I had to call in a lifeline today (when this was written). Because I was reading an article that was ticking me off; it made no sense to me.

You see, I have always kept kosher- my entire life. I have no experience or knowledge about pork, bacon, or sausage. Except what I see on TV or read. And, everything I remember seeing always calls pork “the other white meat”.

So, when I read this article, I called one of my two best friends to ask him if pork was white meat. He immediately agreed with me- but then allowed that he wasn’t sure. So, I did what I should have done in the first place. I did some more research.

It seems that the US National Pork Producers Association had enveigled the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to allow that nomenclature for pig products. There are a slew of definitions of red meat (high myoglobin, mammalian derived, etc.).  And, the culinary definition satisfies the demands of the pork producers- that pig is white meat.

But, that doesn’t apply for the rest of the world. They consider pig products to be red meat. Kind of like how the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers products made in a clean room to be sterile (unless they fail the test), while the rest of the world considers products to be sterile if they are free of microbes.

(That’s a long story. One we fought decades ago. Because we made our products in a conventional production facility but rendered them microbe and pyrogen free. Meeting sterility standards outside the US. But, not within the confines between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.)

So, with that big buildup, I’m sure you want to know what got me so riled up. I was reading a study from Singapore that reported about the link between CKD (chronic kidney disease)/ESRD (end stage renal disease) and red meat consumption. The paper, “Red Meat Intake and Risk of End-Stage Renal Disease” was just made available by the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Drs. QJ Lew (Singhealth Polyclinics), TH Jafar and WP Koh (both of NUS Medical School, Singapore) , HW Koh (National University of Singapore), A Jin and KY Chow (both National Registry Diseases Offices of Singapore), and JM Yuan (University of Pittsburgh) were the authors of this study. (WP Koh is the senior author.) Examining the records of some 63,257 Chinese adults (all living in Singapore) ranging in age from 45 to 74, the researchers found that 97% of the red meat intake was from pork. (Not what we consider to be red meat in the States, as discussed above.) But, the subjects also consumed poultry, fish, dairy, soy, and legumes for their sources of protein.

The prospective study covered a little more than 15 years of patient history. The total number of folks who had ESRD was 951, or 1.5 % of the total population. (By the way the ESRD incidence in the US is closer to 0.2% of the population. But, for the same population of 45 to 73, the incidence is twice that at 0.43%.)

But, when the cohort was examined to see who consumed the most pork (among those in this study; the top 25%) had a 40% elevated risk of ESRD when compared to those in the lowest consuming quartile. While soy and legumes may have provided some protection against ESRD, there were no other associations with the consumption of poultry, fish, eggs, or even dairy products. Most importantly, those the substituted ONE serving a week of pork with other protein sources had their chances of ESRD reduced by 62%.

Now, you know, when this article finally makes it into print (I was reading an early release of the data), it will make the same headline splash that another study with which I had issue. That study was published in the Lancet about a year ago. (Here’s my discusson of those results. ) That publication reported that eating red meat and chicken was associated with cancer. But, if you really studied the data, you saw that the cancer incidence was more correlative with the specific methods of cooking the meat: in particular, the danger was related to either barbecuing or pan grilling the food. That is the same sort of confusion that will exist here.

This study does not discuss red meat the way we Americans consider it. But, if you don’t keep kosher, if you do eat “the other white meat”, then it’s time to consider going kosher- or at least cutting your pig consumption. Remember, it was just one less portion of pork per week that was correlated with a 62% decreased risk.

Let’s hear it for the ruminants.

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