TikTokers are at it again. The latest viral trend has users rushing to grocery stores to buy massive amounts of meat, as influencers rave about the benefits of consuming of raw meat. And health experts are already sounding the alarm.
The hashtag #RawMeatDiet —which has over 348 million views — brings up countless videos arguing that eating raw meat helps “increase energy and improve digestion.”
The actual experts, of course, are pretty dubious.
“It takes a lot of work to chew and digest raw meat compared with cooked meat,” said Felicia Wu, PhD, a professor in food safety, toxicology and risk assessment at Michigan State University. “To dispense calories that way in prehistoric times was a disadvantage to humans.”
Influencer Pauly Long, a self-proclaimed “testicle king” with more than 2 million followers, uses his platform to share his raw food journey, enjoying food like oysters, steak, salmon and testicles from various animals — all eaten raw.
“I started noticing the biggest shift around day 30 — after that, it became very noticeable every day — good energy, great digestion, all around great feeling after eating raw,” Long explained to Jam Press. “I combine a mixture of raw and cooked because I’m a huge foodie and love to experience good food out, but overall eating raw makes me feel the best.”
“I wanted to experiment and see how I felt, and also show the public that eating raw meat is perfectly safe,” he added.
But according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, raw meat consumption isn’t actually that safe.
About 48 million people get sick from foodborne illnesses each year in the United States. Raw meat often contains harmful bacteria, like salmonella, E. coli, and Clostridium perfringens, which can lead to severe food poisoning, the CDC noted.
“The onset of symptoms may occur within minutes to weeks and often presents itself as flu-like symptoms, as the ill person may experience symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or fever,” Meredith Carothers, MPH, a food safety expert at the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service told Verywell. “Because the symptoms are often flu-like, many people may not recognize that the illness is caused by harmful bacteria or other pathogens in food.”
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