True carnivores such as lions, tigers, and wolves eat their meat in its raw state. In contrast, humans who follow meat-based diets primarily consume cooked meat.

While real carnivores maintain their dietary practices in accordance with their true nature and inherent instincts, humans who adhere to meat-based diets usually do so due to cultural norms or transient dietary trends. Only a minority of individuals consume large quantities of flesh out of necessity or for survival purposes (e.g., the Inuit, Saami, Nenets, Maasai).

True carnivores do not develop cardiovascular diseases as they eat their meat raw. Conversely, cardiovascular conditions are common among humans, who typically cook their meat (often at very high temperatures) prior to consumption.

An important fact that most overlook is that meat/saturated fats should never be cooked. When subjected to high temperatures, meat/saturated fats undergo molecular alterations and generate toxic compounds, including heterocyclic amines (HCAs), advanced glycation end products (AGEs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These deleterious byproducts produce oxidative stress and inflammation and contribute to arterial blockages, thereby increasing the risk of conditions such as heart attack and stroke. In addition, these substances exert carcinogenic effects. Moreover, cooking denatures and damages the nutrients found in raw flesh (completely destroying some of them) and kills the enzymes that make the digestion of meat less strenuous on the system.

Some people recognize the detrimental consequences of consuming saturated fat-rich cooked meat, and thus endeavor to emulate real carnivores by exclusively eating uncooked flesh. However, this presents a catch-22 scenario for meat-eating humans, as Homo sapiens are not biologically (anatomically, physiologically) equipped to process raw flesh efficiently. Consequently, attempting to do so predisposes people to parasitic infections and bacterial diseases, which pose serious consequences for health.