calling all raw meat eating mamas!

[kbchavez]

So... I think I need raw meat. Since the weather has turned cold here, I've been lethargic and depressed. I need an extremely simple and palatable way to eat it. I don't have the energy for lots of food prep on top of making food for my toddler. I'm not sure what cuts are best for raw, so ANY advice would be much appreciated. I also want to start eating raw liver, too. NT says to eat frozen livers (2 weeks) and frozen is the only way I can get grassfed livers. But in the Primal Diet book, it says frozen meat loses much of it's digestibility. I'm confused. I know there are a few Primal Diet mamas on here, so please help me!

TIA!

Kristen

[Mirzam]

I never eat pre-frozen raw meat, Aajonus says that meat should not be stored below 38º F. I think the NT freeze for 14 days thing is germaphobia on Sally Fallon's part. I have eaten raw meat for over 9 years and have never gotten sick from it. DH has eat high meat without any adverse stomach reactions.

[Panserbjorne]

I have eaten meat that was previously frozen. Can't say I noticed a difference but that doesn't mean there wasn't one. I don't freeze my meat as a matter of course. I haven't been doing it NEARLY as long as uccomama, but I too have not fallen ill.

I eat just about any cut. Sirloin, filet, stew meat, flank steak, ribeye, whatever is on sale. I don't do anything fancy...just cut and eat. :

[kbchavez]

Do you guys get grassfed meat fresh? I can get fresh ground beef grassfed at TJ's, but I order most of my meat and it comes frozen. I can't get fresh pastured poultry at all. I really don't trust the chicken at Whole Foods. I don't think their "grassfed beef" is 100% either. And I'm not sure I want to eat raw liver that isn't grassfed. But again, I have to order it frozen.

And what do you think of Aajonus Vonderplanitz saying salt is bad? I just read his book and now I'm all confused. I pretty much thought I had found the answer with TF, but many things he says don't jive with it. Like, he cites Weston Price's work, but ignores the fact that many of the healthy people he studied ate some cooked food along with raw. To AJ cooked food is poison, when I think it's the lack of raw food (especially fat) that is problematic for modern people, not the presence of some cooked food. I'm thinking of adding in lots more raw meat and butter, but I don't think I'm going to go completely raw. I think it could be a good idea for healing, but I don't (at this point) think it's necessary.

Since you ladies are on this board, I'm assuming you've found ways to reconcile the Primal Diet with TF. They are certainly related... but there are some MAJOR differences I need to sort out. In the meantime, I'll all confused about what to eat...

[Panserbjorne]

I actually do agree that salt is harmful, he is certainly not the first I've heard say it. I do find that I feel better without it. I get a good amount of sodium in my diet though.

I do get some grassfed fresh meat, but alot is also frozen. I eat some that isn't grassfed at this point to balance the fresh vs. frozen. IT is organic, but that's as close as I've come to reconciling the two!

This is the first "diet" that has ever cured 100% of my symptoms. I figure it's working for a reason and sort of have just left it at that. IF I need to reevaluate at some point I will.

I actually feel that he comes closer to Price's research than Fallon does. To me traditional foods are simply foods from the earth that are unadulterated, unrefined and in their natural state. He doesn't stray from that definition. IMO Fallon does quite a bit. Granted they aren't the only two out there, but between the two he is far more TF to me.

I'm not sure that I'd say cooked food is *poison* per se, but I don't think it's necessarily health promoting either. I don't know that I'll be raw forever, but I certainly won't be eating junk food either! If I do eat cooked food it will still have to fit my definition of traditional.

I think it's also important to note that while it's called the primal diet, he does not claim that it is paleo or in any way ancient. I think that this is more his answer for health in a modern toxic world-or at least that's how I read it.

[Mirzam]

I agree with everything that ff has written. Although we don't eat any frozen meat, so I can't buy in bulk. FWIW, Aajonus does recommend grass-fed beef, but is okay with non-pastured meat also. We mostly eat local beef, raised about five minutes from us, on pasture, but grain-finished. He told me his favorite meat is the stuff he buys in Thailand, it is hung out in the heat and is swaming with flies!

As for salt, Aajonus, says if you feel you really need it, then one granual of sea-salt would be plenty every so often.

[bluebell]

interesting thread. i'm still contemplating the idea of raw meat, but i'm so squeamish i'm only just getting over the fact that i no longer overcook my meat because that was the only way i could eat it. i don't know how i could eat it raw without gagging and trying to think of something to distract me! which would mean i really won't enjoy my food. but i am really interested in the benefits of raw - especially after all the great info posted in the other threads. firefaery i think i may have some similar health problems to you and i'm so interested in how your healing has taken off since you went raw.
Aajonus has a few books i'm confused - which one would be the best one to get first? or are they all pretty similar? i'm a long way off eating raw meat, but i'd like to try at some point.

also i'm also a bit confused about the salt - because i was advised by a naturapath to have a teaspoon of pink himaliean salt in water every morning to strengthen my adrenal glands!! - is this really bad? i only did it for a bit because it made me feel a bit sick.

