Steven, the unifying trend of all the traditional pastorialist and hunter-gatherer diets I've been able to find more in-depth information about is a very high intake of animal fat, most often supplemental. The fat is collected from the animal, set aside, and then refined and used for a variety of food purposes.

*The primary calorie source of the traditional Inuit of North American tundra, and Yupik/Yuit peoples of upper Siberia, was the rendered fat of their very fatty prey (seal, whale, muskoxen, caribou) which they stored and transported in giant sealskin bags.

*Non-farming Native Americans were relatively fast-moving nomads, and hunted large game as their primary food source. They made the kills they couldn't eat fresh into pemmican, which is 70-80% fat. And the staple of their diets through the winter.

*The Khoisan 'Bushmen' of Africa were reported to have very high animal fat intake in the days when most of them still hunted and gathered traditionally, and to this day they especially prize the eland (largest antelope in Africa) for it's high body fat which is eaten ritually. Khoisan people who have adapted to the majority local cultures by becoming cow herders are notable for refusing to grow crops and buy many grains to eat, preferring to live mostly on the meat and milk from their animals, and foraged plant foods.

*We've all heard about the Maasai; they used to be hunters, but have been cow-herders for some time now, and this traditional diet of milk, cow meat, and cow fat supplemented with some vegetables/tubers (what can be found in dry grassland) is very high in fat.

*A huge number of traditional Mongolian herding cultures still exist in the inaccessible steppes. 30% of the people in the country are nomadic herders! They raise reindeer, goats, yaks (kept especially for the fatty milk), sheep, cows, camels (not used for milk or meat) and horses; butterfat is a main source of calories, and they eat a lot of mutton and goat which is high in fat. They even put butter in their tea. Due the difficulty of transporting anything, many eat amazingly little dry goods/Western foods...

*The nomadic traditional Bedouin survived primarily on the meat, fat, milk and milk fat of their animals (they call their clarified butter, an important component in many dishes, samn), and on dates.

*The traditional Sami people (reindeer herders) of Finland eat tons of animal fat. Butterfat is a major calorie source. Great info on the Sami diet, lifestyle, genetics and disease incidence here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2080452/ Makes me feel like I'm on the right track.

There's a lot more out there, but it's basically more of the same. Every (ETA: pastorialist and hunter-gatherer) culture studied which doesn't farm mass amounts of grains or live directly next-door to grain farmers pushing their product on them, gets a large majority of their calories from animal fat. Humans who farm grains get most of their calories from carbohydrate. Based on this I don't see anything excessive or unusual in the recommendations to 'eat more fat' (60-80% of calories).

Steven, the unifying trend of all the traditional pastorialist and hunter-gatherer diets I've been able to find more in-depth information about is a very high intake of animal fat, most often supplemental. The fat is collected from the animal, set aside, and then refined and used for a variety of food purposes.

*The primary calorie source of the traditional Inuit of North American tundra, and Yupik/Yuit peoples of upper Siberia, was the rendered fat of their very fatty prey (seal, whale, muskoxen, caribou) which they stored and transport transported in giant sealskin bags.

*Non-farming Native Americans we're were relatively fast-moving nomads, and hunted large game as their primary food source. They made the kills they couldn't eat fresh into pemmican, which is 70-80% fat. And the staple of their diets through the winter.

*The Khoisan 'Bushmen' of Africa were reported to have very animal product high animal fat intake in the days when most of them still hunter hunted and gathered traditionally, and to this day they especially prize the eland (largest antelope in Africa) for it's high body fat which is eaten ritually. Khoisan people who have adapted to the majority local cultures by becoming cow herders are notable for refusing to grow crops and buy many grains to eat, preferring to live mostly on the meat and milk from their animals, and foraged plant foods.

*We've all heard about the Maasai; they used to be hunters, but have been cow-herders for some time now, and this traditional diet of milk, cow meat, and cow fat supplemented with some vegetables/tubers (what can be found in dry grassland) is very high in fat.

*A huge number of traditional Mongolian herding cultures still exist in the inaccessible steppes. 30% of the people there in the country are nomadic herders! They raise reindeer, goats, yaks (kept especially for it's the fatty milk), sheep, cows, camels (not used for milk or meat) and horses; butterfat is a main source of calories, and they eat a lot of mutton and goat which is high in fat. They even put butter in their tea. They eat very high in animal products and due Due the difficulty of transporting dry goodsanything, relatively many eat amazingly little dry goods/Western foods...

*The nomadic traditional Bedouin survived primarily on the meat, fat, milk and milk fat of their animals (they call their clarified butter, an important component in many dishes, samn), and on dates.

*The traditional Sami people (reindeer herders) of Finland eat tons of animal fat. Butterfat is a major calorie source. Great info on the Sami diet, lifestyle, genetics and disease incidence here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2080452/ Makes me feel like I'm on the right track.

There's a lot more out there, but it's basically more of the same. Every culture studied which doesn't farm mass amounts of grains or live directly next-door to grain farmers pushing their product on them, gets a large majority of their calories from animal fat. Humans who farm grains get most of their calories from carbohydrate. Based on this I don't see anything excessive or unusual in the recommendations to 'eat more fat' (60-80% of calories).

Steven, the unifying trend of all the traditional pastorialist and hunter-gatherer diets I've been able to find more in-depth information about is a very high intake of animal fat, most often supplemental. The fat is collected from the animal, set aside, and then refined and used for a variety of food purposes.

*The primary calorie source of the traditional Inuit of North American tundra, and Yupik/Yuit peoples of upper Siberia, was the rendered fat of their very fatty prey (seal, whale, muskoxen, caribou) which they stored and transport in giant sealskin bags.

*Non-farming Native Americans we're relatively fast-moving nomads, and hunted large game as their primary food source. They made the kills they couldn't eat fresh into pemmican, which is 70-80% fat. And the staple of their diets through the winter.

*The Khoisan 'Bushmen' of Africa were reported to have very animal product high fat intake in the days when most of them still hunter and gathered traditionally, and to this day they especially prize the eland (largest antelope in Africa) for it's high body fat which is eaten ritually. Khoisan people who have adapted to the majority local cultures by becoming cow herders are notable for refusing to grow crops and buy grains to eat, preferring to live mostly on the meat and milk from their animals.

*We've all heard about the Maasai; they used to be hunters, but have been cow-herders for some time now, and this traditional diet of milk, cow meat, and cow fat supplemented with some vegetables/tubers (what can be found in grassland) is very high in fat.

*A huge number of traditional Mongolian herding cultures still exist in the inaccessible steppes. 30% of the people there are nomadic herders! They raise reindeer, goats, yaks (kept especially for it's fatty milk), sheep, cows, and horses; butterfat is a main source of calories. They even put butter in their tea. They eat very high in animal products and due the difficulty of transporting dry goods, relatively little dry goods/Western foods...

*The nomadic traditional Bedouin survived primarily on the meat, fat, milk and milk fat of their animals (they call their clarified butter samn), and on dates.

*The traditional Sami people (reindeer herders) of Finland eat tons of animal fat. Butterfat is a major calorie source. Great info on the Sami diet, lifestyle, genetics and disease incidence here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2080452/ Makes me feel like I'm on the right track.

There's a lot more out there, but it's basically more of the same. Every culture studied which doesn't farm mass amounts of grains or live directly next-door to grain farmers pushing their product on them, gets a large majority of their calories from animal fat. Humans who farm grains get most of their calories from carbohydrate.