An Instagrammer is currently on day 80 of eating raw meat, in what he describes (hopefully in jest) as a quest to eat "raw meat at Whole Foods every day until I die from bacteria".

Documenting the diet on his page rawmeatexperiment, the man has eaten everything from a pound of raw mince bison meat to raw cow brains, washing the meals down with milk or a pint of raw eggs. 

The man, who remains anonymous, has praised mince meat – "no chewing involved [you] can basically just place the cow flesh in [your] mouth and swallow it, pretty tasty , half the cost of steak, will probably be a weekly meal along with cod" – while offering no tasting notes on the occasion he ate raw chicken breast, labeling it only "chimken titty".

The experiment has been met with mixed reactions, from people disgusted by the idea to people running away from him when they realize what he's doing. On day 74, while eating a slab of mincemeat with a cup of raw eggs on the side he wrote "homie tried to sell me headphones for $2 mid slonk chug and then ran off in a hurry worried for his safety".

He claims that he began the experiment after he had felt ill while eating a mainly plant-based diet.

"When I started eating steak and eggs for breakfast, instead of bagels and smoothies, I felt full for most of the day, and stable, instead of getting dizzy from a carb crash, my pain started to go away," he explained in an Instagram story seen by The Metro.

So, is this a good idea? Probably not.

The man is by no means the first person to try this diet, with the human lineage existing for millions of years before Homo Erectus discovered cooking between 1.8 million years and 400,000 years ago. However, humans have since spent millennia evolving alongside cookery, which has allowed us to be more efficient at eating and digesting our food. While humans went on to enjoy duck a l'orange and the McRib, which can be consumed with relative ease, our closest living relatives – chimpanzees – can spend up to six hours a day only chewing.

Cooking has helped us develop as a species, with theories that it helped us develop larger brains, among other benefits to our health and societies. We are now – from our teeth to our digestive system – not set up for eating raw meat alone, and doing so could cause some downsides to your health, even if you happen to be lucky enough not to get salmonella from eating raw chicken.

"Dangers of excessive protein, defined as when protein constitutes > 35 percent of total energy intake, include hyperaminoacidemia [excess amino acids in the bloodstream], hyperammonemia [raised levels of ammonia], hyperinsulinemia [abnormally high levels of insulin] nausea, diarrhea, and even death (the “rabbit starvation syndrome”)," one review of protein intake in humans reads.

"A suggested maximum protein intake based on bodily needs, weight control evidence, and avoiding protein toxicity would be approximately of 25 percent of energy requirements."

The man appears to not be solely existing on raw meat, eating other meals in between his Instagram posts. However, he is still at risk of making himself ill. So far, he claims he has not suffered from food poisoning through the consumption of meat without first cooking away any bacteria that may be lurking on it.

In short, eating raw meat is not recommended, and could possibly contain Salmonella, E. coli, Yersinia, and other harmful bacteria, which are easily removed using a skill we've honed over the last million odd years.