Why CAN’T humans eat raw meat? | Why CAN animals eat raw meat?

September 25, 2020
Why CAN'T humans eat raw meat? | Why CAN animals eat raw meat? | Soma Tech Intl

Why Can Certain Animals Eat Raw Meat, But Humans Cannot?

Why can certain animals eat raw meat, but humans cannot? This is a great question, one that many have pondered. Animals are all inherently different from each other, that is why they have different looks, genotypical order, and species. Have you ever noticed that most animals that eat meat can do so as it is raw? Obviously, and more comedically, animals don’t cook. They eat their meat raw. Have you seen nature documentaries where a vulture feasts on a carcass, a snake swallowing a mouse whole, or a lion biting straight into a gazelle? We are wondering why can animals eat raw meat, but humans, with the exception of some fish, need to have their meat cooked. Continue reading to discover why!

Why Can’t Humans Eat Raw Meat?

Of course science plays a large role. Every animal has a different structure to their body. Animals can eat raw meat because they have stronger stomach acid that helps digest their food. From an evolutionary standpoint, the acid has needed to be much stronger to kill parasites and different bacteria. Why else can’t we eat raw meat? It’s because we don’t eat our meat right away. We need to package and ship to grocery stores. The longer the meat takes to be eaten, the more of a risk it has to go bad. You may have seen on menus that most restaurants write that it is not advised to consume raw or undercooked meat. Read on to explore why restaurants write this as a liability.

Trichinosis – Trichinellosis

Trichinosis is a roundworm infection found in the muscles of animals. People can come into contact with this when they eat undercooked pork or game containing the larvae of these roundworms. This parasite will invade your digestive tract and release its larvae into your small intestine.

Signs and Symptoms of Trichinosis

According to the Mayo Clinic, you will feel abdominal pain, diarrhea, fatigue, nausea and vomiting. Advanced stages happen when the larvae invade the bloodstream. Symptoms of this include weakness, headache, swelling of the face, pink eye, and muscle pain. See a doctor if you think this may apply to you or someone you know.

E. Coli

Some meats are contaminated with E. coli. E. coli is a bacteria that is actually found in the intestines, but some types of strains outside of our bodies are pathogenic and dangerous. This means that it can cause illnesses like diarrhea or illness outside of the intestinal tract.

Signs and Symptoms of C. Coli

The Mayo Clinic notes that within 4 days symptoms will appear. These include abdominal cramping, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting. Unfortunately, summertime is when the most E. coli cases happen! Call your doctor if you think this is happening to you.

Mad Cow Disease – BSE – Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy

The problem with consuming meat is most of it is slaughtered and packaged in a factory with a high chance of contamination from the disease of one bad animal affecting the rest. If you remember 10 years ago, and appearing every so often is Mad Cow Disease. Mad Cow Disease is a neurologic disease found in cows. People cannot actually contract mad cow disease, in some rare cases, humans can contract the variant form of mad cow disease known as vCJD or Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Scientists still today do not know the cause of BSE or vCJD, but the leading theory revolves around infectious proteins called prions. Cows affected with BSE have these prions in their brain, spinal cord, and small intestine. There is no proof that prions exist in the muscle meat or milk of the cow.

What are the Signs of BSE?

There is no reliable way to test for BSE in living cows. A common sign of BSE in cows is a lack of coordination or be act nervous or violent. This is where the name Mad Cow Disease gets its name. A cow can have BSE for up to 6 years before it starts showing any symptoms of the disease. It’s a progressive neurology disease, which means that it continuously gets worse over time.

How Does a Cow Get BSE and How Do Humans Get vCJD?

A cow can contract BSE or Mad Cow Disease by eating contaminated food that came from another cow with the disease. The parts of the cow that are not eaten by people are dried and ground into powder and used for a variety of things including an ingredient in animal feed. It’s thought that humans can contract the variant of the disease in the same manner, by eating nerve tissue from an infected cow like the brain or spinal cord.

Final Thoughts

To prevent any of these complications from foods, always thoroughly cook your meats. You can even make a pledge to eat local meat from farms instead of factories. Have you ever eaten raw meat? How do you like your steak cooked? Do you enjoy sushi? Do you have any horror stories from undercooked food? Comment below!

26 comments

  1. Completely made up and make believe nonsense. Raw meat requires less stomach acid because cooking the proteins condenses them and makes them harder to digest. Anyone who has eaten raw meat knows this, as many people who switch to a diet of raw meat are already sick with conditions such as IBS.

    1. Meat was not the cause we achieved a bigger brain.

      I see so many wrongs going on and on this argument, as the almost solely meat eating Eskimo’s, Inuit’s, aboriginals of Africa, Brazil, Australia, Asia…you get my point, I think, wow, these people must be very smart, and ‘’obviously because of all the meat consumption’’, they must also have a big brain, they have been doing it a very long time, the same goes for example for crocodiles, hyenas, lions and all other full carnivores, these must also be very smart and have a big brain too, right?!!

      But LOL, No they don’t, and I sarcastically think= Now ”I understand” how eating meat has helped us ”evolve, and achieve a bigger brain”. ……

      LOL, seriously, I’m joking, how could anyone come up with such preposterous nonsense?!!

