I'm reading Audette's book and am a bit confused about why he says to remove poultry skin before eating the meat. Why is that? I can't imaging him claiming that paleo man skinned the grouse and turkeys they hunted, passing up on all that fat.

Wow, I had no idea he said that. I'd discard that bit of advice, personally.

I don't have the book handy, but I think his reasoning was that the chicken skins are extremely high in omega 6 fats due to the unnatural diet most chickens are fed? Or maybe I read that somewhere else, anyway I always eat all the chicken skin I can get, greedily as though it's some primal response, which it probably is

You may be right, Mio. On page 67 he writes, "If you choose to regularly eat commercially produced grain-fed beef, chicken, and pork, try to limit yourself to the leanest cuts of these meats. Don't eat the skin on your chicken or turkey."

I understand his concern with omega-6 vs -3, but I'm not eating lean, dry cuts of meat. Just ain't happening!

THis is very interesting. HIgh Omega 6's in commercially fed meats? Hmmm.

In reguard to the OP, most wild animals are actually quite thin, and often don't carry the extra fat that we associate with commercially produced meats. Often fat was in shortage in the human diet during parts of the year and if the animals were not able to fatten on summer grasses. Bear was coveted for the amount of grease it provided after a summer and fall of gorging for winter hibernation.

This is why I question the whole eat-high-fat-meats thing. (not necessarily a Paleo point of view, but I see it a lot on the LC threads.)

Some wild animals have a lot of fat some don't. I think early humans probably ate a variety. Personally I think 70-80% fat is a bit much for me but I'm fine with 50-60% which I still think is "high fat" since I'm getting more calories from fat than the other two macros.

Was it in his recent interview where he said he didn't fuss over omega-3/omega-6 ratios, he just takes some fish oil.

I think he's changed his mind on a few things.

Depends on the part of the year. According to Dr. Steve Phinney, the Inuit give the leanest parts to their dogs, or dry them and eat them when they run out of the fattiest part.

The "People of the Buffalo" did the same and mixed the dried lean meat with fat to make pemmican. The people on the west coast made Oolichan grease which they used abundantly, and even traded it to other tribes.

Unless you're eating rather a lot of carbohydrate you have to eat the bulk of your calories from fat. You can't eat too much protein, otherwise you'll get sick.

Thank you for this comment, Nancy, as I was wondering if that was the same guy. (The guy who said he was low-income and just bought his meat at WalMart like everyone else?)

Yeah, that was him.

I think a few folks have decided that, as long as you're avoiding the biggest culprits of O6 overload (processed vegetable oils, most processed foods and so forth,) the differences in meat fats between grass finished/free range and the grain fed animals isn't such a big deal, especially if you supplement with fish oil or another decent form of O3 oil.

As far as the amount of fat in your diet? Well, I think what works best is to simply find what works best for YOU. I do better around 40 percent fat and higher protein, while remaining very low carb. Others seem to thrive quite well on a diet much higher in fat, lower in protein. Still others find they do best with more carbohydrate in the diet, with both protein and fat being a bit more moderate than those who eat a very low carb diet. For as much as we are all the same, those seemingly minor differences appear to make a pretty big difference in what works best for each of us. One size fits all is a bad idea when it comes to diet, even within a particular way of eating (such as low carb.)

Chicken skin has a fair amount of inflammatory O-6 fats, a small amount of which are essential to living. A dark quarter of a chicken with skin has about 5g of O-6 fats, according to nutritiondata.com. A lot of paleo advocates claim that our Paleolithic ancestors ate O-6 fats in a 1:1 ratio with O-3 fats, and therefore, so should we. It's hard to find a lot of O-3 fats to eat, and evidence strongly suggests that more than a small amount of them is harmful. (1) Personally, I think the evidence for the 1:1 ratio is debatable. It's not like there's a huge sample population to be tested, and scientists are extrapolating from tiny bits of physical evidence. But modern research shows clearly that eating a lot of O-6 fat is bad for us.

In modern times, we have a bit more evidence on which to base decisions about how much O-6 fats to eat and in what ratio to O-3 fats. A 1993 rat study suggests that even a 9:1 ratio of O-6:O-3 fats is OK(2). More relevant to humans, It was in the 1930's that doctors began noting an increase in heart disease. Up until that time, Americans ate, on average, about 15 grams (one tablespoon) of polyunsaturated fats (PUFA) per day (PUFAs include both O-6 and O-3 fats.)(3) We have to guess about the ratio of O-6:O-3 fats that people ate, but since nobody was worried about eating chicken skin (or much of anything else) back then, it's probably safe to say that most of that was O-6 fat. For the sake of discussion, let's say that 80%, or 12g, was O-6 fat.

It's pretty easy to eat 12g of O-6 fat in a day, even being strict about your diet. I make all my own food, and I don't eat vegetable oils, except for the occasional spoonfuls of canola-oil mayonnaise (I always mess up making my own mayonnaise with olive oil). I track my eating closely with software for long stretches at a time, and I eat somewhere between 7–15g of PUFA daily, out of a total of 1800–2300 calories. That works out to about 5.6–12g of O-6 fats, or 3–4.5% of calories. If I eat chicken with skin one day, I'll avoid foods high in O-6 fats (eggs and lard, in particular) the next day.

I also supplement with krill oil (1000 mg/day) to make sure I get some O-3 fats every day, and when it's in season, I'll eat wild salmon, which has some O-3 fats.
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1. Masterjohn, Chris. Precious Yet Perilous. Weston A. Price Foundation web site. http://www.westonaprice.org/know-yo...us-yet-perilous. Accessed August 13, 2012.

2. Bourre JM, Dumont O, Pascal G, Durand G. Dietary alpha-linolenic acid at 1.3 g/kg maintains maximal docosahexaenoic acid concentration in brain, heart and liver of adult rats. J Nutr. Jul 1993;123(7):1313-1319.

3. Guynet S. Have Seed Oils Caused a Multi-Generational Obesity Epidemic. Whole Health Source. http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.c...nerational.html. April 23, 2010. Accessed September 4, 2010.

Personally I think trying to balance O-FA's in everything you eat is a fool's errand. Strive for balance over the day or the week. Eat the chicken skin and take some fish/krill oil.

I think trying to be too nit-picky can kill people's interest in following a diet. When you've improved your diet 95% of the way, then it might not be worth obsessing over the next 5%.

Thanks for the added info, aj_cohn. More and better info from which to make decisions is a good idea. I also understand what Nancy is saying. I don't take any oil supplements yet. I'm only 4 weeks into Atkins and still coming to grips with the macro factors.

And since I just ate half a rotisserie chicken for lunch, skin and all, I guess I'm just not worried about it yet. My wife and I do like salmon, though, so I will make it a point to include more wild caught in our menu.