Animal FoodsOne of the essential concepts of the Paleo Diet is to eat
animal food at nearly every meal. But the key idea here is
one of quality and freshness. Always try to eat your meat,
fish, poultry, and seafood as fresh as possible. Fresh is
almost always best, followed by frozen; stay away from
canned, tinned, processed, smoked, or salted animal
foods. When it comes to beef, pork, and chicken, free-
ranging, grass-fed, or pasture-produced meats are best,
albeit a bit pricey. Try your local farmers’ market or go to
my friend Jo Robinson’s Web site, http://www.eatwild.com/ to
find a farmer or a rancher in your vicinity who can supply
you with unadulterated, grass-produced meats.
Feedlot and Grain-Produced Meats
Ninety-nine percent of the beef, pork, and chicken
produced in the United States comes from enormous
feedlots, which sometimes contain up to a hundred
thousand animals. The driving force behind feedlot-
produced meat is almost purely economic. The objective of
these huge corporate agribusinesses is to turn out the
largest, heaviest animals possible as rapidly as possible
with the least amount of feed. To accomplish this goal, the
animals are confined in small spaces, where they get little
exercise and are fed unlimited amounts of grain. Does this
situation sound familiar?
(^) The end result is not pretty. Feedlot-produced cattle
maintain a four- to six-inch layer of white fat covering their
entire body. These artificial products of modern agriculture