Food poisoning from raw meat?

[bydnx]

Hi,

I've been eating raw meat for the last couple weeks, and it's been great- until last night...

Last night I developed a slight fever which went away after taking motrin and garlic. In the morning my fever was still gone, so I figured garlic had done its job. An hour or so later, the fever came back and the diarrhea started. My symptoms include a fever (up to +3degrees), a slight headache, some achiness, stomach/intestinal discomfort, and plenty of diahrrhea. Continued consumption of garlic seems to have been ineffective.

I know food poisoning isn't common among raw paleo dieters, so I'm wondering what I've done wrong. The most obvious possibility is the raw (unrinsed) steak that had been sitting in the fridge for a few days and smelled/tasted funny. My stomach said to stop eating it, but I still ate a significant amount. The thing is, that was Saturday, which is kinda long ago.

Sunday I tried raw chicken liver for the first time, and my first attempt to eat a whole (again unrinsed) liver ended with me spitting it out. I did end up eating another liver piece by piece that had been rinsed off, but my friend who tried a piece didn't get sick.

Other than that, the only 'questionable' part of my diet has been the same raw salmon and (freshly dethawed) steak from the grocery store that I've been doing well on.


What's going on here? Virus or bacteria? How do I prevent this in the future?

[goodsamaritan]

I've had a bad experience with chicken liver.  My bad.  I just bought that live chicken from somewhere and don't know what it was fed.

I've had a bad experience with oysters from polluted waters.

I have not made mistakes with raw beef liver yet.  I can visually choose which liver is young and healthy in the market. 

Just like any food, you must choose and discern wisely.

[Josh]

It's important to not keep the meat in a sealed container for a long time, as it will get the wrong kind of bacteria. Did you let it breathe?

FWIW I've only ever had food poisoning from cooked meat. When it's been sealed a bit too long, I have had the runs but it wasn't serious.

[bydnx]

. Did you let it breathe?

Nope. It was in a ziplock bag.

[goodsamaritan]

It's important to not keep the meat in a sealed container for a long time, as it will get the wrong kind of bacteria. Did you let it breathe?

I've found this absolutely true.
My meat gets the best bacteria when hung in the refrigerator.

Never ever seal meat in the refrigerator.

[miles]

bydnx... you already said what the problem is. You ate food which didn't taste good. Your body's first lines of defence are sight/smell, then taste, and then if you're foolish enough to ignore them, it must purge itself in order to remove that which it never wanted in the first place.

[goodsamaritan]

When I was starting with raw beef I didn't know what tasted good at the start, all these flavors were new.

[ForTheHunt]

Sealed meat.. will cause you problems.

I eat 4 month old meat the other day. It was an absoloute bacterial sludge. But it was fine due to being aired out right.

[KD]

I know food poisoning isn't common among raw paleo dieters, so I'm wondering what I've done wrong. The most obvious possibility is the raw (unrinsed) steak that had been sitting in the fridge for a few days and smelled/tasted funny. My stomach said to stop eating it, but I still ate a significant amount. The thing is, that was Saturday, which is kinda long ago.

Sunday I tried raw chicken liver for the first time, and my first attempt to eat a whole (again unrinsed) liver ended with me spitting it out. I did end up eating another liver piece by piece that had been rinsed off, but my friend who tried a piece didn't get sick.

There does seem to be little chat about it. I can say I do get weird responses from foods from time to time, and have had two pretty severe 'episodes' that had some interesting results. Similarly I in both I had so many variables of older meats, intentially aged high-meats, things with dodgy feed like chicken or pork, or possible contaminant like oysters and meat I had dried and may have been rancid.

Its probably better when starting out to be as cautious as possible, but what I can say is that, even in the popular consciousness with people that would be terrified to consume these things, I was told that my symptoms likely were not actual food poisoning. largely because the symptoms went away in relative speed. True food poisioning, if it even exists and is not purely an attempted shifting of bacteria, can last up to 7 days pf severe symptoms. In my case, at least the second bout, I had massive abdominal cramps and violent vomiting which left my internal muscles sore for days. There was basically no food or water to come up, just like clearish jellyfish-like stuff. I felt instantly better after getting this crap out and have felt generally at a higher level of health more or less since then. I don't want to say these things are all positive, the first bout I had trouble eating for quite a while afterwards so it was at least a nuisance, but that it has possible truth from my experience that differnt types of bacteria incite internal changes and expulsion of all kinds of nasty things.

If anything, I definetly havn't learned my lesson (other than throwing away the dried stuff) and eat mostly the same types of things with generally no problems. I keep meat contained all the time, but try to eat it within a few days. Ideally in glass but sometimes if I do not finish I just wrap in plastic. I don't see any problems keeping it somewhat longer as it gets aired out. Sometimes when the meat is poor quality it also tends to age much worse esp in plastic, I've eaten meat I think how you describe and it doesn't make feel feel fantastic either, and maybe some digestive upset.

[bydnx]

Thanks for the replies. I think I have a good idea of what not to do next time.

My fever is gone (for now anyway =\), but I still have the other symptoms.

From my previous experience and what I've read, garlic is supposed to do a pretty good job killing bacterial infections. Since it hasn't seemed to help me, am I supposed to conclude that garlic isn't as useful as I had thought or that I have a virus like the norwalk virus?

If its the latter, it means that eating the sealed meat wasn't my problem, since viruses can't grow outside a living host.

[bydnx]

I thought I'd give you guys an update.

Still haven't gotten better, so I went to the doctor. He basically said "don't eat raw meat, here's some antibiotics (ciprofloxacin)".

[miles]

Did you take your drugs?

[ForTheHunt]

If I were in your shoes I'd eat only greens and fast for a few days. It has never failed to fix my stomach.

[bydnx]

Did you take your drugs?

No, I didn't.

I had solid poop this morning the antibiotics must be working! Oh wait, I said I *didn't* take them... I guess that's how they get false positives...

Insert Quote
If I were in your shoes I'd eat only greens and fast for a few days. It has never failed to fix my stomach.

It looks like I'm pretty much over it this time, but that's an interesting idea. Would you mind giving more details about your situations and how it worked?

[RawZi]

quote- did you take drugs?
No, I didn't.

I had solid poop this morning the antibiotics must be working! Oh wait, I said I *didn't* take them... I guess that's how they get false positives...

It looks like I'm pretty much over it this time

    Do you consider antibiotics to be drugs?  Are you afraid of bacteria?  What do you eat mostly?

[bydnx]

Do you consider antibiotics to be drugs?

 
I think he was talking about the antibiotics, but to answer your question "kinda". Antibiotics aren't psychoactive like most things considered "drugs", but people still call them drugs sometimes.

Are you afraid of bacteria?

Depends on the type. I eat yogurt regularly and am brewing some kombucha because I like some bacteria, but the kind that had me peeing out of my butt for a week is not my friend. Neither is anthrax nor the bubonic plague.

 

What do you eat mostly?

Recently its been a lot of raw steak and raw salmon with a lot of half and half to drink. Some eggs and bacon when I can get my girlfriend to cook for me, stuff like that. Why?

I'm almost all better now and my stomach seems to be ready for more raw meat

[whatever]

Got a food poising also, 5 days of sickness. flashes of fever, diarrhea, , no appetite.

It was cooked meat only it was staying in a sealed polystyrene tray for 2 weeks.

Sealed is more hygienic  .