Of course. But that, plus the experience of your body rejecting a food makes it considerably more plausible. It’s a very convincing experience, since I’ve never experienced the same rejection of a contaminated cooked food. Nor has anything cooked that gave me food poisoning smelled or tasted bad when I ate it.
I have found my senses to be particularly sensitive in this regard and they do seem to work with cooked foods. I’ve definitely ‘rejected’ cooked foods early enough that the experience wasn’t more than a mildly unpleasant inconvenience. (ie. Eating more a minute later doesn’t seem at all unnatural.) Closer inspection confirmed the instinctive judgement and I gave my reflexes a gold star. Yet I would certainly agree that this is much easier when it comes to raw foods.
Did you find it took you time to adapt to raw meats after switching away from cooked meats? It seems like something that would take some adjustment. I find, for example, that my instincts scream at me if they discover I am eating chicken that isn’t cooked through. And eating large slabs of raw fish takes a lot of willpower too.
Did you find it took you time to adapt to raw meats after switching away from cooked meats? It seems like something that would take some adjustment.
Not much. Once I was prepared for the idea, I eased into it by trying things like raw egg smoothies, sushi, beef tataki (meat that’s just seared on the outside—available at many sushi restaurants), and so on. After that, I was psychologically ready to try chicken.
There really wasn’t any adjustment to the food itself, only to the idea of eating it. What I found consistently was that raw food tasted better than cooked, in terms of flavor and texture. The main drawback I have found to eating raw food is the temperature: hot food is generally more appetizing, except for sushi and sashimi. I have very little interest in cooked fish, but I love sushi and sashimi. I can’t stand beef well done any more, I want it to be at least extremely rare if not raw. (I just don’t like it cold that much.)
These were almost immediate changes in my taste preference. Texturally speaking, raw meat is 100% superior to cooked. It feels better in the mouth, it’s juicy… damn, I’m making myself hungry now. Really, the main thing at this point I like better about cooked meat is that the fat portion is more appetizing when heated to the point of softening, and it has an above-ambient temperature. I suspect that this is once again an evolutionary thing—a fresh kill would not likely have cold-hardened fats and would be hotter than ambient temperature. It would not surprise me if early humans began heating meat for the simple reason that it tastes better if it’s at least body-temperature warm.
I have found my senses to be particularly sensitive in this regard and they do seem to work with cooked foods. I’ve definitely ‘rejected’ cooked foods early enough that the experience wasn’t more than a mildly unpleasant inconvenience. (ie. Eating more a minute later doesn’t seem at all unnatural.) Closer inspection confirmed the instinctive judgement and I gave my reflexes a gold star. Yet I would certainly agree that this is much easier when it comes to raw foods.
Did you find it took you time to adapt to raw meats after switching away from cooked meats? It seems like something that would take some adjustment. I find, for example, that my instincts scream at me if they discover I am eating chicken that isn’t cooked through. And eating large slabs of raw fish takes a lot of willpower too.
Not much. Once I was prepared for the idea, I eased into it by trying things like raw egg smoothies, sushi, beef tataki (meat that’s just seared on the outside—available at many sushi restaurants), and so on. After that, I was psychologically ready to try chicken.
There really wasn’t any adjustment to the food itself, only to the idea of eating it. What I found consistently was that raw food tasted better than cooked, in terms of flavor and texture. The main drawback I have found to eating raw food is the temperature: hot food is generally more appetizing, except for sushi and sashimi. I have very little interest in cooked fish, but I love sushi and sashimi. I can’t stand beef well done any more, I want it to be at least extremely rare if not raw. (I just don’t like it cold that much.)
These were almost immediate changes in my taste preference. Texturally speaking, raw meat is 100% superior to cooked. It feels better in the mouth, it’s juicy… damn, I’m making myself hungry now. Really, the main thing at this point I like better about cooked meat is that the fat portion is more appetizing when heated to the point of softening, and it has an above-ambient temperature. I suspect that this is once again an evolutionary thing—a fresh kill would not likely have cold-hardened fats and would be hotter than ambient temperature. It would not surprise me if early humans began heating meat for the simple reason that it tastes better if it’s at least body-temperature warm.