Hi All,

A number of messages have raised the issue of eating raw meat recently.

Although I have not yet tried fully raw meat, I am keen to try. I have made the effort to aclimatise to much more "rare' cooking and find lightly cooked meat seeping visible red blood tastes fine.

My main difficulties revolve around the years of modern culture training that meat *must* be cooked to be *safe*.

I have seen some raw food web sites that seem a little weird to say the least. I am not yet convinced that salmonella is good for us and food poisoning is a "cleansing reaction"!

Intuitively, I accept that my ancestors must have eaten raw meat. Is it *really* safe for me to do so today? (Bear in mind, I have severe heart disease, I cannot afford to risk a decent attack of food poisoning. What might be a nasty upset tummy for someone else, may very well kill me.) On the other hand I have read reasonable arguments that cooking adversly affects the good fats, and other nutrients in meat.

I want to give my body the *best* nutrition available so that it can do its best to repair itself. If I can be truly confident that raw meat is safe, I think it may provide better nutrition than cooked meat.

Of those that eat raw meat, how do you eat it - cold, straight out of the refridgerator or warm? If you warm it, how? Help me out a bit here. What do I need to know?

I need some guidance on my first raw meat steps. (And some convincing that I *should* eat raw meat.)

Jim.