Jean-Louis wrote on 12/31:

>My conclusion: compared to our ancestors' diet, unless we eat wild game meat,
>organs and bone marrow, our fat intake is excessively high in saturated fat and
>low in omega 3s. Vegetable oils and nuts are good sources of
>monounsaturated fat
>but have a high ratio n6/n3. Fatty fish seems the best (less saturated fat than
>meat, low n6/n3 ratio).

I agree. It seems to me that the major difficulty in trying to duplicate a
Paleolithic diet involves meat quality. By that I mean one can more readily
get around problems involving plant foods than problems involving the meat
supply. For most of us, living in populated areas, it's not easy to find
true wild game meat. Much of what is passed off commercially as wild game,
free range, etc is not really so. Deer farming is a real cottage industry.
Upon inquiry at one place, I was told that the deer were both pastured (5
deer/acre; 25 deer on 5 acres) and grain fed (home-grown oats and a Purina
Mills mix). Another place similarly said their bison and deer were
"pastured with a grain supplement." Yet a third place (the best of the lot)
said their deer were fed "a red clover mix hay with a little corn with a
vitamin mix." An ostrich farm (!) said their birds "... are fed a balanced
diet. The feed was tested at Cal Poly University. The birds do great and
are great producers of fat." Right.

As for fish, I'm leery of eating them in abundance due to pollution
considerations, though we eat a fair amount anyway.

I certainly envy Ray his ability to hunt with hawks.

(If you can forgive an off-topic aside regarding hawks, there was a very
neat story on national news a month or so ago about how certain major
airports have been using hawks to keep birds out of flight paths. This is a
very serious problem for which all manner of technological fixes don't
work. The hawks solution works so well, however, that after a while, birds
leave just at the approach of the "official" hawk patrol vehicle.)

Gary