Why can animals eat raw meat but i cant?

Question

why do we have different enzymes than wild animals then? it seems very odd to me.

Answer 1

A good question. This is something I always bring up when I am debating my diet. Which came first - the descovery of fire or humanity? Humans must have survived as veggies or vegans for a while, which shows that unless you are starving on a desert island, then there is no reason other than selfishness, to eat meat.

People always say, "but we 'ave canine teeth." What animal has ever been killed and eaten with human teeth? "Think you coud take down a cow with those teeth?" I say.

Humans can't keep down or digest raw meat. In fact a humans stomach stuggles to digest cooked meat. Our stomaches arn't designed to eat meat.

Ask your doctor.

Answer 2

Animals and people have the exact same enzymes in their stomachs and intestines, it has  nothing to do with enzymatic activity.  Enzymes break down protein, carbohydrates, and fat, regardless of its cooked status or not.  Technically, people can eat raw meat, and many do.  Steak tar tar is pure raw meat, and steaks cooked rare are still raw.  Eating raw meat has more to do with the bacteria that live in your stomach- healthy bacteria.  The microbes in your stomach compete with bacteria coming into it from food.  When you eat lots of raw meat, the type of bacteria in your stomach are conditioned to destroy the new incomming bacteria.  If you are a vegetarian and suddenly eat a bunch of raw steak, you will get sick because the bacteria in your stomach were not ready for the sudden influx.  So, people can eat raw meat, but sometimes they just get sick

Answer 3

Humans can eat raw meat just like other animals can (we are animals too!).

Tthe problem comes in when you purchase meat from the store that is raw because the body has been handled by multiple hands and has been dead for days  weeks at a time, and some beef is "aged" for much longer than that. Pathogens from the environment, the people that handled it, the packaging and shipping process - all of those can and will begin to compile on the surface of the meat.

Plus on top of it, it is a decomposing body from the moment the animal slaughtered and bacteria growth is bound to occur, even when the meat is kept at a cold temperature through as much of the slaughterhouse to store process as possible.

Usually the bacteria is on the surface and not inside the meat, so if you have a solid and untouched piece of steak all you have to do is sear the outside and kill the pathogens there and the inside can be oozing-blood raw.

Human beings can and will digest raw meat regardless. The bacteria and pathogens that might occur in the meat might make you sick but the meat itself will digest.

The bacteria does not always make you sick, by the way. Raw foodists aren't all vegans, I watched a documentary on raw foodists that eat raw chicken meat, raw pork, raw beef - the family profiled raised their own animals and ate them raw soon after slaughter apparently and refrigerated and ate raw the remains of the animal later.

Your body will develop a tolerance to raw meat over time. Before man applied fire to food, he ate it raw. In fact, our obsession with sanitizing everything around us directly contributes to drug-resistant pathogens and the fact we are all growing weaker immunity-wise. Sometimes you just get an old egg or an undercooked piece of meat, and it's how life is, and if someone avoids the natural uncooked state of meat they lose many chances to build tolerance to the bacteria.

The potential for illness is present all the time anyway. I cringe when I watch people at the grocery store slap down their blood-soaked styrofoam meat trays on the conveyor belt because I don't want to put my veggies down afterwards. This one pregnant lady that was the cashier at Dominick's wiped her hands with antiseptic solution repeatedly and when I asked her why, she explained that she cleaned blood and goo from those trays repeatedly off the conveyor belts and was downright paranoid now that she will get herself or her unborn baby sick. The pathogens from meat cross-contaminate just about everything and even us vegetarians aren't truly safe from it.

Answer 4

Humans do not have the proper enzymes to break down the meat.

Answer 5

You can eat raw meat (Kibby and steak tartar as examples).   The danger is in the bacteria.   Animals are mostly immune to to the bacteria that are very dangerous to humans.  e-coli as an example.    Cooking the meat kills the bacteria.

It's not about our ability to digest the food.  It's about getting a dangerous bacterial infection.    

Sushi is in the same category.   The extra care in obtaining sushi grade fish and the skill in preparation is the reason for the high cost of raw sushi.   Steps are taken to  significantly reduce the chance of contamination.

Here is an interesting explanation that references recommendations from the US Armed Forces Survival Guide

http://travel.howstuffworks.com/eating-r...

Answer 6

...you can eat raw meat if you want...  (your digestive system might not appreciate it) but you can eat all the raw meat you can chew....   ( like my Rib-eye cooked with a flashlight)

Answer 7

Animals have different enzymes in their stomach which makes them able to eat and digest raw meats. Us humans don't have the same enzymes as they do.

Answer 8

you can , in the days of the cave man they didn`t have a microwave to cook and if fire was not available it went eaten raw. oh and a retort to the tape worm thing , tape worms need an intermediary host such as a flea or parasite host.

Answer 9

You must not want to. I eat rare steak and raw tuna and shrimp on occasion without any trouble.

"Humans can't keep down or digest raw meat. In fact a humans stomach stuggles to digest cooked meat. Our stomaches arn't designed to eat meat."--pure unadulterated fantasy.

Answer 10

Why would you post this in the vegetarian section?

Many people do eat raw meat. Steak tartar, sushi and the likes.

Answer 11

u can just  dont cry to us when i tape worm comes crawling out your a**!!

Answer 12

That's just biology, dearie.  You may as well ask why the sky is blue.