Male Pork Was ‘Genetically-Programmed’ to Smell Bad?

Apparently pork from uncastrated pigs tends to smell bad:

If you find the smell of pork revolting, it could be because that’s how you’re genetically programmed to perceive it, according to a new study.

Scientists found that there’s a gene responsible for how a compound in pork smells to humans. The gene determines whether pork smells like ammonia, urine and sweat, or if it smells more like vanilla. The compound, androstenone, is similar to testosterone and found in high concentrations in male pigs…

The researchers noted that the European Union is considering a ban on castration because of concerns over animal welfare, and this debate has rekindled interest in how humans perceive the smell of pork and why two people may smell it differently.

“The data raise the possibility that more consumers will dislike male meat as a result of a castration ban,” the authors wrote.

Androstenone is also found in other male animals, but it’s found in particularly high amounts in swine, Matsunami said. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/smell-pork-genetic-component-study/story?id=16261564#.T6G9vFJz_uY

Although many in the above study did not notice the bad smell, the study was interesting to me, and perhaps other people, who do not eat pork. The fact that humans were possibly genetically-programmed by God to dislike the smell of male pork suggests that perhaps God tried to send humans a message outside of His word.

Others, of course, like the smell and taste of pork products–and pork products are often smoked or spiced to “improve” the taste. But the flesh of swine in not an item that the God of the Bible approves of for human consumption. Notice the following:

8 Also the swine is unclean for you, because it has cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud; you shall not eat their flesh or touch their dead carcasses. (Deuteronomy 14:8)

And while many believe that the above was done away by Jesus (it was not, for some details, please see The New Testament Church and Unclean Meats), notice also that in the future God intends to judge idolators and people who eat pork harshly:

15 For behold, the Lord will come with fire
And with His chariots, like a whirlwind,
To render His anger with fury,
And His rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire and by His sword
The Lord will judge all flesh;
And the slain of the Lord shall be many.

17 “Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves,
To go to the gardens
After an idol in the midst,
Eating swine’s flesh and the abomination and the mouse,
Shall be consumed together,” says the Lord. (Isaiah 66:15-17)

The Bible never indicates that any one should eat pork.

While the pork industry wants to tout the alleged health benefits of pork, various news items have found health risks associated with consuming it (for some details see The New Testament Church and Unclean Meats). Pigs have always carried diseases that could hurt humans. Pigs may cause various diseases to break forth.

FWIW, there is no scripture in the Bible that shows that any one called of God in either the Old or New Testaments ever ate pork. Some may be surprised to hear that.

Check out what the Bible teaches and do not eat pork.

Some articles of possibly related interest may include:

The New Testament Church and Unclean Meats Are foods considered to have been unclean in the Old Testament considered to be food in the New Testament? This article discusses this from the perspective of the New Testament. It also has a list of clean and unclean animals. It also answers the question, is pork healthy or is pork dangerous?