AboutRawPalaeoGuy Expertise I can answer most questions on Raw Animal Food Diets such as the Primal Diet, an organic, raw-meat-based diet and a number of similiar all-raw or partially raw Paleolithic diets, such as the Instincto, Weston-Price, Neanderthin, Paleo and Stefansson Diets. Can also offer advice on
how to resist social pressure to eat cooked foods etc. For further info on Raw-Animal-Food diets, feel free to browse through this website:-
http://www.rawpaleodiet.com/
Experience I have been 8 years on a 99%+ raw version of the Palaeolithic Diet and experienced numerous health benefits as a result, being fully recovered from my previous symptoms from my cooked-food days. My own individualised raw, paleolithic diet routine is mostly based on Aajonus Vonderplanitz's Primal Diet(ie 99% raw, usage of "high-meat",no processed supplements, using primarily naturally-reared, organic or wild sources of raw foods) but, for personal reasons, I have also been, to some extent, influenced by ideas from:- Instincto(ie:- taste/instinct,no raw dairy/no raw veggie juice), Weston-Price(eg: preferring grassfed meat to grainfed meat, incorporating a wide variety of raw organ-meats into my diet along with the usual muscle-meats, and Vilhjalmur Stefansson(high-fat diet, pretty high proportion of (raw) animal food), but also eating some raw carbohydrates such as raw organic/wild fruit/veg/honeycomb etc.). I'm also a firm believer in the feast-and-famine idea (ie Intermittent Fasting) as regards boosting one's energy levels, and giving my body a rest from constant digestion.
Organizations Rawpaleodiet Community(Comprising rawpaleoforum , rawpaleodiet yahoo group and the rawpaleodiet.com website among others).
Publications Allexperts and Rawpaleodiet.com
Education/Credentials BA(German) 3rd; No nutritional qualification(I don't believe in standard(misguided) nutritonist doctrine, so I don't feel the need).
Question Can you please tell me what precautions,if any, are to be taken before eating raw meat,poultry,fish and eggs in order to avoid having parasites, salmonella,etc.? I have been advised to not even have rare cooked meat, especially hamburger, because of this and yet I am reading about Primal and Paleo dieters eating raw animal foods. Can you help me out on this or tell me where I can look?
Thank you,
Ron Jacko
Answer Look, most of the scares re food-poisoning/parasites are completely bogus. The only reliable way you can find that out is, like so many others, to try a RAF(raw animal food) diet for a few years. We all go through various phobias about bacteria/parasites when we first start on this sort of thing. I , for example, would, at first, douse my foods with reputed antibacterial/anti-parasitic herbs like garlic/cayenne-pepper/wormwood tincture etc. Eventually, I, like so many others, got tired of this routine and simply forgot to do it, and found, to my surprise that, after years of being raw, I'd never had any of the problems with raw food that are commonly cited in the media. These days, like so many RAFers, I eat plenty of fermented meats, something that others would claim
All that said, everyone needs reassurance, so I would recommend, other than using the antibacterial/anti-parasitic herbs, you could marinate your raw meats/fish for 24 hours in a container of raw, freshly-squeezed (organic) lemon-juice. That, apparently, kills off the bacteria. Sally Fallon recommends those rawists following her diet to freeze meats/fish for a minimum of 14 days in order to counter any threat of parasites, but, like all the above methods, is quite unnecessary.
The fact is, however, that all the meat we eat in the Western world is heavily regulated and farmers, even organic farmers, are expected to give their animals deworming medicines to ward off the possibility of parasites. So, unless you're living in a tropical environment in an unregulated place where meats are highly likely to be contaminated, you have nothing to worry about. Mind you, I've eaten huge amounts of raw meats and organs from wild animals over the last 7 years of being rawpalaeo, and have never suffered a parasitic episode, so I'm dubious about the whole notion and subscribe, instead, to the Hygiene Hypothesis:-
One key point to keep in mind is that it's not just a question of bacteria/parasites but a question of the environment these things are in(so eating cooked-food would make one more vulnerable to other issues). So, for example, eating meat from a cow that's been 100% grassfed is going to be a lot healthier for you than eating grainfed meats. Here's a study showing how bacterial issues are not a problem with grassfed meats:-