      But yes, then again, I understand, if for whatever reason they truly believe in it themselves, or not, I don’t know, I think that has a variety of reasons and possibilities, but again whatever, I think only a hard core human flesh consumer would come up with such a crazy statement, and do everything they could to convince everyone else, ‘’if’’ again, they genuinely believe it themselves or not, spread this info, making it all ‘’credible, with self-made ‘’so called’’ real studies, and propagate it, as if it’s the truth !!

      And to add, humans cook, boil, spice, season, process, grill, bake, fry, roast or whatever else they do with all kinds of animal products, it’s absurd !! They actually ruin whatever ”good” any meats have by doing so, they only way one could ever get any amount of nutrients by consuming animal products, would be by consuming it raw, but humans can’t eat raw meats !!

      All nutrients are first sourced in plants, from the bottom of the wild food chain, creatures are just gatherers of plant nutrients to begin with, and we humans are blessed to be able to digest plants, first hand, so why in hell go through another creature to get second to even third hand plant, recycled plant nutrients?!!
      it’s crazy, it’s cruel, exploitative, heavily resource consuming, pollutive, all added up, it’s all totally unnecessary !!

      Common people, think !!

      1. “…we humans are blessed to be able to digest plants, first hand, so why go through another creature to get second to even third hand plant, recycled plant nutrients?!!”

        We eat ‘recycled plant nutrients’ because the nutrients in meat are the most bioavailable. Try living off a ‘first hand’ plant like grass. You can’t, because humans don’t have multiple stomachs like a cow. Instead, the cow eats the grass and we eat the cow.

        This whole article totally incorrect, anyhow. Humans can and do eat raw meat all the time. Ever heard of sushi? The Japanese also eat raw chicken – the food that people always claim will give you food poisoning.

        Raw beef is eaten in France (steak tartare) and Italy (carpaccio). Raw pork is a favourite in Germany and Poland (mett). The Eskimo and Inuit of North America and the Sami of Scandinavia eat all kinds of meat raw: whale meat, fish, reindeer/caribou. The natives of Greenland even eat raw birds that have been left to rot for 7 months (kiviaq). The Maasai drink raw cow’s blood.

        Raw meat is clearly edible by humans. It is not just safe; it is actually very good for us and among the easiest foods to digest. In fact, you can survive on a diet solely comprised of raw meat and organs, because left raw it is a source of vitamin C – along with every other nutrient that humans require.

        You can’t say that of ‘first hand’ plant foods. There’s a reason there has never been a vegan civilisation or culture ever in the history of the human race, anywhere on earth. Plants do not contain any of these nutrients, which are all found in animal foods: VitA, B6 (pyridoxal, pyridoxamine), B12, carnotine, creatine, carnosine, D3, F, K2, heme iron, taurine, CoQ10, cholesterol, CLA.

        As for the nutrients that are in plants, many are simply not bioavailable. Just because they are in a plant, it doesn’t mean we can access or use it. They are often in a less absorbable form, or they are bound up with anti nutrients that actively block absorption of essential nutrients. Many plant ‘foods’ are extremely toxic, some actually deadly poisonous to humans if not extensively treated first, like rapeseed and tapioca.

        Finally, there is the matter of fibre. Raw meat contains no fibre, which is why it is so easily digestible. Fibre is literally indigestible. It can cause painful gas and bloating in otherwise healthy humans. In those with IBS/IBD, Chron’s, or colitis it triggers agonising pain and flare ups that can lead to death.

        That’s why we eat ‘third hand plants’ aka meat, rather than spending 6 hours of every day chewing plants like chimps, or belching methane while regurgitating grass all day long from multichambered stomachs like a cow. We aren’t herbivores. We aren’t ruminates. We are omnivores who easily digest raw meat.

        1. Okay. Nice analysis. Or might one say regurgitation of the “common sense” knowledge, which is obviously implanted into you. To me it sounds like madness. But then again, accepted as fact by 99%, what else is there to say. Humans have all the capabilities of not a lion or a cow, but of an ape. Apes consume mostly fruit. Which is the absolute fitting human food. Eating sentient beings means that you are kept under a lore, a fairy tale. Lied to. Simple as that. There is nothing wrong, if one wants to live like that.

          Another topic is the “knowledge” you have about plants. I can only say get educated.

    2. Anything I’ve seen on cooking meat, says it makes it easier to digest and we get more nutrients than when we eat it raw, that’s one of the main purpose of cooking, I’ve eaten raw meat before and do not agree.

  2. I eat raw meat. We call it tartaar. Or carpaccio. Nothing wrong with that.

  3. People commenting: “I always drive and text at the same time and I have never crashed therefore it must be safe!!”

    No, whether you have contracted a disease from eating raw meat personally is not the point. Raw meat, particularly one that is not fresh, is more likely to have parasites and dangerous bacteria which is what the article explains.

  4. It’s funny how the human body among many biological organism have created a very complex immune system that in many ways are very efficient at adapting and combatting all of the threats encountered. However it takes time and it’s not always flawless.

