April 15, 2017
Click here for the full written transcript of this podcast episode.
My guest on today's show eats raw.
And I'm not talking raw kale and carrots, but rather raw meat.
She eats raw meat. A lot.
Yep, that includes raw dairy, raw eggs, raw beef and even raw chicken.
Her name is Melissa Henig, she is a health coach and nutrition enthusiast who leads what she calls a “raw lifestyle” and in her new book “Raw Paleo: The Extreme Advantages of Eating Paleo Foods in the Raw“, she makes the claim that raw foods are powerful medicine and offer a distinct health advantage over cooked foods.
During our discussion, you'll discover:
-What made Melissa start eating raw meat…[8:05]
-What a typical day of raw eating looks like for Melissa…[10:00]
-Why Melissa says our brain and nervous system need raw fat specifically…[12:30]
-How you can prepare raw chicken safely…[21:35]
-If you need to be concerned about parasites in raw meat…[24:11]
-Why Melissa says probiotics in raw meat are naturally detoxifiers…[27:00]
-Why many probiotic capsules can have some issues…[35:35]
-Whether raw meat is really higher in amino acids…[42:30]
-How raw protein may be easier to digest and does not impose a load on the kidneys…[46:00]
-Why Melissa eats a small cube of raw cheese through the day…[49:55]
-Whether the avidin in raw egg whites depletes biotin in your body…[52:45]
-Melissa's take on the idea that “cooking” is what set humans apart and allowed us to have a bigger brain and smaller gut…[41:30]
-Whether Melissa cooks *any* foods…[57:05]
-And much more!
Resources:
–Books by Aajonus Vonderplanitz
–The Caprobiotics that Ben uses
–The Reddit thread on “high meat”
Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for Melissa or me? Leave your comments below and one of us will reply!
Raw meat does give you so much energy, I second that. @viktoriabelievein_
Does anyone know if raw milk has high histamines?
Fun podcast. I have been eating raw meat and eggs since 2003. I learned some from reading Aajonus Vonderplanitz’ books, but he made a lot of assertions that seemed too crazy for my tastes. I have eaten raw chicken without having problems, but generally do not as it tastes very bland and even ‘dark’ meat is very lean. Here in the North East US, it is hard to find chicken available commercially that has not been raised primarily on corn & soy, and I see no value buying meat that was raised on these. I much prefer eating meat from ruminant animals. I also buy a fair amount of extra fat, usually in the form of suet.
I love this episode, Ben!
Forgive me if someone has already pointed this out, but “sous vide” is pronounced more like “soo veed” and not “soo vay” or “soo vade. ” (It would rhyme with “you bead.” The “d” is actually pronounced and not silent.)
Also, the last syllable of charcuterie rhymes with “brie” (as in the cheese) and not “ray” (like a ray of sunshine).
A good resource for pronunciations is forvo.com – it is a database of recorded words and phrases spoken by native speakers. Just search for a word in doubt, and it will give you choices of sound clips to listen to.
I hope this doesn’t come out as trolling. You’re the last person person I’d want to do that to.
Peace!
thanks William! Noted!
Are there any other recommended places like Rawesome foods in California for good sources of raw dairy/meat?
RAHealthyFoods food club for the So-Cal folks, otherwise contact Miller’s Farm for food club membership personal delivery. Primal-diet style foods mostly.
Just because the categorical advice of the scientific community is that it is very dangerous to eat raw chicken does not mean they are right of course. Food advice seems to be constantly changing. But then I would like to have heard from Melissa why specifically the standard advice is wrong.
What I heard instead were anecdotal assertions about how great she feels when she eats raw or unsubstantiated claims that our forebears ate their meat raw, with not, as I recall, a single piece of research or piece of science quoted by her. Anecdote and the claims of someone promoting their book are not evidence. This may seem harsh, but my understanding is that many people get seriously ill or die each year because they contract toxic bacteria through eating poorly cooked chicken or poor kitchen hygiene around chicken. I fear therefore that people may listen to this podcast and rush off to try raw chicken – with possible negative consequences.
Melissa states that this can all be avoided by sourcing chicken carefully. My understanding is somewhat different; the reason that chicken in particular is a vector of toxic bacteria is that, unlike larger animals that do not have feathers, it is extremely difficult in the slaughtering process to keep chicken fecal matter from contaminating the meat, which once infected becomes a breeding ground for the naturally occurring chicken gut bacteria – some of which are very dangerous and multiply very quickly.
