Pork is one of the most common foods people consume on a daily basis. Because it is eaten so often, people have invented many new and creative ways to cook this traditional delicacy. While innovation is good, a lack of nutritional knowledge can lead to health problems...
Beef
The saying that pork and beef should not be eaten together has a long history. The "Yin Zheng Yao" (Essentials of Dietetics) states: "Pork should not be eaten with beef."
This is mainly from the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine. First, from the perspective of the medicinal properties of food, pork is sour, cold, and slightly cool, with a nature that is greasy and yin-cold. Beef, on the other hand, has a sweet and warm flavor, can tonify the spleen and stomach, strengthen the waist and legs, and has the effect of pacifying the middle and replenishing qi.
One is warm and the other is cold; one tonifies the middle jiao and spleen, while the other is greasy and weakens a person.
Since their natures and flavors are in conflict, they should not be eaten together.
Liver (from a sheep)
Traditional Chinese Medicine says: "Eating pork with sheep's liver can cause a feeling of oppression in the chest."
This is mainly because sheep's liver has a bitter and cold nature, and is used to tonify the liver, improve vision, and treat liver wind and deficiency heat.
Pork is greasy and, upon entering the stomach, generates damp-heat. From the perspective of food properties, this combination is not suitable. Additionally, sheep's liver has a strong, gamey flavor. When stir-fried with pork, it easily creates a strange taste. From a culinary perspective, it is also unsuitable.
Soybeans
From the perspective of modern nutrition, legumes are not suitable to be paired with pork because they contain a high level of phytic acid, with 60%-80% of phosphorus existing in the form of phytic acid.
It often forms complexes with proteins and mineral elements, affecting the availability of both and reducing their utilization efficiency.
Furthermore, minerals in legumes, such as calcium, iron, and zinc, can bind with those in lean meats like pork and fish, thereby interfering with and reducing the body's absorption of these elements.
Therefore, pork and soybeans are not a suitable pairing, and stewing pig's trotters with soybeans is an inappropriate combination.
Cilantro
Cilantro, also known as coriander, can remove fishy odors and is well-suited to be eaten with lamb.
Cilantro is acrid and warm, and it can deplete qi and harm the spirit. Pork is greasy, which promotes damp-heat and produces phlegm. An ancient text records: "All meats have a tonic effect, except for pork."
One depletes qi, the other has no tonic effect; therefore, consuming them together is harmful to the body.