Howdy all,

I've been reading some paleo-oriented nutrition literature called
"The Origin Diet." The author makes some points about saturated fat
consumption in the paleolithic compared to today.

As best I understand this, books like Neanderthin are saying animal
fats are neutral in dietary terms, except that the ratio of Omega 6's
to 3's have become unbalanced compared to the paleo era's dietary
pattern. From there, I get the impression that beef fat, pork, and
other meats are basically considered benign or healthy to eat. In
other words, there is no penalty for eating fatty meat.

The author of "The Origin Diet" makes the point that paleo-era wild
animals were so lean that they had little saturated fat on their
bodies, and she advocates eating a low-saturated fat diet. That means
cutting out beef, pork, and lamb, all meats with high saturated fat
content, and eating fish, shellfish, turkey, eggs and white chicken
meat instead.

I tend to eat a fair amount of bacon, pork sausage and the like.
Tastes great, less filling....but years of living in the 'new
age/whole food zone' leave me quite a feeling of cognitive dissonance
when I begin munching on some juicy steak.

Anyway, what I'm really curious about is the role of saturated fat in
today's paleo diet that includes range fed beef, pork, lamp or
whatever versus what hunter-gathers were eating. Any comments
appreciated.

Todd Reed




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