These issues may of course all be properly discussed in Melissa’s book but nevertheless, it was very surprising to hear someone advocating eating raw chicken without the words Salmonella or Campylobacter cropping up in the conversation.
Stark. Raving.
Hey Ben, great show, have you actually tried the raw chicken yet? I find it intriguing and terrifying at the same time.
Not yet but soon!
All is good, except for the raw chicken……….i still have my concerns
Wow this podcast was very interesting. I thought shr was kind of crazy extreme and made me wonder if there was an orthorexic-tendancy. I watched on TV about this guy who only ate raw meat and the relatives were very concerned and it was like an intervention. But I remember the guy saying he felt so good, maybe that’s what attributed to his compulsion, and the other thing is that I think he only ate raw meat, nothing else. Listening to this was mind-opening though and I am excited to eat some raw eggs and see how my energy feels. I try to not cool my eggs very much anyhow. I already LOOOVE sushi, and love eating slabs of raw fish. I would be willing to try other raw meats if I was able to get it as fresh and clean as posible.
That was really interesting. If you really want to get more info on Raw Meat eating, you should really go over to Randy Roach’s site. You’re familiar with Randy Roach Ben? He wrote Muscle Smoke and Mirrors, but he’s been following a Raw Meat and Dairy diet for years and has a series of episodes on his Raw diet. Some of the interesting things with his experiences have to do with bodybuilding performance
Awesome. Will check out his stuff…
Hi Ben, I’m Intrigued by what was discussed. Though there seemed to be little scientific method in the claims, I do think knowing your body, thus having a baseline to compare, can lead to true discovery. My question is, if one were to kill a chicken, are there immediate health benefits in eating the meat immediately, or must some fermentation/time take place/elapse before the most health benefits can be attained?
Fermentation/dry aging/marination can indeed help to break down proteins and improve amino acid availability.
Are eggs better / more nutritious raw or cooked(boiled, poached, etc)?
Lightly cooked or raw is best to prevent degradation of the vitamins in the yolk.
Great article! Anyone interested in this stuff should definitely check out the book Everyday Roots. It teaches you how to replace all of the harmful chemical products in your life with organic ones. It’s completely changed my life and how I feel everyday :)
Heres a good article about it: http://reggiesreview.weebly.com/everyday-roots-review.html
Hey Ben,
Cool podcast! It was very enjoyable and thought provoking. I think it’s great when you interview someone with a unique perspective. Quick question. In the show you guys discussed mainly beef and chicken, how about other meats? I know some cultures eat raw lamb. What about pork, specifically? Also, the Maasai drink raw blood, how does your guest feel about that?
Thank you,
Matthew
I'm cool with all those options!
Let me know if or when you try them!
Happy Easter!
My gosh. I am open to try most things, but am concerned about eating raw meats without having sold science backing it up. The interview with Ms. Henig scared me because she really didn’t seem to have done her homework, and her argument was frequently “I do it and I feel great”, even at one point saying something like “I am the science”. Which of course she isn’t, not just because she is an n of one, but because she had a vested interest in giving credibility to what she wrote in the book. Which is why I don’t really know what claims are credible and what claims aren’t (e.g. I find it hard to believe that raw proteins are easier to digest, simply because the heat breaks bonds between molecules).
I wonder what your own thoughts on this are, Ben? I think it’s good to look at things from the evolutionary perspective and useful to sometimes have that as a starting place, and I’m very open to different concepts or ideas but to me this did not seem quite scientific. It may very well be that there are indeed benefits to raw dairy and eggs and maybe even meat but I did think this was taking it a bit too far to me. Most of the arguments seemed pretty abstract and kind of mythological. Of course there’s nothing wrong with basing one’s food choices on personal beliefs or unproven concepts, everybody’s free to do as they wish. But to me just because our ancestor didn’t do something like take probiotics etc is not really a reason to not take one, or just because meat was eaten raw before man learned use fire doesn’t mean we should do the same. The evolutionary perspective is good, but I don’t think new innovations are always bad (in fact, I think they are most often incredible useful). Don’t mean this in a bad way, would just be interested to hear what you thought of this yourself. Did also appreciate you pointing out some things and questions that I had in mind when listening and sort of playing devil’s advocate a little bit.
My thoughts are exactly what I voiced during interview…I find it intriguing, sometime tasty, but feel some foods are better cooked and some better raw…
Tryptophan is destroyed with heat. Tryptophan gets you high(makes serotonin). You don’t need alcohol, Mountain Dew or crack to feel great in this life, you just need raw meat. Plus the meat won’t kill your brain cells which are slightly important.