RapidcreekRFK Jr. Says Doctors Found a Dead Worm in His Brain: Report
TimeSquirrelI thought brainworms were just a colloquial saying, not real!
There’s a reason we have food safety regulations…
And before that religions banned eating pork. A common worm people get from eating undercooked pork spread through your bloodstream and eggs (not commonly, but occasionally) can cross the blood/brain barrier.
People think it’s just a saying these days, but that’s because we know how to mostly prevent.
But every once and a while some idiot doesn’t cook pork properly and this happens.
Trichinosis is all but gone in the USA, you can eat pork chops rare here
What you’re doing is like telling people polio is cured so they don’t need vaccines…
The overall number of cases reported has decreased because of improved pig-raising practices in the pork industry, commercial and home freezing of pork, and public awareness of the danger of eating raw or undercooked meat products. The number of cases associated with raw or undercooked wild game meats has remained relatively constant over time (Figure 2).
The reason it’s so rare is people finally stopped eating undercooked pork.
If you start eating raw pork, you’re basically playing Russian roulette. Do it enough and you will get the bad result.
The USDA and FDA, which both lean conservative in their recommendations, consider whole cuts of pork safe down to 145F (roughly equivalent to cooked to medium):
https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2011/05/25/cooking-meat-check-new-recommended-temperatures
https://www.fda.gov/media/107000/download
This has been the case for over a decade. Pork should be cooked but the old 160F recommendations have been gone for a long time now because commercial pork is relatively safe.
There’s literally someone in this thread right now saying you can eat raw pork in America without worry…
145 is still a limit people need to follow, lots of people don’t.
The correct response to that is to provide the actual guidelines based on actual data, not to fearmonger while quoting lines referencing wild game.
A huge part of why commercial pork is safe -- that you're consistently leaving out -- were major changes to how livestock are raised. Trichinosis transmission in pigs is primarily caused by the consumption of infected meat; US standards were changed to more strictly control what's fed to pigs, which led to the decreased risk. The risk remains in wild boar because they're omnivores that will scavenge whatever they can find.