I work with a veterinarian from Belaruz (Russia) who used to work on a pig farm. He just moved to California a couple months ago. He never saw a Wal-Mart and purchased a couple pounds of bacon because it was so cheap (like $2/lb.) When he got home, he ate a whole pound raw. He said in Russia they eat it raw all the time. I told him that he could get sick from eating raw bacon from Wal-Mart, but he didn't believe me. I told him he needs to cook the bacon, and when he cooked a couple pieces (a few weeks later) he had diarrhea a couple hours later. He's not a really fat guy, but he doesn't excercise, maybe %20 bf, and eats this raw bacon all the time. He's ate it raw for 25 years and when cooked, can't stomach it. If I ate that much cooked bacon I would gain fat like crazy, I think. Just wondering if anybody eats it raw or does anybody know if when cooking bacon the composition of the fat changes?