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I've been reading anecdotes lately of people who eat mainly or exclusively raw meat. Does anyone here have experience with that? Why did you choose to do it, and did it improve your health? What are your favourite ways to eat raw meat (cuts, recipes)? How did you make the transition?

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6 Answers

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Required reading (keep reading about Lex to get some idea of what it takes to make this transition):

http://www.rawpaleodiet.com/lex-rooker-usa/

He has reported that it took him quite some time to adjust to his raw diet. Months of getting used to eating raw meat and regaining some appetite, longer to really enjoy it. He seems to be doing ok and given how much he tests himself and gets tested (and how ambivalent he is about the whole thing, regularly saying he'd switch diets if he saw a reason), I'm inclined to believe him. The best thing about Lex is that he understands that his N=1 doesn't say diddly about anyone else's, and how he encourages everyone to find their own way.

I do not subscribe to random evolutionary speculation about how we need to cook, don't need to cook, bla bla. Primitive cultures eat random raw stuff all the time and also cook all the time. You can eat raw if you want to, and if you can overcome your socialization surrounding cooked food to transition to raw, you'll probably be fine. If you don't want to, then don't. You'll probably be fine too. There's about zero actual evidence surrounding the practice of eating only raw meat so it's all speculation and experiment - enjoy if you're into it.

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Yes, Lex is one of the anecdotes I was thinking of. I agree that we don't really know how much was eaten raw, and I know that ultimately I'll have to experiment myself to learn. I was just hoping for a few more data points. – Ambimorph Nov 12 2010 at 0:35
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I initially felt great but after a few days of it I got really tired. Not tired, per se, but really needing a lot of rest. Some days I just couldn't get out of bed! I think its because humans have adapted to cooked food. Digestion takes a lot of energy and cooking pre-digests food before you take the first bite. Once I switched back to rare/medium-rare meat I was fine.

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Interesting. How long did you keep at it? – Ambimorph Nov 12 2010 at 0:37
One week. I quit after that. I thought I was coming down with something but whenever I spend more than three days in a row eating raw meat the same thing happens. Three days seems to be the dietary-physical manifestation sweet spot for me. After three days of eating bread I'll instantly get skin lesions and eczema. – Levi Nov 12 2010 at 19:03
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I do 6 oz of raw grass finished ground beef every week. No real concrete reasoning i suppose. It's a PWO refuel for me. Seems to metabolize/digest very easily and rapidly. I don't feel as if I've eaten afterward. In a good way. I just kind of figure that humans can handle raw meat and prolly did for spans of time so it might be beneficial to introduce to our systems when we can.

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Oh btw my preparation is little Swedish size meatballs. I randomly toss spices in the mix: always salt and pepper then cumin, chili powder, curry powder, bit of nutmeg, etc. Then I pop them like popcorn. I def recommend trying it this way. Especially if you feel you might be averse to raw meat, doing to this way you don't feel like you're eating something dangerous/weird etc – ben61820 Nov 12 2010 at 18:23
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Thats sounds tasty! I'm a little more leery of ground beef than other cuts, but maybe I could mince a steak myself. – Ambimorph Nov 12 2010 at 19:13
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I consumed only raw grass fed beef for one month. I did not notice any benefit. I will mention that you will be getting more fat from eating raw. Cooking will eliminate quite a bit of fat.

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I would consider it if I had a lot of bad allergy or instestinal probs. Seems like you can be healthy on it if done right, or at least some people can. And it's the ultimate exclusion diet. I'd probably try cooked first though before going to raw. I like my meat rather rare already, but I think I'd at least start on cooked and then maybe just cook it less and less over time,giving myself time to adapt gradually.

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Yeah, I already eat only meat, so it doesn't seem so extreme to me. :-) – Ambimorph Nov 12 2010 at 4:15
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I haven't tried it and I wouldn't ever consider it. Human beings evolved by eating cooked food. It's what makes us different to other animals. We have small stomachs and large brains. Our food needs to be cooked. If you insist, read this first

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That's plausible, but it could also be that eating mostly meat accounts for the small stomach, large brains. – Ambimorph Nov 12 2010 at 0:36
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The meat eating, smaller stomachs, and brain growth came first. A. Afarensis and Homo Habilis weren't cooking meat. – Chickenosaurus Rex Jan 27 2011 at 17:06

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