The Shocking Truth about Cat Food

I wish that I had a time machine. To be able to take all that I’ve learned about cat food back to 1998; back to one Cap’n Crunch, an almost 20 lb. (hence more than a little overweight!) 6 year old cat. I was at a loss about how to bring his weight back to a comfortable range; an orange tabby, he looked like a basketball. For one year, I fed him only a dry, premium brand “lite” food. Rather than lose weight, he actually gained it. I just resolved that he must be genetically programmed to be that large. Surely the food that I’d so carefully selected would have otherwise done it’s implied job, right?

Photo credit: Brkinhrt2, Flickr

As it turns out, WRONG. Poor Cap’n went on to eventually develop hyperthyroidism, then Chronic Renal Disease. He passed away earlier this month. If I had known, in 1998, that the food that I had been feeding him with the intention of helping him with a weight problem had most likely been a culprit in his condition in the first place, I might have saved him years of health problems. I just want to tear my hair out at the thought of it.
Enter into my 2009 life the book “Your Cat: Simple New Secrets to a Longer, Stronger Life“, in which Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins discusses at length new findings about the nutritional needs of cats and how they do NOT often line up with how cat food is produced and marketed.  Turns out, cats need a protein/meat based diet, and most commercially available foods are loaded with carbohydrates like grains and potato starches that are not only unnecessary in their diets, but potentially harmful to the health of our cats.  Dry food is the single largest culprit here, as grains are heavily used in order to produce the dry kibble that can be bagged and sold.  Heavy intakes of these grains and starches not only cause a cat to gain weight, but also have been shown to lead to chronic health issues, such as hyperthyroidism and diabetes.

Here’s what you can do TODAY:  Switch any cat currently eating dry food to canned food.  That’s right, the single most effective thing is to STOP the dry food intake.  Even among the widely available brands of canned food (read: what you buy at the grocery store), there are relatively low carbohydrate options, so you shouldn’t have to shell out big bucks for the higher-end natural pet food.  Dr. Hodgkins provides a good guide about how to read a label for carbohydrate content.  Otherwise, there are national brands that market themselves as all-meat/no grain, such as EVO and Feline’s Pride.  I plan to investigate these options with my two youngster cats and report back.  Keep posted.

In the meantime, you can read up on more of these and other findings here and here.  I invite your comments and experiences.