RAW AND COOKED MEAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20866, 7 May 1931, Page 3

RAW AND COOKED MEAT.

COMPARISON OF VALUES. "To most civilised people the thought of eating raw fleslv is distinctly repugnant," says the Lancet. "The practice of cooking meat not, only renders it more attractive in appearance, taste and smell, but makes it less liable to convey diseases which might otherwise be spread.by the agency of pathogenic bacteria or living parasites which it might contain. "It is, however, clear that both the digestibility and the nutritive value of animal flesh may be altered by varying degrees of cooking and this effect has often been studied. "The latest investigation is by Miss W. M. Clifford, who has compared the rates of digestion of raw, under-cooked and over-cooked meat by pepsin and trypsin in vitro. Raw beef was found to be less rapidly digested than any variety of cooked beef, with the possible exception of overdone boiled steak. "Underdone beef was digested more rapidly than over-cooked .meat and the maximum rate of digestion was obtained with lightly roasted joints which were bright red and moist below the surface. Meat which was browned right through as the result of prolonged roasting was more easily digested than either raw meat or meat which had been boiled for on« hour. * "There is a prevalent notion that twicecooked meat is considerably more indigestible than meat which is served after but one heating. l'n these in-vitro experiments it was found that merely re-warm-ing underdone beef had no effect on its digestibility, although reheating the same sample for sufficient time to bring it into the category of over-cooked meat resulted in the same loss of digestibility as would ha.ve followed over-cooking in the first instance. "There is, therefore, in these experiments some support for the view that the man who normally enjoys underdone meat may find twice-cooked meat indigestible. When, moreover, account is taken of the fact that the sight and taste of a dish of re-cooked meat are repellent to some people, and therefore may lead to an inadequate secretion of appetite juice in the stomach, it can be understood why certain sensitive individuals may show a real intolerance to this kind of food. As rogards the relative degrees of utilisation of raw and cooked meats, the, evidence favours the view that cooking enhances rather than lowers its nutritive value."