--- title: Antibiotics, Pig Treatment and Pigs: Should I Eat Pork? description: 3/5 experts say yes—but with a lot of caveats. This little piggy went to market. But does that mean you should take it home? We... canonical: https://time.com/3852214/pork-pig/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-14T10:00:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:07:58.332Z article:section: Health og:title: Should I Eat Pork? og:description: This little piggy went to market. But does that mean you should take it home? og:url: https://time.com/3852214/pork-pig/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt25fe2a0f04875f0b/6987ef41a988cac3076b09be/screen-shot-2015-05-11-at-12-44-53-pm.png?branch=production&width=557&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 557 og:image:height: 313 og:image:alt: screen-shot-2015-05-11-at-12-44-53-pm.png og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Should I Eat Pork? twitter:description: This little piggy went to market. But does that mean you should take it home? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt25fe2a0f04875f0b/6987ef41a988cac3076b09be/screen-shot-2015-05-11-at-12-44-53-pm.png?branch=production&width=557&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Should I Eat Pork? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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[Watch (HLS stream): Should I Eat Pork?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pApjZewf.m3u8) (1:56)  _Published 2015-05-13. Should I Eat Pork?_  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. May 14, 2015 10:00 AM UTC  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. May 14, 2015 10:00 AM UTC **3/5 experts say yes—but with a lot of caveats.** This little piggy went to market. But does that mean you should take it home? We asked five experts to answer the tough question, and most of them gave you permission to park pork on your plate—though they still voiced some concerns. Nutrition, it turns out, is the easy part. A lean cut like pork tenderloin or center cut pork chop is a good choice for your health, says **Kate Patton**, registered dietitian with Cleveland Clinic’s Heart and Vascular Institute. “Pork tenderloin is actually as lean as chicken breast,” she says. It’s also an excellent choice for protein, says **Kristi King**, senior clinical dietitian at Texas Children’s Hospital. A three-ounce serving of pork has more than 20 grams of protein and is rich in vitamins and minerals. It’s one of the most concentrated food sources of the mineral zinc, with 17% of a person’s recommended daily intake in a 3-ounce serving. It also has vitamin B12, a critical but hard-to-get nutrient necessary for maintaining red blood cells in the body, says King; a 3-ounce portion has 14% of your daily value. But there’s more to our food than just its nutritional value, says **David Katz**, MD, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center. “Pigs are smarter than the family dog,” he says, adding that they endure a great deal of abuse when raised for food on factory farms. “I am not sure how much sense it makes for one kind of fellow mammal to be adopted into our families, and another, slightly smarter one to be on our dinner plates,” he says. _Consumer Reports_ dug into the unsavory details of pork production in a 2013 [investigation](http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2013/01/what-s-in-that-pork/index.htm), in which they tested 198 samples of pork chops and ground pork across the U.S. They found potentially harmful bacteria on most of the samples. Cooking whole cuts of pork to an internal temperature of at least 145°F and ground pork to 160°F—then checking the temperature with a meat thermometer—is key to killing off these bacteria. You can eat pork, says **Urvashi Rangan**, director of consumer safety and sustainability at _Consumer Reports._ But be aware that the investigation found some antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria on the pork it studied. “These bacteria were resistant to antibiotics, which lessens the effectiveness of these drugs for all of us,” says Rangan. “Conventional pork can be fed antibiotics and other drugs daily, live indoors in unhygienic, confined conditions, and often have their tails docked,” Rangan says. “Liquid manure storage is common on hog farms; these conditions help breed contamination and compromise the health of the animal, workers, surrounding communities and the safety of the food product.” One way to buy better-produced pork is to look for labels reading “organic,” “Global Animal Partnership” or “Animal Welfare Approved,” says Rangan. Don’t be duped by meaningless labels reading “natural” or “no hormones added”—legally, hormones aren’t allowed in pork production. So what’s the bottom line on swine? **Barry Estabrook** was so fascinated by pork and pigs that he wrote a book about them: the just-released [_Pig Tales: An Omnivore’s Quest for Sustainable Meat_](http://politicsoftheplate.com/?page%5Fid=1506). “The conclusion I arrived at after researching _Pig Tales_ is that pork is either the worst meat you can eat from pretty much any perspective—environmental, animal rights, gastronomic—or the very best,” he told us. It all depends on how the pigs are raised, and it’s an important question worth asking about your meat. “Thumbs down for factory-raised industrial pork,” he says. “Vigorous thumbs up for sustainably raised pastured pork.”  Illustration by Lon Tweeten for TIME [ _Read next: Should I Eat Red Meat?_](http://time.com/3668154/should-i-eat-red-meat/) ## Transcript This little piggy went fo market. But does that mean you should take it home? We asked five experts to answer the tough question and most of them gave you permission park pork on your plate but with a lot of caveats. A lean cut like pork tenderloin is actually as lean as a chicken breast, says Kate Patton. A typical three ounce serving of pork has more than 20 grams of protein. And it's rich in vitamins and minerals. It's one of the best sources of zinc. With 17 % of your daily recommended intake in every three ounce serving. It also has vitamin B12, a hard to get nutrient that maintains healthy red blood cells in the body, says Christy King. But there's more to our food than just nutri- Nutrition says David Catz. Pigs are smarter than the average dog. So, raising them in factory farms and putting them on our plate while treating Fido as family doesn't really make much sense, he says. You can eat pork says, Orvagie Rangdon, but a 2013 consumer reports investigation found concerning number of antibiotic resistance strains of bacteria on the pork it's studied. Overusing antibiotics lessens the effectiveness of these drugs for all of us she says. Make sure to cook pork properly to kill off pathogens. If you want to buy better produced pork, look for labels reading organic, global animal partnership or animal welfare approved, she says. And no fall for the no hormones added. And label. Legally, hormones aren't even allowed in pork production. So, what's the bottom line on swine? Barry Estabrook was so fascinated by pork and pigs that he wrote a new book called Pig Tales. He concluded that pork is either the worst meat you can eat from pretty much any perspective or the very best, he told us. It all depends on how it's raised, so make sure to find out before picking pork. 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