Here is an excerpt from a recent correspondence with Dr. Cordain many may
find interesting.  Is was regarding added salt use in diet and jerky making
and lean Vs fatty meat:

Plains Indians frequently made jerky & never used salt.  Salt is not
necessary for preservation as long as the jerky is thoroughly dried.

Our research group has analyzed the fat % in wild animals and it is on
average 3-5 lower than that in grain reared cattle used to produce fatty
domestic meat (see our research paper at the website: Fatty acid analysis of
wild ruminant tissues: evolutionary implications for reducing diet-related
chronic disease).  Additionally, wild animals typically have extremely low
body fat during most of the year and only have significant fat depots (still
much less than grain reared domestic animals) in the Fall and early winter.
Hence, year round supplies of high saturated fat food was simply unavailable
to the majority of the world's hunter-gatherers.  Even studies of Inuit in
the far North show that the dominant fat in their diet was monounsaturated
fats, not saturated fats.  Finally, at the molecular level saturated fats
have been shown numerous times to down regulate the LDL receptor by their
direct influence upon gene transcription for the LDL receptor proteins.  This
evidence is the "smoking gun" which most lay readers are unaware or don't
understand.

Cordially,


Loren

 Alex