I find raw red meat delicious.  I have for many years, since I was a kid,
long before I ever got into any kind of specific dietary regimen.  I've
never found raw chicken or pork attractive but raw beef, I've always liked.

However concerns about infection have led me to stop eating it more than
occasionally.  I usually eat my meat either rare or medium, although I've
found that I can enjoy meat however it's cooked, from barely singed to
thoroughly cooked all the way through.  I like to eat it all different ways
rather than trying to find any one to stick to, though in general I suspect
that meat that's still bloody is probably the most nourishing.

I've read enough nasty things about the meat processing industry that I,
too, am afraid to eat hamburger that isn't fairly well-cooked (and besides,
raw hamburger is pretty uninteresting in taste anyway).  A little pink on
the inside, okay, but frankly at this point I would rather avoid ground
meat entirely most of the time.

The thing is, I don't know what the real evidence for it being dangerous
is.  I've heard it a lot but I, too, haven't heard a lot of specifics in
the way of studies on the dangers of raw or "under-cooked" meat are.  I do
know that in centuries past one of the most popular ways to eat meat,
especially among the well-to-do, was to "hang" it, which basically meant
stringing the carcass up and hanging it from a roof and then letting it rot
for a few weeks, then eating the meat.  Hanging supposedly made the meat
extremely tender and flavorful.  The Romans used to consider rotten fish a
delicacy, as do the eskimos.

So the question I would have is, what exactly is the danger level from
infection we would be talking about here?  I don't have an answer either.
Cooking meat so the outside (which has been exposed to contaminants) is
protected but the inside still rare seems like the most -prudent- way to
eat it, but as for what the real risk factor is for not doing so, I don't
know either.  Is it as dangerous as driving without a seat belt, or about
as dangerous as wrestling wild alligators?  As dangerous as having
unprotected sex, or as dangerous as as smoking cigarattes?  What exactly
are we talking about here?  I've never heard a satisfactory answer to that
question.

 -=-=-

Once in a while you get shown the light/
 In the strangest of places if you look at it right   ---Robert Hunter

http://www.syndicomm.com/esmay