Got food poisoning

[Blkhrt_jordan]

One month since incorporating raw foods, slowly working up to 70-75% raw meats in diet.

Had been eating heart from cow and liver from cow calves for a few weeks, no major issues. Bought my last batch of both and ate a bit of liver, felt fine. Next day ate some liver again and the new batch of heart and 6 hrs later got very ill, puked and diarrhea all night. Feel pretty much fine now.

I suspected the liver had gone off, stored in plastic bag for a day or two longer than normal. But when i threw it away this morning it honestly did not smell bad. It tasted pretty ok when i did eat it before i puked, perhaps slightly unfresh, as it tasted a little bit different during my last meal compared to he one before. The fridge had to be adjusted too and had been slightly warmer than it should have been. I thought the heart was fine-- they come in vacuum seal and i had left them like that for 2 days before getting to them (I have now learned to get everything aired out ASAP), and although they tasted fine and looked ok, i suspect they were slightly off. There was a very slight maybe sulfury smell to one of them, it is hard to say if it was anything worth noticing though. I had drank the blood out of both the day before when trimming them and felt good. Maybe if i had a stronger stomach acid it would have been ok as my dog ate both and was fine. I also had drunk a mug of bone broth immediately before my meal, which i do not usually do, i suspect it diluted my stomach acid too.

Fwiw, i cant really stand the thought of eating anymore heart right now. Maybe it was the quality. It comes from a local ranch and the butcher is decent, but i assume it is all conventionally raised, there is no explicit mention of grassfed or anything organic. As for the liver, i enjoyed it up until now. I was sure while i was sick that it was the liver that did it, because it was all i could taste and smell coming out of me, but the more i think i cant be sure.

So my lessons are 1. Practice better storage, no more storing in vaccuum packs or plastic bags. 2. Find a higher quality source, no more meat from grainfed cows.

I am thinking of finding some lambs and goats, some grassfed cows. Tbh i am a bit turned off beef right now. Especially the organs. It was a shame to throw away so much food.

As well, it has been hard to find unpasteurized milk. The people in local circles are paranoid, as it is still illegal here in Canada. I will be eating costco steaks (which i have done fine on lightly boiled to kill surface pathogens, interior still cold and raw), pretty much until i can source better food. I feel like i was probably too lax on my standards.

Anyways that was an experience. I even passed out at one point as my body was expelling everything. I lost a ton of fluids but the sickness in of itself only lasted abot 6-8hrs, then i slept like a log all night and woke up feelig ok. For breakfast i ate some cooked egg whites i had left over from drinking the yolks and some yogurt. I feel fine now but the thought of eating more of the same type of food which got me sick almost makes me gag. For some reason i am now craving fish and lamb, goat, stuff like that.


I am more nervous now to proceed, and everyone around me gets to tell me "i told you so".

[ys]

This is a classical bacterial infection.  If you are not gutting animal yourself I recommend rinsing all organs with water really well.
Long time ago I used to order lamb short ribs from Slankers.  Usually I would rinse it.  For some reason I got lazy and stopped rinsing. And one time I opened package and ate it.  Two hours later I got stomach ache, then fever came, and the next day I got rewarded with diarrhea.   I never had it again as I rinse all my organs. If an organ has ragged cuts I would simply cut out ragged parts.

[Blkhrt_jordan]

I normally rinse them before trimming and portioning, but this time I did not. That is a good point. I think if I eat from that source again I will do the light boil in water to clean the surface. I do not want to repeat that again.

There is an e coli outbreak going around on romaine lettuce, now I know how it feels. I think it is probably the first time I got poisoning from food that I can remember. I am lucky i was healthy enough to fight it because i could see how people succumb to such a thing.


In any case, i do not find that kind of food too palatable right now. Am on the hunt for some lamb or goat from a good farm. Raw milk would be ideal too as I like dairy.

[thehadezb]

I don't believe in the "bacterial infection" theory. I live in a 3rd world country and I've never rinsed my meat. Here there is just wet markets where meat is commonly hanging in the air all day without refrigeration. Animals are freshly killed in a non-sanitary slaughterhouse  and are commonly contaminated with dirt, shit or whatever shit is in there. I've never experienced that kind of reaction when raw.
In my experience you are a newbie and you are still adapting. Your stomach acid is not strong. Your bacteria colonies are not right. And you are eating from a bad source. Grain-fed beef fat cause me instant pain. Again, just my opinion.

[dariorpl]

Toxins will often be stored in the organs when the animal is unhealhy. Particularly the liver. If I had to guess I would say the problem is that these foods likely had a high toxin load that your body did not want to handle. It could even be that the animal had just received medication of some sort prior to being slaughtered.

AV has warned that organs from conventionally raised animals will often cause these problems when raw. It's not that cooking them gets rid of the toxins though. In fact it makes it so that instead of eliminating the toxins quickly (which is what you got), they are stored in your body. But you just don't notice the reaction being as strong.