega-3 fatty acids.

    And then there's the down side: As previously mentioned, absorbed toxins are usually stored in the fat (this is the bodys' way of trapping them and protecting the organs). In the case of fish, they absorb all of the pollutants which happen to be in the water. The fatty fish are more likely to contain dangerous chemicals. In Particular, species that are larger, longer lived, or are predatory absorb much larger quantities of toxins for obvious reasons.

    The compunds in question are: Dioxins, Methylmercury, Pcb's, DDT, and PBDE's . On fish farms, crowded conditions can conduce to exposure of a wide rage of agrichemicals designed as disinfectants and to kill bacteria in excrement laden water; herbicides to prevent the overgrowth of vegetation in ponds; vaccines to fight certain diseases; and drugs - usually combined in the feed - to treat diseases and parasites as well as spawning and production hormones.

     In nature, salt and fresh water species such as Tuna, Swordfish and Bass are known to contain high levels of mercury. Best bet : Smaller nonpredatory fish such as Tilapia or Trout raised on.... you guessed it, organic fish farms or from a known uncontaminated water source.

    Pork: With the pigs, there are the usual meat concerns. To those, I would add that pigs are considered to be one of the most intelligent mammals behind primates and dolphins. Would you eat either of those species? Also, a pigs' heart and liver are nearly identical to a humans' right up to their size and blood flow. Pigs are considered a top candidate for xenotransplants (animal to human ). Pig skin is closely related to human skin in thickness, basal cell density, collagen fibers, vascular supply, subcutaneous fat, sweat glands, color, and hair follicles. Before it was manufactured synthetically, people with insulin-dependent diabetes would usually use insulin extracted from pigs. And then there are the religious concers. I'm going to skip those as they'll be dealt with at the same time as the rest of the religious mandates.

    Now on to the health issues. The practice of using hormones in pig production is illegal in the United States. Score 1 for pork. The antibiotic conerns are about the same. Nutrition wise, the vitamin and mineral content are similar to beef as is the fat and cholesterol content in the lean cuts (chops, tenderloin and roast). As for bacon, ribs, bologna, sausage and hot dogs, to put it mildly, you could probably find something healthier to eat.

    If we are what we eat, then what is a pig? Well, they have been known to eat just about anything including decaying vegetables, animal flesh (even human), maggots and excrement. Due to their propensity for eating nasty things, the pig has been found to be a host for many parasites. These hellminths (intestinal parasites) may be passed to humans by consuming undercooked infected meat. There are a plethora of parasites but the two of concern in pork are roundworms and tapeworms.

    The industry today has cleaned up quite a bit resulting in healthier pork. Trichinosis (caused by trichina worms, a type of roundworm) infections are rare these days (about 12 per year in the U.S.) mostly thanks to pigs no longer being fed raw meat garbage. Also, most cases of Taenia Solium (the pork tapeworm) now originate from outside the U.S. You can easily protect yourself from parasites by cooking your meat well. This means an internal temperature of 137 degrees minimum (the USDA recommends 160). They can also be killed by freezing at minus 5 degrees F for 25 days or to minus 22 degrees F for 25 hours.

    This does not account for other types of toxins that might be retained in swine meat and fat due to their diet. There may be links between pork consumption and cirrhosis of the liver signifying a heavy toxic load which is not neutralized by cooking.

    Bottom line: Dare I use the words 'organic' and 'pork' in the same sentence?