On Jul 31, 2008, at 2:46 pm, Jessica Baker wrote:
> And I agree, eating LEAN meats is the way to go.  The animals our  
> paleo
> ancestors ate were NOT the big fat beasts we have today, therefore  
> sticking
> to lean meats is the best way to eat paleo, IMO.

Jessica,

Like Jim points out, the fact that many paleo animals were leaner than  
their equivalents today does not mean that paleo man preferred the  
lean bits.  They didn't have a choice how much fat was on their  
animals!  If it was the case that they preferred lean meat, surely we  
would have bred animals to be *leaner* not *fatter*?

The excellent article Guts and Grease[1] describes the many ways  
native americans got fat into their diet.  For example:

> Sometimes the Indians selected only the fatty parts of the animal,  
> throwing the rest away. "On the twenty-second of July," writes  
> Samuel Hearne, "we met several strangers, whom we joined in pursuit  
> of the caribou, which were at this time so plentiful that we got  
> everyday a sufficient number for our support, and indeed too  
> frequently killed several merely for the tongues, marrow and fat."


They definitely didn't prize lean meat.

Ashley



[1] http://www.westonaprice.org/traditional_diets/native_americans.html