Raw meat

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I have a confession to make. For the past couple of weeks I've been eating raw meat!!

*Shock*
*Horror*
*Shock Shock*
*Hor Hor*

I know cooking meat until all semblance of its original form is gone is recommended, but I've been reading some good things about it. Mainly to do with raw food, but raw meat as well. If you've never thought much about eating your food raw the basic premise behind it is that cooking destroys enzymes and other nutrients, so not cooking your food will preserve them and potentially make you healthier. I tried eating more of my food raw back while I was experimenting with being a vegetarian.

It's hard.

So let's just say I couldn't manage to maintain that. I did take away some good lessons though: such as not leaving my frozen vegetables in the boiling water for too long...

I decided to try raw food again when Playboy had a spread about Carol Alt, age 48, touting the benefits of raw food. (I swear I totally skipped passed all those full-page nudy pictures that got in my way of reading the article.) Anyway! So she's 48 and has an amazing body, no joke!! No lines, no wrinkles, smooth skin, I was amazed. It's one thing to say a woman looks good for her age, but it's quite another to just say she looks good and find out she's 48! I know she's a (former) supermodel and all, but damn.

The raw meat I'm eating isn't actually all raw and I'm only eating chicken this way. I sear it in a pan to cook the outside but the inside is still raw. I read about doing that as a kind of hedge: it'll kill the surface bacteria that attach themselves to the meat while being handled. (Incidentally, this also the reason I'm not keen on eating raw meat that's been ground up: too much surface area to cook defeats the purpose of raw meat.) I'm also eating chicken that hasn't been pumped with antibiotics and growth hormones. I wouldn't dare try this with conventionally raised chickens.

Can't say I've noticed any differences with myself yet, but I suspect something like this will take months or years to show any changes. If there's one thing to take away from this post, aside from I'm crazy haha, it's enzymes. Your body makes a limited supply of them over your lifetime, don't waste them.

Posted: Mon, Dec 1 2008 11:05 PM by Humpty | with 2 comment(s)

Filed under: Health

Comments

Michael said:

You're a brave man Timmy, a brave, brave man! Considering chicken is far more dangerous to consume partially cooked than red meat, a very brave man.

It does sound interesting, but I think I'll observe this practice vicariously, LOL! As interesting as it might sound to try, the thought of having a parasite finding its way in my digestive tract scares the hell out of me, not to mention Ecoli. That stuff kills, no joke!

I guess the main thing is that you're getting it from a trusty, reliable and safe source. Raw meat (chicken, etc.) is easier to digest because it contains enzymes and other vital factors which are missing in the cooked version.

Check out the research that Dr. Francis Pottenger did back in the 1930's with raw meat and cats, VERY interesting.

# December 2, 2008 12:23 PM

Humpty said:

Haha, quite right you are about raw chicken's dangers. I've read about that experiment with cats before, it was very interesting.

The more I've read about the history of our food supply the more I've been questioning long-held assumptions I have. Like the food itself may not be as bad as I've been led to believe, just the way we handle it is bad. Like with milk it's way healthier raw, no pasteurization, no homogenation, no nothing. Doing those things does kill pathogens in milk but where do the pathogens come from in the first place? Raising animals in unsanitary conditions is at the very core of the problem. So instead of cleaning up their living conditions, deal with the cause, corporations turned to treating the symptom by using heat to kill the pathogens. Pasteurization kills bad stuff but it also harms the good as well.

Eating organic grass-fed beef is another thing that's far healthier for you. Cows aren't meant to eat grains and when they do they develop problems. Again, people turned to antibiotics, growth hormones, and other stuff so that they could continue their existing animal-raising practices; would've just been easier to let cows graze grass and roam around outside.

I do know about the parasite danger with chickens. I haven't yet come across something that would point to some modern practice that makes them more prone to having parasites, but given the track record with other meats I really think there would be some connection. Ultimately for me there's a belief and desire to live more in harmony with the land and the benefits it brings. I know with salmonella at least if you maintain a healthy intestinal tract you'll have a lot of good bacteria in it that'll keep salmonella in check. In order to do that though you have to eat healthy, and that means things like minimal to no processed food. Eating raw organic chicken would probably be more dangerous if you consumed the typical American diet.

There's a balance to things. If you eat healthier overall, get good sleep, get good amounts of sunshine on your skin, just in general live a healthy lifestyle I think the human body can deal with a lot naturally. So yeah, I'm probably taking a risk eating raw chicken, but looking at the way our current lifestyle slowly destroys our bodies I'm willing to experiment and try something different.

# December 2, 2008 9:15 PM

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