How to get used to raw meat?

Question
Dear Geoffrey,

I've been reading your answers to questions and I'm very indepted to you for providing this controversial knowledge to all of us.

For over 5 years I've followed a vegetarian diet, I've tried raw vegan/fruitarian but I was always hungry, lost a lot of weight (I was skinny to start with) and experienced drastic ups and downs in energy because of the amount of fruit I consummed.

With recent research I've decided that this primal diet seems to be the most logical approach to finding excellent health.  So, I tried raw meat (natural ground beef) for the 1st time today.  I know you recommend organ meat only, I was following Aajonus Vonderplanitz's suggestions.

Well I was really repulsed by it and I'm very hesitant to try it again.  If you have any pointers for getting over the initial disgust as well as how to transition from a long term veg diet I would really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!

Tristan

Answer
Hello Tristan,
As it happens, like many others, I also used to be a follower of Vegetarian/Raw Vegan/Fruitarian diets  before I tried the RPD.  I had exactly the same feelings of constant hunger, initial euphoria followed by extreme fatigue, as well in those days.

Getting used to the Raw Palaeolithic Diets is a real hassle for most people. I had it much easier as, by my 20s, I couldn't eat cooked-meat without getting severe stomach-aches every time, and raw or cooked  veg/fruit was not an option for reasons already given.
The reason why we are repulsed by raw meats at the start of a RPD diet is partly due to social conditioning against raw animal foods, but it's also because we've become addicted to cooked foods which have a drug-like effect on us. If they're doing everything right, people do experience a taste-change which occurs after a while of eating raw meats, (where cooked meats start tasting bland or disgusting and raw meats start tasting great), but it usually takes quite some time.

This taste-change tends to occur only to those who've been eating a very high level(90%+) of raw foods(mostly raw animal foods). I have heard of one or two people who've followed RPD diets with 80% raw or less who've experienced this taste-change but that seems to be rare- generally speaking, the less cooked-food you eat the more likely the taste-change will occur.

Since you clearly don't want to go cold turkey, the best way to start on this diet is to eat a cooked Palaeolithic diet at first - cook all your meats until they're medium-rare(or well-done if you prefer that), and put as many sauces as you want on the meat. Then every few days/weeks/months (as you like) you reduce  the cooking temperature by 1 degree Centigrade, and put a little less sauce on the meat than before. Once you get used to each stage, keep on reducing cooking temperature/sauces every so often  until you find you eventually can eat raw meat at room-temperature without any extra sauces.

There are also other factors which help. Initially, the foods which are best for you(ie raw, organic organ-meats, meat from wild animals etc.) have a very rich taste and are the most difficult for RPD newbies to adapt to at first. This is due to eating cooked-foods for years, which tend to have very little taste due to heat(the reason why people on a standard cooked-food diet use so many sauces/condiments, such as salt, mustard, pepper etc.  is actually to cover up the lack of taste in the cooked meats.
I would recommend starting with raw, organic muscle-meats first. Once you get used to the taste, you should find eating raw organ-meats a lot more interesting(indeed most long-term RPDers state that it's impossible to maintain this diet without a high percentage of raw organ-meats). If you have severely-weakened teeth, though, (like I did at first) then it might be wiser to start on raw, organic organ-meats as they are much, much  softer for chewing, once cut up.By the way, one advantage of organic organ-meats is that they are usually  much less expensive than muscle-meat(over here in the UK, it costs c.? pounds sterling for an organic ox tongue, compared to ?7 for a kilo of fillet steak).

Also, never ever eat raw meat straight from the fridge - leave it out for a while until it reaches room-temperature. Cold raw meat is not natural for the stomach, and it will taste odd to you as well.

When I went cold turkey from cooked to raw, I found most muscle-meats bland, and hadn't managed to get used to raw organ-meats as yet. I found, however, that certain fish/shellfish tasted fantastic when raw, such as raw oysters,raw scallops,  raw herring-shark, raw swordfish, raw giant prawns, raw mackerel etc. I'm not suggesting that you will necessarily find the same raw animal foods as tasty as I did, as tastes vary considerably. What I would recommend is to do what I did, which was to buy very small amounts of dozens of different kinds  of raw meats/fish/fowl every week up to twice the amount that I would normally eat in a week. Inevitably you'll find that 70%-90% of what you buy tastes disgusting with the first bite and you'll have to throw it away, as you won't have experienced the crucial taste-change yet, but there ought to be some raw foods that you find which will taste either adequate or great. After the taste-change you'll find more and more of the raw  foods,  you initially disliked ,to  taste great over time.This method is expensive,of course,  but it's worth it - there's no point in doing a diet long-term unless you enjoy it.(Oh, and vary the plant foods  you eat as well - and start with a mostly raw veg/fruit diet and gradually over time  increase the raw animal food percentage of the diet).
Just to give you an idea of how varied a raw diet can be, here's a sample of raw foods I eat during the year(all organic or wild in origin):-  horsemeat, wild boar innards, wild venison innards,  goose/duck/pheasant eggs,wild hare, wild mallard, raw lobster/crab, mussels, pig/ox/lamb innards, turkey breast fillets, guinea-fowl etc. etc.. I am able to get a wide variety of innards from as well in the form of bone-marrow, heart, liver, kidney, tongue, brain/thymus  etc.).

Lastly, I presume you have no food intolerance towards raw dairy, so it shouldn't be a problem. I, however, turned out unluckily  to have a casein/lactose-intolerance towards raw dairy,(incurring fatigue, diarrhea and many other problems  while it was part of my diet). I also, like a minority of others, found that I  became repulsed by raw meats/raw organ-meats if I drank too much raw milk. Getting rid of raw dairy helped bring back my appetite for raw meats.

Lastly, it's always good to get more tips  from other RPDers for balance. You might want to become a member of Primal Diet and livefood Yahoo! groups - I found them extremely useful for essential queries when I first started the diet. The Primal diet one is a closed membership and requires you to send an e-mail to Jon C Fox  at [email protected] applying for membership of the group (you have to state that you've read at least one of Aajonus' books to qualify) - you're more likely to get replies on the Primal Diet list, and you also get messages there re locations of future  Primal Potlucks where you can meet other Primal Dieters in person.

Hope This Helps!
Geoff Purcell
London UK

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