Mia Lane
Can you eat raw meat without harming your body? There are many supporters of the new food trend, especially among celebrities. However, you should definitely pay attention to this!
Whether it’s a ketogenic diet or the paleo diet, many healthy diets have a lot of meat on the menu. In America these trends are now evolving towards eating meat exclusively raw – or even more extreme – eating meat exclusively raw! But where does this new diet come from and is it dangerous to eat raw meat?
Eating Raw Meat: Is It Really Healthy?
Meat is very high in protein and nutrients such as iron, magnesium, calcium and zinc. Meat also provides the body with many vitamins, such as vitamin D or vitamin B12.
When the meat is boiled or roasted, the number of vitamins is greatly reduced. Raw meat is therefore richer in vitamins than meat prepared under heat. Hence the idea of the raw meat diet.
Also, some people who only eat raw meat achieve significant weight loss in a very short amount of time. Here, however, experts warn of a strong yo-yo effect and health consequences due to a lack of nutrients.
Eating raw meat makes you pregnant faster?
There are also some theories about certain “miracle effects” associated with eating raw meat. The American TV star Heidi Montag, for example, eats raw meat to get pregnant. However, it has not been scientifically proven that raw meat really increases the chances of pregnancy – the dangers of eating it, however, have been.
You have to keep this in mind if you want to eat raw meat
Of course, meat can also be eaten raw and, for the reasons mentioned, it is even healthy in small quantities. Tatar, mett or carpaccio have been on the menus of various restaurants for many years. But you have to pay attention to a few things if you would like to consume raw meat more regularly:
- Especially when eating raw meat, it is very important that it is fresh. Contact the butcher you trust and also state that you want to eat the meat raw.
- Never eat raw meat from the supermarket. Here there is a risk that bacteria such as salmonella have accumulated on it, which would normally die off from the heat of cooking or frying.
- Pay attention to an uninterrupted cold chain when you have bought the meat and, ideally, consume it on the same day.
- Do not eat raw meat if bacterial infection would put you at too great a risk. Such a risk group includes, for example, the elderly, children, pregnant women and people with immunodeficiency. The danger here is too great that you will get toxoplasmosis, for example.
Eat meat raw: pork, chicken or beef?
Not all meat should be eaten raw. When making your selection, pay particular attention to which animal it is!
Eating raw pork: bad for digestion
According to studies by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), eating raw pork can cause serious gastrointestinal diseases. It is therefore better not to eat pork in its raw state.
Eat poultry raw: risk of salmonella
Red chicken and turkey meat in particular is particularly susceptible to bacteria and salmonella. You should therefore also avoid raw poultry.
Eating raw game meat: full of pathogens
Game should always be thoroughly roasted before consumption. There are many microorganisms in the meat of wild boar, deer and wild rabbits that can cause diseases.
Eating beef raw: The only safe way
If you want to eat meat raw, you should choose beef. However, pay attention to the above-mentioned tips in order to minimize the risk of illness here as well.
Also avoid eating too much raw meat. This is bad for the digestion and can lead to severe gastrointestinal problems. It has also been proven that a so-called carnivore diet can be harmful to health in the long term.
The carnivore diet is a one-sided diet where you only eat meat. In addition to digestive disorders, people with this type of diet often suffer from vitamin C deficiency. There is also a lot of scientific evidence that consuming too much meat can increase the risk of cancer.
Also, think about the environment when consuming meat. Meat has a very bad ecological balance. In addition to concerns about animal welfare due to increasing factory farming, a lot of CO₂ can be saved by reducing meat consumption. Eating raw meat should therefore not be the norm, not only for health reasons.
