Some people here eat a lot more fat than others. Some people like fat more than others. Some people do very low carb and high fat, others do more carbs and lower fat. Some people go out of their way to add fat to their diet (coconut oil in their coffee, a giant pat of butter on steamed veggies), while others just eat it as it occurs naturally in the typical foods they eat (not cutting every last inch of fat off a steak, enjoying an avocado).

I don't think anyone here is "obsessed" with fat. What I think happens is that most of us, for most of our lives, were bombarded with the message that...cue the scary music...FAT IS BAD. (More specifically, SATURATED FAT from ANIMALS [especially RED MEAT!] will MAKE YOU FAT and KILL YOU!!!)

So to find out that, no, in fact, fat is a very vital part of the human diet and can actually make us FEEL GOOD (more balanced moods, better/longer satiety, no blood glucose roller coaster), it's just FREAKING NICE TO BE ABLE TO EAT IT AGAIN!! (In whatever quantity each individual deems right for them.)

Peter at Hyperlipid has taken aim at the anti-palmitic acid studies before:

Palmitic acid based food vs olive oil or corn oil supplements, Palmitic acid the horror never ends, Palmitic acid the horror never ends: addendum, Palmitic acid the horror never ends: speculation.

So, I, and many of my fellow paleohackers are coming out of a very awesome time where people like Peter blogged regularly, and if it was a crap study, it's crappiness was very sarcastically pointed out. And much glee was had in paleo and low carb circles. Yes, we were one big happy family back then, everybody was just getting along and making fun of mainstream science and laughing at the vegans... oh yeah, and I lost +100lbs while eating something like 70% fat. Anyway, I don't know whether or not this addresses the particular study you had in mind, but if you read these posts then you could very possibly imagine the argument he would make about it.

Fat is the food of the gods.

Your bodyfat contains palmitic acid. So, are you saying that every time you use your own bodyfat for energy, you're damaging your blood vessels? How does that make any sense at all?

As an energy source for the body fat causes less oxidative stress than glucose.

Fat and glucose are essentially the only two options for fueling the body here, because with a high protein diet excess protein will be converted to glucose and used as fuel. So, a high fat diet with moderate protein intake and low carbohydrate intake will be a diet that causes the least amount of oxidative stress. Glucose also runs the risk of causing AGE's.

Ironically enough, high fat intake doesn't cause chronically high serum levels of palmitic acid (triglycerides). Fructose and ethanol are the biggest contributors of chronically high serum levels of palmitic acid (triglycerides).

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Please don't abuse mummies, it's not nice. Maybe it's time for us to tell Cordain, a professer of exercise science, to maybe not try to make health proclamations based on archaeological finds he clearly doesn't understand.

Those are some interesting hypothetical mechanisms you've got there, shame they don't work in reality. (Krauss meta-analyses 1 and 2).

I don't think it's surprising that a fair number of people who are drawn to this diet are somewhat extremist, so it follows that they might take things to an extreme or be drawn to more extreme self-experimentation.

As someone who struggled with craving and overeating industrial crap on SAD, I've found that my increased fat intake has really helped me to feel much better overall (reduced anxiety and dramatically improved sleep, among others) and ultimately those things matter to me far more than living until I'm 90.

I'm currently eating a high fat diet because I find that it helps my mental health problems, as well as my appetite (I'm less prone to binging on all the SAD foods). So far it's been working pretty well. In the future that may change, but for now, it's a pretty high fat diet for me, and it helps.

I think in general, people in western society just obsess about food. Whether it's obsessing about dessert, obsessing about fat, obsessing against fat, obsessing about carbs, obsessing about sugar, obsessing about their next meal, etc. etc.

Why would anyone need to seek out Paleo to eat/justify eating fat in higher amounts? They would give up the high fat and high carb crap diet to do "that"??

haha..no logic there for fat obsessed. I have eaten high fat 50 years....and so did my grandparents...lo-o-ng before Paleo was a model of any diet plan.

Human fat & pig fat are very close in composition. A good article here: http://freetheanimal.com/2009/04/losing-weight-is-pretty-much-like-eating-lard.html

The more I've thought about it the less sense it makes to call high fat diets Paleo. Our paleo ancestors had no cooking vessels. Lard, tallow and butter all require processing - they are Neolithic foods in every sense. Matesz projects a paleo diet which is very similar to the Med, with lower fat content than most SAD diets, and 50% carbs.

High fat diets only became popular with Dr. Atkins. Maybe he's the ancestor of modern Paleo dieting. It has little to do with what real Paleos ate.

Hasn't this been covered in detail before here?

The human race are opportunistic omnivores, top of the food chain. We got to where we are by being excellent hunters, consuming the best parts of the beast. By figuring out how to cook meat we were able to pre-digest food meaning we could have smaller bellies and consume more nutrients to grow bigger brains. The point of the Paleo paradigm is to figure out what to eat for optimum health; if that means eating lots of saturated fats so be it. The jury is still out on what 'optimum' is, that's why we're here on PH, but we're pretty confident from evolutionary theory and personal experience that meat is a more likely source of healthy nutrients than grass seeds (i.e. wheat products), high-fructose corn syrup and trans fats -- mmm, Twinkie anyone?!

Orthorexia. Some folks take it to the extreme. I read on another paleo fourm (the equivalent of 30 BAD) about some guy who ate nothing except homemade pemmican. Supposedly he was thriving from it. Cured all his illnesses, hasn't. Pooped since starting his pemmican fast. Then he got his family involved.

Jesus christ now fat is bad? Seems like everyone's got an opinion on why one thing or another is bad. How are we meant to know what to do with such conflicting information???

I eat a high fat diet but it's VERY specific and controlled. I eat tons of macadamia nuts (for healthy monounsaturated fats) and tons of salmon and sardines (from BPA free cans of course) for my Omega 3s. That's it! All my meats are lean and I eat tons of vegetables and a little fruit. Here and there I'll have an egg or two, but I even limit those. There's already plenty of saturated fats in salmon, chicken, and eggs - why add more? Grass-fed burgers is like my once a month treat instead of eating something stupid like a pastry or cookie.

I never cook on a frying pan anymore either so I don't have to use any oils. All my meats are broiled or baked in a pot with herbs and spices. The only other oil that gets into my body is extra virgin olive oil on my salads.

I eat like this because I'm well aware of the damaging effects of excessive saturated fats. Why take the risk and find out the hard way?

As a side note, if you're like me and take a lot of supplements, you'll find they're all laced with stearic acid as a preservative. Watch out!