Effects of animal fats in the human body ?

[sixtyacres]

I'm still new to the Caveman ways. In addition to the Caveman Power site I've also been reading a lot of the articles on Marks Daily Apple website. Now let me make clear- I'm a big fan of meat. Been on the Caveman plan for 4 weeks now -Completed Stage 1/first two weeks. Am currently in Stage 2/two weeks in. I've lost 21 lbs in the first 3 weeks (which I'm very happy about) but nothing in the past week. I'm exercising regularly but not overdoing it. Cycling to work also but that's only 6 miles a day. I'm wondering if any other CavePeople have watched the 60 min film ' A Diet for all reasons' ? (http://vimeo.com/5753057). It has me slightly concerned as to am I doing the right thing in eating meat to the degree that's suggested by Caveman Power and Marks Daily Apple ?

Any thoughts? I'm embracing the Caveman/Paleo lifestyle but don't want to be doing myself longterm damage....

PS - sorry if this has already been discussed before and I've missed it...

[watersennin]

i only watched the first 5 minutes of the video because i have some strong ADD and it was boring but i saw the graph where he points out grain and potato consumption has gone down and animal flesh consumption has gone up in the past 100ish years and that's why he believes disease is on the rise. So by his logic paleo man must suffered from all modern day diseases to a worse extent because they never at grains or stuff like that. Makes total sense that the food be evolved to eat (or if your believe we were put here then the food that was made for us to eat) would kill us because species survive by dying off...

[Tony Bondioli]

A common misconception is that eating paleo means eating lots of fat.  I believe this is nonsense, and also dangerous.  If you want to eat paleo in the most healthy manner possible, consume large amounts and varieties of vegetables and fruits, and adequate amounts of fish, poultry, lean meats, eggs, and nuts.

If you continue to consume grains, make sure they are mostly "whole" and not "refined," and eat less of them than you're probably accustomed to (maybe a serving or two a day, at most).  If you continue to consume dairy, try sticking to organic products, and again limit it to a serving or two a day, at most.

[Lilnicki]

If you're worried about cholesterol etc then it's all about getting the proportions right....... eat plenty of fruit and veggies........ enough fish and white meat, and less red meat......snack on nuts and seeds.......plenty of water and some fruit juices.......and you will be fine........ I also eat brown rice and sweet potatoes occasionally too.

Nicki

[taimenz]

Im not going to give you any direction but ask yourself how many times the doctors and media has changed is position on what is and isn't healthy for us. A lot of times I think we like feeling safe and listening to others but we have so many broad areas of study with not a lot of understanding exactly what were getting back from the studies. The media grabs a headline and runs with it. The last time I went to the doctors they told me I was overweight i was 5'10" 200lbs. And my cholesterol was high. I looked at my cholesterol and the bad stuff was way low the good stuff was slightly high. I questioned him and he said he didn't know if its good or bad i should just get it down to the normal levels. He never sees the good high and bad low its always bad high good low. After I left the check up I just laughed about it. I like how im overweight and yet keep 4.5-5% bodyfat throughout the year. Basically what im saying is don't trust everything you read especially with all the experts who all come up with something different but only listen to the people who support them not the other side.

[andy2550]

A few thoughts.

Firstly humans have been eating animals for hundreds of thousands of years. A lot of these animals were high in fat such as mammoth, hippo and rhino. I would say we are pretty much much adapted to eating animals.

My second point is that we live in a "low fat" society. Over the last few decades animal fat consumption has had a massive decline, meanwhile rates of obesity, heart disease and a host of  other diseases have skyrocketed.

Finally many hunter-gatherer societys around the globe eat a lot of fatty animals and retain a standard of health far superior to that of western society.