Hey all,

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Cordain's book.

Cordain has done extensive research into the composition of the meat of
game animals in an effort to profile the types of fats consumed by
paleo people and indeed the entire paleolithic nutrient profile.

As I recall, his research showed that there was a massive difference
between the lipid profiles of modern animals and the animals they were
bred from. A hint of this can be seen by comparing beef or lamb with
the game meats in the USDA database. I think I posted a large table
of fat compositions to this list a year or two ago.

The trend is that game meats contain around 2% fat while beef and lamb
(for example) have over 20%. The most startling example is a comparison
between boar and pig meat. Wild boar is listed in the USDA database as
3.33% fat while the whole pig carcass is 35% fat.

The overall quantity of fat contained in modern meat far exceeds that
found in paleo meats. Some people try to justify high fat intake by
proposing that paleo people preferred the fattier cuts of meat and the
offal. Well sorry, even if they did, they would still be eating much
less fat than contained in a prime beef steak. And the type of fats
consumed would also be radically different.

In general game meats also contain a much greater proportion of
polyunsaturated fats compared to saturated fats. As an example, beef
contains 3.8% of the fats in beef are polyunsaturated while 39.3% of
the fats in deer are poly.

The w-3 to w-6 ratio is also interesting. New Zealand lamb has a much
more favorable ratio (3:4) than US lamb (3:9). Perhaps this is due to
NZ lamb being grass fed while US lamb is grain fed.

Anyway, I hardly find it surprising that Cordain advocates low fat
meats, since such a diet would result in a more paleolithic nutrient
profile.

 ...Richard.