this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2025
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[–] jet@hackertalks.com 5 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Modern people eat raw meat all the time

  • Fish (sashimi) proof
  • Chicken (I swear, they do it in Japan) proof
  • Beef (tartare is very popular in france) proof
  • Shrimp (SEA loves their spiced shrimp) proof
  • Eggs (Bodybuilders do this sometimes, especially after the Rocky Films) proof

You can eat raw meat, and it is delicious. The problems come from the industrialization of farming - meat is often butchered in a setting where they assume the meat will be cooked, co-mingled with many other animals, and frozen delivered, unfrozen for display, etc. If you have a animal you know is healthy, and you butcher it yourself... you can eat the meat raw with little risk.

This is why ground beef must be cooked well done all the way through (the exposed surface area to the industrial process is all of the meat), while a good steak is OFTEN eaten Rare/Blue (or medium rare) (the inside of the steak can be rare because only the outside is exposed to the industrial process).

Human Stomach PH is on the same level as vultures, we CAN eat raw uncooked meat, and deal with lots of pathogens/bacteria... just not all of the pathogens and bacteria.

[–] lemmefixdat4u@lemmy.world 42 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Once we stopped being regularly exposed to pathogens associated with raw unrefrigerated meat, we lost our immunity.

Think of it like traveling to a country with low water quality standards. If you drink the water, you get cramps and diarrhea. The locals have immunity and their babies have immunity because antibodies to the pathogens are passed in mother's milk. That gives the babies enough immunity to avoid illness when they start drinking the water. Frequent subsequent exposure to the pathogens maintains their immunity.

But if a person with immunity moves to an area with higher quality water and then moves back after many years, they can experience intestinal distress from the water because they lost their immunity.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago

Also, is not like those pathogens stopped changing and evolving.

[–] match@pawb.social 33 points 1 day ago (1 children)

why haven't we simply evolved to be immortal smdh

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago

So far, I'm pretty successful

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago
[–] Limonene@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

We did, imperfectly. Stomach acid is one example -- it kills enough pathogens that people who take medications to reduce their stomach acid are actually at higher risk of foodborn illness.

https://today.ucsd.edu/story/common_acid_reflux_medications_promote_chronic_liver_disease

[–] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 22 minutes ago

I did not know that. Another downside of my lifelong prescription. Urgh.

[–] KazuchijouNo@lemy.lol 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Not a scientist, completely speaking out of my ass; but maybe we did evolve to fight those bacteria a long time ago, and ever since we cook food, the bacteria has evolved past our evolvedness or something, idk good question

[–] TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Also not a scientist, but humans lose immunity from each other if they spend enough time in isolation, so a few thousand years of not eating raw meat would also do that I reckon x3

[–] lath@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Definitely not a scientist here , I'd say our immune system can be very forgetful because it's a waste of energy to memorize all the different kinds of bacteria that change/evolve over time.

Similar to today's cops, white cells don't care who or what they attack, but they will beat the shit out of it and deport it to El Salvador when told to. Hence auto-immune diseases.

[–] DrBob@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago

Our immune system remembers just fine, but it's not heritable. Every organism starts with a blank immune system (mostly, mammals can get some antibody protection from their mother, but have to learn to make their own eventually) and the system learns through exposure to the pathogen. No exposure, no learning.

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago

It’s a constant arms race with microbes and the immune system. Both evolve all the time to outdo to other.

So far, it’s working pretty well. The environment is full of bacteria, viruses and fungi, most of which are harmless to us. You’re breathing that stuff in all the time, and you don’t even know how dangerous those things are to trees, bacteria, insects etc.