Cat Food

By: Eva Marklund

Part One: Corn

Finding a nutritious healthy food for your cat is not as easy as it seems.

Looking at the beautifully designed bags filled with kibble, along with the enticing text using words such as "wholesome" "nutritious" and "Veterinary Recommended" it can be easy to be put at ease, especially after reading that the very first ingredient is meat!

There are many ingredients found in cat food that does not belong there. They have no value to your cat, instead they can be downright detrimental.

Today we'll look at the Three Big No's.
They are: Corn, Wheat and Soy.

While the pet food conglomerates want you to believe that grains are "wholesome" for your cat or dog, they are implicated with a long range of health problems. Not to mention, grains have no part of the diet that our magnificent felines have evolved on for the past few millions of years.

It is after the "modernization" of cat food that we are seeing an avalanche of illnesses, closely associated with the ingredients in the food that are harmful.

Corn:
The use of corn is a very bad addition to your cat's or dog's food. It causes allergic reactions and acts as an irritant to the bowel. Possibly a problem of an even greater magnitude is the fact the corn has a high glycemic index.

What that means is that after the cat eats a meal that contains corn, her blood sugar level rises.
Cats have different metabolic pathways than humans do, and do not have the necessary enzymes to handle the onslaught of sugar in their blood stream.
While humans get their energy from sugar, cats get their energy from animal protein.

In the wild cats consume approximately 3-5 carbohydrates.

A cat eating kibble will have a blood sugar spike after their meal. Cats, having again a very different way of metabolizing food, do not release insulin in response to a high carb content meal like we do, they release insulin in response to eating meat.

The high blood sugar is highly taxing on organs such as kidneys and liver, taxing on the endocrine system and the end result is frequently feline diabetes, degenerative and auto immune diseases, and diseases of the bowel, such as inflammatory bowel disease.

Corn is also implicated in feline obesity. Cats do not register full from carbohydrates like we do, they register full from eating protein cat food.
In order to get their protein needs satisfied, the cat has to eat more food, thus becoming obese after ingesting foods rich in corn.

Feline diabetes is currently an epidemic. A study in England showed that one out of every 230 cats have insulin dependent diabetes.

If your cat is drinking and urinating a lot, seem to have less energy, please see a vet as soon as possible to rule out diabetes or kidney failure.

Switching your cat to a grain-less food frequently reverses diabetes, even if insulin has been given for some time. (A switch should be done ONLY with the cooperation of your vet, while monitoring blood glucose levels in order to prevent your cat's blood sugar to go too low which can be deadly.)

Getting your cat or dog, onto a food that does not contain corn is of utmost importance.



While we advocate a home made raw diet, we understand that it is not for everyone. A great start towards a much improved diet for your furry friend is to select a food that contains no grains, and feed as much canned food as possible.

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