    Also if nobody keeps their immune system up and running they will lose that ability and become dependent on help from medicine. Your body is good at adapting and that means getting rid of that which is not needed and increase that which is needed.
    If you don’t eat raw meat you lose the ability to digest just that.

  5. I have been eating raw meat for two years. The benefits out way the risk. the real parasites are my fellow humans who want to brainwash, control and profit off of sheeple who don’t follow natures rules instead of man’s. There does need to be more honest science on this diet.

  6. I think we all need to look at body/brain scans/x-rays of those people that have eaten raw meat often. Their bodies are full of parasites and it is not easy looking. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Just don’t do it!

  7. Ayo… This comment section is genuinely out of its mind. Yes, people eat raw meat. But they don’t just DO it and be totally okay every time. I’m sure some people can handle it, or just get really lucky, but a whole ethnic group being able to do it is because they build up a tolerance doing it for generations. They adapt.

    And the people saying “oh well people eat raw fish” etc etc: yes, they do. But not until after it’s been frozen cold enough and long enough to kill all the bacteria and toxins that fish carry. Just look up “how is sushi made” and maybe you’ll stop saying things like this on the internet.

    If you’re wondering whether or not eating raw meat makes you smarter, all you have to do is read the comments that were left by the people who do eat it and you’ll know it doesn’t.

  8. It’s fascinating to read comments from people who aggressively think they’re right, but don’t really understand biology and biochemistry. Of course they grab some information here and there and they found some self claimed experts in the matter. Sometimes they read some books. I’m not an expert in that field. But I’m a veterinarian. I also studied in biochemistry. It took a lot of work when we were undergrad and even more so if you work on a PhD. There is so much knowledge and mathematics to handle to understand science… It’s very difficult. And it’s sad that some people don’t trust us at all in those days.

    Of course I won’t contradict those people who are presenting arguments that have polarized opinions, indeed speaking in terms that are moralizing, to say the least. I’m not even sure I could convince them if I was showing them studies, meta-analysis and labs.

    The studies are not anecdotical. On the other hand the opinions are based on what people see, read and their beliefs.

  9. Ofc humans are made to eat a diet of meat. Maybe raw and maybe not. Interesting to read people mentioning that we have developed such strong immune systems to counter this, and how we adapt in these ways.

  10. This article is absoulute garbage. Humans DO east raw meat and have been doing so for 000s of years, and many posts above correctly point to consumption of raw sea meat, pork, chicken and beef particularly in the European continent countries. Bacteria, parasites, and other unwholesome organisms are found in raw meat however thousands of years of evolution has modified the ability of hosts to either discharge or nullify the presence thereof.

  11. The sheer number of ignorant comments on here is astounding. I’m a doctor, and it boils down to this: when an animal is alive, it has an immune system that can fight off infections by bacteria, parasites, etc. When an animal dies, that immune system stops functioning – so the longer it is dead, the higher the chance that bacteria or parasites will grow on it to significant levels. Therefore, if a dead animal is eaten immediately after it dies (ex, a lion killing a gazelle and eating it immediately), then the chances of contracting an illness from bacteria or parasites in it is lower. Usually in the wild predators tend to eat their prey very soon after killing them, so they don’t tend to get sick from eating them – but they do, in fact, on occasion get sick. For example: there are parasites that live in the bodies of the prey, and eating the prey can therefore transfer eggs or larvae of the parasite into the predator’s body.

    Unlike animal predators in the wild, humans who eat meat do not tend to eat the eat immediately after it is killed. Therefore there is more time for bacteria and parasites to develop in the meat after it is killed. This is exacerbated by the fact that, usually, meat that humans eat is processed in a factory, and in those factories it has an opportunity to be contaminated by other meat in the factory.

    Yes, it is possible to eat raw meat and not get sick– but this is a matter of chance. It’s like with Russian roulette: you do something that carries a risk, and so, by chance, the bad thing either may or may not happen to you personally. But this does not remove the risk of that bad thing happening in general. I feel like people reading this get their emotions involved, and they take personal offense to the implication that eating raw meat may be bad for you– because eating raw meat is something they do in their life, which they thought was good, and hearing that it might be bad makes them upset. But this changes nothing about reality, the fact of the matter is that it does carry a very real risk and you could wind up in the hospital. Maybe you haven’t so far, and that’s honestly wonderful – but the more you practice a risky behavior, the greater the chances are that the bad thing will happen eventually.

  12. And incidentally, to those who claim that “because humans of certain cultures have been eating raw meat for thousands of years, they have developed immunity to the bacteria and parasites that might otherwise cause illness” – this is incorrect. If you look up statistics for hospitalizations due to infection from raw meat, they’re even more common in countries where raw meat is traditionally eaten, ther’es a direct correlation. I think that people go on about “immunity” without really understanding how the immune system actually works. They have this mental image of the body just being “impervious to infection,” as though it “continues functioning normally despite the presence of pathogens.” That’s not how immunity works. If your immune system was “super robust” then you would feel all the symptoms of the impressive fight it was putting up against the pathogens.

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