Ashley  Moran wrote:

>I know several authors claim that humans evolved to  prefer lean meat,



Richard Archer  wrote:

The fact is, wild meat is extremely lean. I posted  whole-of-carcass
figures for various wild animals on this list last year  during a
discussion with "Andrew". I'm sure you can dredge these posts out  of
the archives, but the trend was for wild animals to comprise around
10%  fat, most of that in the brain, marrow, organs and as kidney fat. . . .

And the fat profile hunter gatherers would be consuming would be  much
more evenly balanced between saturated, mono- and poly-unsaturated  fats.
Unlike the fat profile of a steak which is mostly  saturated.

****************

This may well be true of large animals, but what we often tend to  forget (or
ignore) is the significantly large part of the Paleo diet that may  well have
consisted of insects, grubs, slugs and the like. I punched "fat  content
edible insects" into Google, and came up with many hits. Some said  insects were
low in fat, but most said their fat content was rather high. Still,  Richard's
last point, about the balance of natural fats vs. grain-fed steak, is
probably more important than the total amount of fat.

In the Western world, few if any of us consume entire  animals, including
organs, marrow, etc. where much of the fat lies, and fewer  still, eat insects.
But to eat only very lean muscle meats is courting disaster.  I suggest that if
we are not going to eat natural fats as brains, testicles,  grubs and bugs,
that we do need to supplement our lean meats with some other  source of Omega 3
fatty acids for optimal health.

Maddy Mason
Hudson Valley, NY