Does raw meat bother you?

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So one of my biggest sensory issues (that impacts my life the most) is my inability to look at raw meat, or hear it being moved, cut, or mixed. I have always been this way. I have never in my life touched any raw meat. I was a vegetarian for the first 8 years of living on my own so I didn't have to worry about it, but due to nutritional difficulty I became an omnivore again. I can only eat lean meat (no gristle or anything, nothing on bones) & only thoroughly cooked. My boyfriend ends up being the one who has to prepare that part of our meals, and I know he gets frustrated. Eggs also affect me, I can only eat them if the texture is right & I don't see them raw. They also have to be well done. I can cook them for someone else but then I can't eat them.

I've never met ANYONE with such an aversion as I have... If someone is preparing meat, I have to leave the room. I used to think one day maybe I could get over having such a strong, emotional aversion to it but maybe not. Does anyone else here experience this?

I feel quite the opposite, I love the look of raw meat, the cold touch, even the taste (of some raw meats), but most of all I like understanding how it could live.

Sorry, but the title made me revert to my fourteen year old self and giggle a bit.

When I was about 12 I was forced to eat severely under cooked hamburger and got a terrible case of food poisoning, so yeah raw meat bothers me. I check every piece of meat I plan on eating to make sure it's thoroughly cooked. That being said, if you're curious if autism is the cause, well not for me my concern over raw meat is a learned behavior.

Yeah, that's my problem with it-- until it's been cooked it could still be living, at least the bacteria in it could be.

...6

Raw meat bothers me, but AFAIK that's only because of my empathy with animals and my knowledge of how dangerous the stuff is.

I have been a picky eater forever. Won't eat anything off the bone, and actually need someone else to remove it for me, nor will I eat the gristle either, nor any cartilage, or anything like it, really. I loathe that texture. So I understand you there. I used to be pretty grossed out by raw meat, but nowhere to the same degree as you. I used to buy my meat pre-cooked, but eventually gave in and learned to cook raw meat. Eight years later, I still find raw meat gross and slimy, but I can tolerate working with it and actually enjoy cooking.

Yeah, I get that a lot

I always thought I would get over it but my aversion is so strong... I am still new to all of this so I never knew there was a reason I had a sensory issue. Maybe one day! I love to cook everything except meat.

I don't have the emphatic aversion to raw meat that one or two posters have expressed, but I can't eat 'rare' steaks, and really don't like to see any hint of red or pink on them. Likewise, couldn't bear to eat raw fish, don't even like to think about it....

My case is not even nearly as bad as yours but I do have a problem with raw meat. I don't do cooking that requires me to touch raw meat. I pretty much only use vegetables for that reason. I usually buy cold ready-to-eat turkey breast or roast beef to get some protein.

The only exception is steak meat that is already cut to the right size and can be placed on the grill. I use a plastic bag to transfer the meat to the grill. I only do this once in a few months. Anything that touched the raw meat has to be isolated in a plastic bag.

I see raw meat as a carrier of nasty bacteria. I can't stand the idea of it touching the knife, cutting board, kitchen surface or anything. I also get reminded that it's a part of the dead body of an animal. It's gross.

I have this problem too! I always leave the cutting board for my boyfriend to clean. I feel so bad... I really wish I was more help cooking I have some fear that eventually he will begin to resent "doing" for me so much.

Eating raw meat is what bothers me, I can't stand the texture in my mouth. Otherwise, I kinda like it. I'm a carnivore, almost literally except I do drink milk and eat cheese, so I guess it's a survival tactic to love meat and not feel bad for eating it, even though I'm very empathetic towards animals.
I grew up on a farm, though, so I was raised with butchering animals for food, and was taught to treat the animals with respect, to treat them well, and to not waste any of part of the animal.

It used to but anymore, one day it just didn't bother me anymore.

Same here. Anything that might have touched some raw meat is automatically considered dirty. I always use fleshly cleaned knifes and cut my food on dishes because I can't stand the idea that the cutting board was used to cut some meat before (cleaning it doesn't help because the cutting board is wooden so the bacterias go deeper than the water can reach) and the knife waiting on the kitchen surface could have been used to cut some meat and not washed properly.

But it isn't the only thing - I also hate the texture of raw meat. I won't touch it even trough a foil. It is cold, nasty and slimy. As if I was touching a real corpse... wait... it is actually a corpse.

I can only eat/touch meat if it was already properly cooked by someone else. Preferably out of my sight but I can look when someone prepares meat without much issues. They just can't touch me or hand me stuffs unless they clean hands before and I will not eat the meat if they make a unforgivable mistake: for example using the same fork to put the meat on barbeque's and take it off is a big no-no. You need 2 separate forks for that! What's the point in cooking the meat if you make it dirty again by using a dirty fork?

I used to never touch raw meat, I had a fear of the bacteria like other posters described, how it feels to touch and of food poisoning illnesses, but then I discovered disposable gloves . I still handle raw meat as little as possible and use a fork plus very sharp knife to cut it up, but the gloves give me peace of mind. The utensils and the 'raw meat only' chopping board, are sprayed with sterilizing fluid immediately after use and before being scrubbed, any waste/packaging & gloves are placed in a separate refuse bag.

Yeah, I won't eat it either... Just let me be in charge of the cooking, I'll do it properly and no one will fall ill.

Last edited by Amity on 01 Jun 2015, 8:37 am, edited 2 times in total.