From: "Richard Archer"
> less fat from animal sources than we do
> today eating fatty steaks from modern animals bred and raised to be
> obese.

Modern domestic animals get the gene for storing fat from the Pleistocene
Megafauna that they are the sad remants of ( as are we ).  Any creature that
could survive an Ice Age winter needed large fat deposits.  Humans living in
what are now near-tropical regions (then permafrost) would encounter such
animals in such large herds that finding fresh carcases would be an everyday
occurence ( just follow the vultures you future falconers).  Just as a bison
harvested in fall provides enough fat to render most of the red meat into
Pemmican ( 80% or more saturated fat),  so a mammoth would provide even
more - perhaps as much as a ton.

The lean wild animals we find today are a result of our warmer climate.
They were of little consequence for most of our existence.
The wild remants of Pleistocene Megafauna live mostly in Arctic regions
where the traditional people who live there enjoy the highest saturated fat
diet of any people known.  Camels, lamas,cows, pigs, sheep, horses and other
domestic animals all have their origins in Pleistocene Megafauna.  They
could not survive our current climate without us - or us them as symbiosis
always involves mutual dependence.

Loren Cordain has commented about this on the paleodiet list and to me
privately.  But for the inherent deficiencies in Omega 3 fatty acids found
in commercial animal fats, his views on saturated fats, I feel, have
softened.

Ray Audette
Author "NeanderThin"
www.NeanderThin.com