Haram and Halal

Moving on, I'll relate my understanding of the dietary restrictions in Islam. In Islam, God states that consuming anything that is good for the body is halal (allowed) and that consuming anything that is bad for the body haram (not allowed). Our instructor says that many people focus too much on few harams in Islam and too little on the many halals. Although the Quran does forbid the consumption of alcohol, our instructor says that a Muslim's decision to drink or not drink alcohol is not as important as his/her faith and observance of the fundamental beliefs of Islam-those of living with God, living with the poor, and bettering one's self and the world. As for the dietary restrictions on the consumption of pork, I believe that there is pragmatic reasoning behind this haram. The main reasoning being that, during the prophet's time, it was completely impractical to raise pigs in the Hijaz region, where Mohammad lived, because pigs required large amounts of food and water and yielded relatively little meat in return. In other words, pigs were seen as useless and expensive animals.