Getting Accurate Fat Composition In Your Diet
I have long wondered what are the correct amount of fats we should be eating in our diet based off of our paleolithic ancestors.
So I thought it was about time to look at this more thoroughly.
It is important to remember that fish and poultry were thought to only be consumed to a large degree from about 20000 years ago.
Up until that point large mammals represented the main component of our diet and therefore they should be looked at to base what our fat composition should be.
Today, we eat mostly muscle meat but hunter gatherers relish, and sometimes solely consume organs, bone marrow, brain and fat deposits.
Thus, it is very difficult to definitively ascertain how much fat was/is eaten, and in what ratios, because no study (that I know of) has worked out the mean fat composition consumed by hunter gatherers.
However, one factor that must be considered is that all body parts of an animal are not simply made up of fat, but also protein.
Game meat has very little fat in or on its muscle (<3%) and humans must have eaten more than 10% fat in order to avoid protein toxicity.
This means that 70% of fat is likely to have been derived from brains, organs and bone marrow.
With that said we must place more emphasis on these body parts when considering the fat composition that we should eat.
Below is a breakdown of the fat composition from bone marrow, muscle, brain and subcutaneous fat of three game animals (elk, deer and antelope): Bone Marrow Saturated Fat: 28% Monounsaturated Fat: 59-67% Polyunsaturated Fat: 6% Omega 6/Omega 3 ratio: 2-3 Muscle Saturated Fat: 30-38% Monounsaturated Fat: 23-25% Polyunsaturated Fat: 29-31% Omega 6/ Omega 3 ratio: 2-3 Brain Saturated Fat: 31-32% Monounsaturated Fat: 27-28% Polyunsaturated Fat: 21-22% Omega 6/ Omega 3 ratio: 1 Subcutaneous Fat Saturated Fat %: 59-66% Monounsaturated Fat: 26-32% Polyunsaturated Fat%: 3-5% Omega 6/ Omega 3 ratio: 2-3 Looking at the above tables you see a much higher monounsaturated fat content in bone marrow and a low proportion of polyunsaturated fats.
Brain shows roughly equal proportions between the fats but again polyunsaturated fats are found in the lowest proportion.
When I looked on some nutritional programs I found that kidney and liver both have almost double the amount of saturated fat than the other fats, with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats been roughly equal.
Therefore, it seems to me that our intake of saturated fat and monounsturated fat should be roughly equal.
The fat content in organs are much lower than in bone marrow, and so this tends to shift the energy balance in favour of monounsaturated fats.
However, when you take into account the extra fat from muscle and subcutaneous fat this shifts the fat composition back in favour of saturated fats.
Thus, it seems once again that monounsaturated fats and saturated fat consumption should be roughly equal with polyunsaturated fats consumed in smaller proportions.
The ratio of fats in grass fed beef roughly fit this suggested ratio with an equal proportion of saturated and monounsaturated fats and a much lower proportion of polyunsaturated fats.
However, the polyunsaturated fat % is MUCH lower in grass fed beef (and it is even lower in grain fed beef) than it is in game.
In game, polyunsaturated fat represents about 20-40% of muscle tissue, whereas in grass fed beef it is only 10%.
Thus, it is important to get this polyunsaturated fat from other sources and it must be at an Omega 6:Omega 3 ratio of around 2-3.
The best source I can think of is fish oil, which is high in polyunsaturated fats and in the correct omega ratio.
So in short - eat grass fed beef and consume fish oil and/or eat lots of organs and bone marrow!
So I thought it was about time to look at this more thoroughly.
It is important to remember that fish and poultry were thought to only be consumed to a large degree from about 20000 years ago.
Up until that point large mammals represented the main component of our diet and therefore they should be looked at to base what our fat composition should be.
Today, we eat mostly muscle meat but hunter gatherers relish, and sometimes solely consume organs, bone marrow, brain and fat deposits.
Thus, it is very difficult to definitively ascertain how much fat was/is eaten, and in what ratios, because no study (that I know of) has worked out the mean fat composition consumed by hunter gatherers.
However, one factor that must be considered is that all body parts of an animal are not simply made up of fat, but also protein.
Game meat has very little fat in or on its muscle (<3%) and humans must have eaten more than 10% fat in order to avoid protein toxicity.
This means that 70% of fat is likely to have been derived from brains, organs and bone marrow.
With that said we must place more emphasis on these body parts when considering the fat composition that we should eat.
Below is a breakdown of the fat composition from bone marrow, muscle, brain and subcutaneous fat of three game animals (elk, deer and antelope): Bone Marrow Saturated Fat: 28% Monounsaturated Fat: 59-67% Polyunsaturated Fat: 6% Omega 6/Omega 3 ratio: 2-3 Muscle Saturated Fat: 30-38% Monounsaturated Fat: 23-25% Polyunsaturated Fat: 29-31% Omega 6/ Omega 3 ratio: 2-3 Brain Saturated Fat: 31-32% Monounsaturated Fat: 27-28% Polyunsaturated Fat: 21-22% Omega 6/ Omega 3 ratio: 1 Subcutaneous Fat Saturated Fat %: 59-66% Monounsaturated Fat: 26-32% Polyunsaturated Fat%: 3-5% Omega 6/ Omega 3 ratio: 2-3 Looking at the above tables you see a much higher monounsaturated fat content in bone marrow and a low proportion of polyunsaturated fats.
Brain shows roughly equal proportions between the fats but again polyunsaturated fats are found in the lowest proportion.
When I looked on some nutritional programs I found that kidney and liver both have almost double the amount of saturated fat than the other fats, with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats been roughly equal.
Therefore, it seems to me that our intake of saturated fat and monounsturated fat should be roughly equal.
The fat content in organs are much lower than in bone marrow, and so this tends to shift the energy balance in favour of monounsaturated fats.
However, when you take into account the extra fat from muscle and subcutaneous fat this shifts the fat composition back in favour of saturated fats.
Thus, it seems once again that monounsaturated fats and saturated fat consumption should be roughly equal with polyunsaturated fats consumed in smaller proportions.
The ratio of fats in grass fed beef roughly fit this suggested ratio with an equal proportion of saturated and monounsaturated fats and a much lower proportion of polyunsaturated fats.
However, the polyunsaturated fat % is MUCH lower in grass fed beef (and it is even lower in grain fed beef) than it is in game.
In game, polyunsaturated fat represents about 20-40% of muscle tissue, whereas in grass fed beef it is only 10%.
Thus, it is important to get this polyunsaturated fat from other sources and it must be at an Omega 6:Omega 3 ratio of around 2-3.
The best source I can think of is fish oil, which is high in polyunsaturated fats and in the correct omega ratio.
So in short - eat grass fed beef and consume fish oil and/or eat lots of organs and bone marrow!
