On Fri, 3 May 2002 [log in to unmask] wrote:

> This is in keeping with the dietary program that Enig and Fallon promote of
> emulating the diets of so-called "primitive" or "traditional" peoples, by
> which their examples clearly indicate peoples and/or behavior dating to the
> Neolithic--that's Neolithic, not Paleolithic--era.

This is correct.  Enig and Fallon do not promote paleolithic
diet.  Their main thesis is that "primitive" (=neolithic) peoples
were/are healthy, so there is no reason to emulate a paleolithic
diet.  But they sometimes equivocate on the word "primitve", just as
Herb points out, so that it is meant to encompass all
pre-industrial diets.

> In the debate Cordain also specifically addressed the idea
> promoted in the review that saturated fats were eaten in large quantity by
> primitive man.

Yes, this is another key point of contention.  Enig and Fallon
consistently equivocate on the concepts of animal fat and
saturated fat.  To point out that paleo people probably ate all
the animal fat they could get is not to show that they ate a lot
of saturated fat.  And to show that buffalo fat is more saturated
than beef fat is also not strictly relevant, because its fatty
acid composition is different.  It's not just saturated fats that
are problematic; it's certain specific saturated fats, notably
palmitic acid.  Palmitic acid is the saturated fat created from
glucose in the bodies of mammals.  It is the dominant fatty acid
in the intramuscular fat of feedlot cattle, because they have
been overfed grains in order to produce it.  Wild game meat has
less of this fat, even though they have other fat deposits.

Todd Moody
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