The Health Benefits of Eating Halal

Halal

1. The Health Benefits of Eating Halal Food By: Camille Silla Paldi CEO of FAAIF

2. What is halal? Halal describes something that a Muslim is permitted to engage in i.e. eat, drink, use, behavior, speech, dress, conduct, and manner etc.  The word halal is derived from the Arabic verb ‘ Halla ,’ which means to be or become ‘lawful, legal, legitimate, permissible, allowed, admissible, un-prohibited, or unforbidden’.  

3. What is halal? Halal is that which Allah and the Prophet Muhammad ( Pbuh ) have allowed to be done in a lawful manner.  Food is halal if it does not contain or come into contact with anything regarded as filth i.e. carrion, alcohol, pork, blood, feces, and urine.  It must also be prepared, processed, or manufactured using equipment untainted by anything unclean.

4. Halal v corporate food production Halal food h as a very l ow r ate of incidences of food p oisoning and contamination in contrast to food sold in major supermarkets and fast food chains, which often contains e-coli poisoning and other life threatening poisons, bacteria, and substances due to unclean processing and packaging procedures, chemical additives, pesticides, and hormones.

5. Halal meat In terms of meat and poultry, firstly, the animal must be halal . Secondly , the animal must be slaughtered after pronouncing the name of Allah facing the direction of the Qiblah .   The animal must be slaughtered by a sane Muslim with a sharp knife with which the Muslim uses to sever the jugular veins, carotid arteries, trachea, and esophagus in one swift action and the blood must be drained out completely.  This is a quick, painless, and humane method. The spine must not be snapped and d ismemberment must not occur until the animal is completely deceased.

6. Halal meat The animal must show some sign of movement after being slaughtered to show that the animal was alive before being slaughtered.  

7. Halal meat In Islam, the halal animal should be properly slaughtered and not dipped in boiling water or killed by electric shocks through stunning.  This is due to the fact that when an animal is killed through electric shock, all of the animal’s blood does not leave the animal’s body.  Electric shock affects the central nervous system of the animal and causes injury to the medulla oblongata in the brain, which controls blood circulation and respiration.  It is for this reason that the blood does not completely drain from a stunned animal.  The blood remaining in the body is a source of fermentation and destroys the halal meat quality.  This induces bacteria to grow easily on the meat. 

8. Halal meat Muslims and Jews are both prohibited from eating stunned meat for similar reasons, however, this is the common practice of killing animals prior to slaughter in Western countries.  Stunning or death through bolt or electric shock releases fear toxins into the animal and is also considered torture.   The Islamic mode of slaughter tends to reduce the suffering of the animal and produces cleaner and healthier meat.  

9. Tasmiyah and tazkiyah The Islamic method of slaughtering is based on two important principles: (1) Tasmiyah and Tazkiyah .  Tasmiyah refers to invoking the name of Allah when slaughtering so as to ask His permission while Tazkiyah means purification and the cleaning the meat of blood through slaughter .  Pronouncing the name of Allah while slaughtering the animal is a declaration that one is taking the life of this creature by the permission of its Creator, while if one invokes any other name, he has forfeited this permission and must be denied the use of its flesh. 

10. Halal meat Islamic slaughter methods are beneficial to human health in that the blood completely drains from the carcass, producing healthier and cleaner meat free from excessive microbial growth.   In addition, the meat lacks fear toxins, which cause fear and anxiety in humans, as the slaughter is swift, quick, all-encompassing, and as painless as possible. The halal process produces cleaner, more tender, and tastier meat.

11. What is haram food in islam ? In Islam, other forbidden items include pork and all its products, animals which are improperly slaughtered, alcoholic drinks including all forms of intoxicants, carnivorous animals, birds of prey, and any food contaminated with any of these products.

12. No PorK Swine serves as a vector for pathogenic worms to enter the human body. Infection by Trichinella spirals and Taenia sodium are not uncommon. The fatty acid composition of pork fat has been mentioned as incompatible with the human fat and biochemical systems.

13. No alcohol Intoxicants are considered harmful for the nervous system, affecting the senses and human judgment. In many cases, they lead to social and family problems and even loss of life.

14. Halal Seafood Seafood is permissible except for lobster, crab, fish without scales, mussels, crustaceans, sea snakes, otters, turtles, calamari, clams, squid, octopus, swordfish, catfish, oysters, shark, sturgeon etc.

15. no. Halal non-Halal 1 Anchovies Basa  2 Barramundi Calamari 3 Bass  Catfish Eels 4 Carp / bream Clams 5 Cod / hake Eastern Cleaner- Clingfish  6 Dory Crab Cray Fish 7 Flathead Flake 8 Flounder Grayfish 9 Herring Leather Jacket 10 Hoki – Blue Grenadier Lobster 11 Jew fish Marlin 12 Kingfish Muscles 13 Ling Octopus 14 Mackerel – except for snake mackerel Oyster 15 Perch Snails 16 Prawns  Snake Mackerels 17 Red fish Squab 18 Salmon  Squid 19 Sardines Shark 20 Shrimp Sturgeons 21 Snapper  Swordfish 22 Tailor   23 Trevally   24 Trout – But not including: European turbot (Scophthalmus maximus or Psetta maximus Trevally ). 25 Tuna except for Dogtooth Tuna also known as Peg Tooth Tuna & Scaleless Tuna.   26 Whitefish   27 Whiting   28 Yellow tail “Eat any fish that has scales, and do not eat what does not have scales.” Imam Al-Baqir (a.s.) [Al-Kulayni, Al-Kafi, Vol.6, p. 219]

16. Halal fruits and vegetables Fresh fruits and vegetables are halal.  Processed fruits and vegetables may be haram if produced in processing plants using non-halal oils, fats, preservatives, flavorings, colorings, etc.

17. Dairy products Milk and eggs from halal animals are halal.  In terms of milk and dairy products, yogurt and yogurt products must not contain gelatin, unless it is gelatin produced from a halal slaughtered animal.  In regards to cheese, many types of cheese contain rennet and other enzymes that are derived from animals.  It is important to verify that these are derived from halal-approved animals or from microbial or plant sources. 

18. Halal gelatin Gelatin , it is usually prepared from animal origin, namely pig.  However , if extracted from Dahlia anima, than it is halal.  Only two types of gelatin are halal being beef gelatin from halal-slaughtered animals and fish gelatin.  In terms of bakery products, the ingredients should be verified for halal status i.e. the use of lard etc.  Also , gelatin may be used as a glaze component on doughnuts, strudels, cakes, and pastries. 

19. Halal bakery I n addition, mono and di-glyceride emulsifiers are also used in the baking industry and candy products.  The only acceptable sources of emulsifiers for halal foods include vegetable mono and di-glycerides.  Polysorbates of different molecular sizes, sodium stearyl lactylate , and other specific use emulsifiers are questionable due to their sources.  It is best to avoid all animal derived emulsifiers. Nutritional supplements in capsules should also be verified. 

20. Conclusion The Halal food production produces cleaner and healthier food with very low incidences of food poisoning as compared to the food that is available on the market today. Anyone who buys organic would also benefit from halal and kosher food. In general, the food production and processing methods found in the Bible, Torah, and Qur’an are more beneficial for human health than the current corporate and commercial food production process forced upon us today, which utilizes unclean and unhealthy food production processes, inhumane treatment of animals, chemical additives and poisons, pesticides, hormones, and toxins.

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