Should We Eat Foods Once Forbidden by the Bible?

In the Old Testament, God tells the Israelites what they can eat.
They are blessed with good health.

Later on, he tells man that they may eat what was previously unclean.
I'm not sure why, because man is not always blessed by eating things classified as "unclean."

Let's look at these foods, which are listed under certain categories in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

CLEAN ANIMALS
Clean Land Animals: Animals w/Cloven (split) Hoof that Chew a Cud
Antelope, buffalo, cow, caribou, deer, elk, gazelle, giraffe, goat,
hart, ibex, moose, ox, reindeer, sheep, etc.


Clean Birds (These Don't Eat Flesh and Live Primarily on Insects, Grubs or Grains)
Chicken, dove, duck, goose, grouse, guinea fowl, partridge, peafowl, pheasant, pigeon, prairie chicken, ptarmigan, quail, sagehen, sparrow and other songbirds, swan, teal, turkey, etc.


Clean Insects
Certain types of locusts, including crickets and grasshoppers.


Clean Fish (These Have Scales & Fins)
Albacore, alewives, anchovy, barracuda, bass, black drum, black pomfret, bluebacks, bluebill sunfish, bluegill, blue runner, bluefish, bonitos, bowfin, buffalofish, butterfish, carp, chubs, cod, common sucker, crappie, drum, flounder, grouper, grunt, gulf pike, haddock, hake, halibut, hardhead, hardtail, herring, kingfish, long nose sucker, mackerel, mahimahi, menhaden, minnow, mullet, muskellunge, orange roughy, perch, pig fish, pike, pollack, pompano, porgy, redfish, red drum, red horse sucker, red snapper, robalo, rockfish, salmon, sardine, scup, sea bass, sergeant fish, shad, sheepshead, silver hake, silversides, smelt, snapper, snook, sole, Spanish mackerel, steelhead, striped bass, sucker, sunfish, tarpon, trout),
tuna, turbot (except European turbot), whitefish, whiting, yellow perch, etc.

UNCLEAN ANIMALS
(These Chew a Cud & Don't Have a Split Hoof
or Don't Chew a Cud & Do Have Split Hoof)
Armadillo, ass, badger, bear, beaver, camel, canines, cat, cheetah, coyote, dog, donkey, equines, elephant, felines, fox, gorilla, groundhog, hare, hippopotamus, horse, hyena, jackal, kangaroo, leopard, lion, llama, mole, monkey, mouse, mule, muskrat, onager, possum, panther, porcupine, rabbit, raccoon, rat, rhinoceros, skunk, slug, snail (escargot), squirrel, pig, tiger, wallaby, weasel, wolf, wolverine, zebra, worm, etc.

Unclean Insects
All insects except some in the locust family.

Unclean Birds or Flying Creatures (Many of These Eat Flesh)
Albatross, bat, bittern, buzzard, condor, coot, cormorant, crane, crow, cuckoo, eagle, grebe, grosbeak, gull, hawk, heron, kite, pelican, penguin, plover, flamingo, lapwing, loon, magpie, osprey, ostrich, owl, parrot, rail, raven, roadrunner, sandpiper, seagull, stork, swallow, swift,
vulture, water hen, woodpecker, etc.

Unclean Reptiles and Amphibians
Alligator, amphibians, blindworm, caiman, chameleon, crocodile, frog, lizard, newt, reptiles, salamander, snake, toad, turtle, etc.

Unclean Fish and Marine Animals
(These Do Not Have Fins and Scales; This Includes All Shellfish Varieties)
Abalone, bullhead, catfish, clam, crab, crayfish, cuttlefish, dolphin, eel, European turbot, jellyfish, limpet, lobster, marlin, mussel, octopus, otter, oyster, paddlefish, porpoise, prawn, scallop, sea mammals, seal, shark, shellfish, shrimp, squid (calamari), stickleback, sturgeon (which includes most caviar), swordfish, walrus, whale, etc.

MY TAKE ON THIS SUBJECT

Perishable

The meat of "unclean" animals is about 10 times more perishable than of "clean' ones.
Yes, I know we have refrigerators, but it still spoils more quickly.

Scavengers

A lot of these unclean animals were created as meat-eating scavengers of the field or the sea. They clean up the dead off the side of the road and eat the garbage and droppings on the bottom of the sea. The byproducts from digesting such scavenger meat are poisonous; these break down dead things, not to mention what they do to living human beings.

The Pig

One of the worst animals to eat is the pig. The pig will eat any kind of garbage, droppings, or dead animals. It has insufficient eliminatory organs for the amount of filth it consumes, so basically whatever goes in, stays in. Again, it is a scavenger. It is often infested with worms, and even if we cook the meat high enough to kill the worms in their cysts, I ask: do they just evaporate, or are they still there, in the meat? Hmm..... Note that swine were considered so unclean that the Israelites weren't to even touch the body, meat or carcass of the creatures.

High Cholesterol

A lot of the unclean critters have high levels of cholesterol, which tends to lead to heart disease....

The Cause and Spread of Serious Disease

Many of the unclean variety have diseases. Some have serious diseases. The AIDS virus and other diseases may have been spread by the consumption of unclean contaminated animals such as monkeys or other animals.

Even Rabbits (and Rodents)

I thought, well why not eat rabbits? Aren't they okay? Then I read an article on tularemia. It specified that rubber, plastic, or latex gloves should be worn while skinning or handling any rabbits, especially if you have open cuts or abrasions, and "wild rabbit and rodent meat" should be cooked thoroughly before eating. If you can't even touch rabbit or rodent meat without risking disease, then what does that tell you about EATING it? Somehow it just doesn't sound too healthy....


What Do YOU Think?
Unless someone can prove otherwise, the eliminatory system of the pig has not changed in the past two or three thousand years, nor has the nature and constitution of man. So pigs, and other unclean animals, didn't work a long time ago, and so tell me how they can work for today? (Don't we already have a lot of problems with the foods we eat these days? Do we need more?) For these and a few other reasons, I am abstaining more and more from eating these "unclean foods."

I went through a lot of recipes today and threw out a whole lot of ham, sausage, bacon, lard, clam, crab, shrimp and lobster recipes. Sigh! What is YOUR take on this?

Here is a post made by "Jonathan" on baconunwrapped.com (http://www.baconunwrapped.com/2006/12/kosher-bacon.html):

"It is true that most kosher foods are safer and/or healthier than their non-kosher counterparts. However this doesn't necessarily speak to the spiritual reasons why some foods were banned and others weren't. Quite to the contrary, non-kosher food may have been intentionally created to be dangerous as a way of preventing people from eating spiritually unhealthy foods.

"Originally nobody was allowed to eat meat... only after the flood were people finally allowed to eat meat. However this allowance came with warnings from god about not consuming spiritually impure food. Basically gods approach is: You are what you eat. Therefore we were forbidden from eating animals which were violent (birds of prey, animals with whole hooves) or unclean (pigs, pawed animals, and bottom-feeders). Furthermore, we were instructed on how to properly kill (respectfully and with minimal pain) and prepare the animals."

I find this idea of "spiritually unhealthy foods" very interesting. I'm going to have to give this some more thought.