[Theloose]

:

carpaccio is yummy!

[RootBeerFloat]

Thank you for this thread, I hope that there will be much more added to this discussion. I'm pregnant and not really feeling like adding a ton of new things right now, but I am really feeling a need for raw meat and want to learn more about it. We have a quarter of a grassfed cow in our freezer and have been eating some of it raw, but am having a hard time getting it down (I seem to do better with it being just barely cooked). There was a thread recently where people were talking about "cooking" their raw meat in adicic things--does that still qualify as raw? And if people have specifics on how to do that, can you please share? I keep thinking maybe lemon juice and raw beef aren't such a great combo, but I don't know! THANKS!

[Panserbjorne]

Originally Posted by bluebell

firefaery i think i may have some similar health problems to you and i'm so interested in how your healing has taken off since you went raw.

Actually I have been raw for a long time...just in a very different way! I was raw vegan and feeling pretty darn good, except for bowel issues that had *almost* resolved.

For about 10 years I had horrible pain in my intestines. It was a daily occurance. It didn't seem to be connected to specific foods that I could tell. My face would flush and I would get dizzy, then I would have this awful swelling/crushing feeling and that would be how I knew I was about to need a bathroom. As it progressed it became a sucking feeling and I was often terrified that if I were to use the toilet that my insides would come pouring out. I often had hte feeling that I needed to physically hold them in. It was irrelevant because once I needed a bathroom there was no waiting.

Once I went (with a TON of fear mind you) I would feel okay after the initial release...but then the pain would come. I would sweat and shake. It felt that my insides were being shredded and pulled. It wasn't out of the norm for me to vomit. Afterwards I would need to lie on the floor until it passed (usually withing 10 minutes.)

This was every time I had a bowel movement. At my worst that was 8-10 times a day. There were weeks on end that I wasn't able to leave the house. In general if I did leave I was so panic stricken that this might happen while I was out that I was useless. It destroyed many relationships. People don't always have a high tolerance for things they can't relate to.

The SCD took away all the pain, but the urgency was still there. I no longer had gas or discomfort and food stopped scaring me. I could eat in peace. I could even eat in public. It was really quite a miracle but I felt like I needed more raw food.

When I went raw I physically felt even better. My energy was higher, I required less sleep, I felt happy. I had no pain related to bowel movements at all but had more urgency than I did with the SCD. With the SCD I had a warning that I needed to go before hand...maybe a minute? Raw I had about 10 second, literally.

The day after I started the primal diet (2 months ago, I think?) I no longer had any pain or urgency AT ALL. Everything is completely normal. There has been no regression, no discomfort. I had a host of other symptoms that were connected and all of those are gone too. I no longer panic when I get into a car. I can go shopping without freaking out. I no longer NEED to know where all the bathrooms are.

This is working for me right now. I don't know exactly what about it is the key, but at this point I'm not sure I care! I am functional. I am living a normal life. I don't have any plans to rock the boat at this point.

[bluebell]

hi firefaery! thanks for sharing such personal stuff. how fantastic that you don't have those problems any more.
i've certainly had some similar bathroom problems. i totally understand how hard it is when others don't understand what its like to live with this stuff.
and now that i'm healing they still don't understand how important my diet is to me! it is very frustrating.

did you do scd before going raw vegan or the other way round? when you did scd were you eating cooked meat?

which aajonus book do you recomend to get first off? do you find digesting raw vegetables difficult? i have some problems with raw veg sometimes.

does aajonus say that raw meat is easier to digest?

[Mirzam]

Originally Posted by bluebell

which aajonus book do you recomend to get first off? do you find digesting raw vegetables difficult? i have some problems with raw veg sometimes.

does aajonus say that raw meat is easier to digest?

I recommend getting "We Want to Live" first, but make sure you get the revised 2005 edition. After reading WWTL, and you want to take the diet further, then you should get his recipe book, "The Recipe for Living Without Disease". Yes, raw meat is much easier to digest. Raw veggies are very difficult to digest which is why Aajonus recommends you only take your veggies juiced. Eating raw salads with raw meat, is problamatic, and will definitely make eating raw meat more difficult. If you do eat a salad when on the diet, it shouldn't be more often than once every two or three weeks and it should be the last meal of the day, in order that your body has all night to digest it.

[bluebell]

thanks uccomama i shall order the 'we want to live' book first and have a read, i'm certainly interested after reading all the posts on this. i know i'm not ready now but i'd like to learn more about it, and hope that oneday soon i can be brave enough to eat meat raw. i'm so glad he says to juice vegetables because i'm doing that at the moment and i'm feeling so much better for it than when i was trying to eat salads and getting terrible indigestion. i'll continue with that for sure.