The immediate reaction of the modern reader to the "we did live upon raw meat" is to be concerned with the great hardship. However, the very purpose of this passage is to explain that they became accustomed to their life, and were made strong enough to live it. While it is certain that they would have cooked their meat in other circumstances, we need not picture savages gnawing at a freshly cut bloody hank.
"The culture patterns of this area in correlation with the hints in the Book of Mormon are impressive. Spicy, raw, partially dried meat is still consumed in the area today. The Arabs call it "bastern," which literally means raw meat." (Allen, Joseph L. Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon SA Publishers, 1989, p. 266).
We might also slightly wince at Nephi's description that the women became strong "yea, even like unto the men," but this statement can be read on two levels, and is always to be contrasted with the sheltered life this band had lived in Jerusalem. A possible reading of the "yea, even like unto the men" might be that the men also became accustomed to their journeyings, a reading made more likely by the probably sheltered life of wealthy men, as they appear to have been in Jerusalem. While they might have been travelers, or possibly caravaneers, it is not necessarily likely that they would have undergone the same degree of difficulties as they had in this journey.
The Book of Mormon's account of the murmurings suggests that even for the men, this was a more arduous journey than those to which they might have been accustomed.