In response to Mary's question:

Does anyone know of people who are researching the Native American use
of
buffalo meat and fat as part of their paleo diet?

I'm trying to find out how Native populations utilized the fat, in
particular.

 It is highly saturated and tastes chalky. When Native populations made
pemmican out of it, how did they make the fat palatable?

I talked to a researcher at North Dakota State who said the native
peoples
made their pemmican out of dried meat and berries only (no fat)

I'm looking for other sources of information, as well.

        Our research group here at Colorado State University has been
studying the lipid composition of wild game tissue (muscle, brain,
marrow, tongue, depot fat and other organs) in terms of its potential
health benefits (1,2, 3).  We believe that the types and amounts of fats
that pre-agricultural people consumed (via their consumption of wild
plants and animals only) were much different than those which are now
consumed by people in western industrialized countries.
        In regards to your specific question about pemmican, I refer you
to perhaps the most extensive review of this subject which has been
written (4).  In his classic book, The Fat of the Land, Stefansson
devotes five chapters (9. The Nature and Early History of Pemmican, 10.
The First Pemmican War, 11. The Romance of Pemmican,  12.  Pemmican in
Transition, 13. The Second Pemmican War) and more than 136 pages to
discussing all aspects of pemmican that were known as of 1960.
        Specifically, the Plains Indians made pemmican by cutting
buffalo muscle meat into thin strips and drying it in the sun.  Once
dried, the meat was then pounded into a fine powder and any remaining
pieces of sinew, tendon and/or bone were removed.  The dried meat powder
was mixed with melted fat and packed in sacks of hide.  The preferred
fat was marrow or peri-nephral fat (4), however subcutaneous storage fat
was used if marrow was limited.  The powdered muscle and fat were mixed
by weight in a ratio of roughly 50:50 which roughly yields a protein/fat
ratio of 20:80 (4).   Although such a mix at first appears to be highly
atherogenic because of its high relative fat content, our analysis of
the fatty acid composition of wild game marrow shows this not to be the
case.   Wild game marrow can contain up to 92% of its total energy as
fat, and of this fat, monounsaturated fats (16:1 and 18:1) are
predominant and typically make up 75% of all the fatty acids in marrow
(1).  Monounsaturated fats such as those found in olive oil, nuts and
avocados do not elevate serum cholesterol levels (5) and decrease the
susceptibility of LDL to oxidation (6).  Therefore, their consumption is
associated with a reduced risk of mortality from coronary artery disease
(7).  Because the types and levels of fatty acids found in marrow are
similar to those found in olive oil and most nuts, marrow likely would
also not promote elevated cholesterol or the predisposition towards
atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease.
        Stefansson reports that berries were rarely, if ever mixed in
the pemmican made by the Plains Indians (4).


                                        REFERENCES

1.      Cordain L, Martin C, Florant G, Watkins BA. (1998).  The fatty
acid composition of muscle, brain, marrow and adipose tissue in elk:
evolutionary implications for human dietary lipid requirements. The
World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics, 83: 225.

2.      Cordain L, Tillmans CL. (1998).  Muscle fatty acid composition
in elk (Cervus Elaphus).        Nutritional considerations. The FASEB
Journal, 12(4): A622a.

3.      Eaton SB, Eaton SB Jr, Cordain L, Mann N, Sinclair A. (1998).
Dietary intake of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids during the
paleolithic.  World Review  of Nutrition and
Dietetics, 83: 12-23.

4.      Stefansson V. The Fat of the Land. The Macmillan Company, NY,
1960.

5.      Gardner CD et al.  Monounsaturated versus polyunsaturated
dietary fat and serum lipids. A meta analysis. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc
Biol 1995;15:1917-27.

6.      Bonanome A et al.  Effect of dietary monounsaturated and
polyunsaturated fatty acids on the susceptibility of plasma low density
lipoproteins to oxidative modification. Arteriosclerosis and Thrombosis
1992;12:529-33.

7.      Keys A et al.  The diet and 15 year death rate in the seven
countries study. Am J Epidemiol 1986;124:903-15.

                                        Cordially,


Loren Cordain, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Exercise & Sport Science
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523
TEL: (970) 491-7436
FAX: (970) 491-0445
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