It's not just store brand cat food

meowers

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Its so true.

My friend has discovered that Nutri system diet foods are loaded with soy to lower calories. we eat alot of fillers unfortunatly!
 

yosemite

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I have no idea what channel my hubby had left the TV on last night, but there was a show on pet foods and the pet food scandal of a couple years ago.

One vet cooked up strips of old boots, wood chips and crank shaft oil, sent it away for testing and it passed the current government requirements for insertion into pet food.


The one vet they focused the most on was one who used to work for a large pet food manufacturer and has since quit and is trying to get governments to do more for the regulations regarding pet food. Apparently, the pet food industries are pretty much regulating themselves - not good!

This vet also said that most vets know next to nothing about nutrition - refreshing honesty there. She also said that cats need MEAT not grains and that even reading labels can be misleading. She said meat could be listed first and we would assume the food has more meat than grains, but if there were 3 or 4 different types of grains in smaller portions than the meat, when added together the grains would far outstrip the amount of meat.

It was a great show and I'm truly sorry I didn't get the information re channel, etc. but I was watching it in between chores as well.
 

rahma

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Everything is loaded with corn. If you have time, pick up "Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollen. It follows 4 meals from the very beginning to consumption:

Originally Posted by Publisher's Weekly Review

He starts with a McDonald's lunch, which he and his family gobble up in their car. Surprise: the origin of this meal is a cornfield in Iowa. Corn feeds the steer that turns into the burgers, becomes the oil that cooks the fries and the syrup that sweetens the shakes and the sodas, and makes up 13 of the 38 ingredients (yikes) in the Chicken McNuggets.Indeed, one of the many eye-openers in the book is the prevalence of corn in the American diet; of the 45,000 items in a supermarket, more than a quarter contain corn. Pollan meditates on the freakishly protean nature of the corn plant and looks at how the food industry has exploited it, to the detriment of everyone from farmers to fat-and-getting-fatter Americans. Besides Stephen King, few other writers have made a corn field seem so sinister.
I read it and his "In Defense of Food" at the end of last year, and I've radically changed my diet. I've actually gotten almost all processed foods out of my house, with the exception of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Everyon'e gotta have one vice
 

tierre0

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Originally Posted by Yosemite

I have no idea what channel my hubby had left the TV on last night, but there was a show on pet foods and the pet food scandal of a couple years ago.

One vet cooked up strips of old boots, wood chips and crank shaft oil, sent it away for testing and it passed the current government requirements for insertion into pet food.


The one vet they focused the most on was one who used to work for a large pet food manufacturer and has since quit and is trying to get governments to do more for the regulations regarding pet food. Apparently, the pet food industries are pretty much regulating themselves - not good!

This vet also said that most vets know next to nothing about nutrition - refreshing honesty there. She also said that cats need MEAT not grains and that even reading labels can be misleading. She said meat could be listed first and we would assume the food has more meat than grains, but if there were 3 or 4 different types of grains in smaller portions than the meat, when added together the grains would far outstrip the amount of meat.

It was a great show and I'm truly sorry I didn't get the information re channel, etc. but I was watching it in between chores as well.
Yes I saw that show a few weeks ago and was totally grossed out by it. Unfortunately I lost my cat Flip right in the middle of the tainted food scandal to kidney failure. However because of his age, the vet would never say on way or other whether the food was issue or not. It really bothers me to think that something I may have been feeding him made him sick.
I am so much more careful about reading the labelling now, and there are just certain items I will not buy.
 

yosemite

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Originally Posted by rahma

Everything is loaded with corn. If you have time, pick up "Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollen. It follows 4 meals from the very beginning to consumption:



I read it and his "In Defense of Food" at the end of last year, and I've radically changed my diet. I've actually gotten almost all processed foods out of my house, with the exception of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Everyon'e gotta have one vice
I think we'll find that when folks start getting those processed foods out of their homes and mouths, we'll see fewer obese people as well.
 

mrblanche

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That book and others point out that 30 years ago, high fructose corn syrup was in absolutely nothing we ate. Today it's in almost everything, including pet foods. The case could be made that that one ingredient is responsible for more nutrition problems in the U.S. than anything else we eat.
 

gailc

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I believe in the European Union countries HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) is not allowed as a sweetener. Switching to some of the "organic" foods will reduce usage as many use can sugar instead.

That is why I make my own catsup which when you buy it has lots of HFCS. I buy the "organic" (at three times the cost) for Neil to use as he doesn't like mine exclusively.
 

whuckleberry

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Originally Posted by rahma

Everything is loaded with corn. If you have time, pick up "Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollen. It follows 4 meals from the very beginning to consumption
That is an excellent book.

There is also an interesting documentary on this topic called "King Corn." Two guys grow some corn and follow it through the insdustrial process. They examine the differences in the way corn is currently grown and consumed, as opposed to just a generation or two ago (and they mention the content in fast food). http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/kingcorn/
 

fwan

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Apparently Australia has the highest obese nation in the world and it just beat America, when you look at it population wise that is a lot of fat people


There was a thread a while ago about how much people paid on their grocery bills every week. When i said 10 - 15 euros I actually meant that! I noticed over here it is so expensive i wouldn't be able to get away with just $5 - $10 a week on groceries because Milk already costs $5!!
Every single packaging over here comes in much larger than what they sell in Europe. Fresh produce is extremely expensive, frozen vegetables isn't much better, its only cheaper by a couple of cents.

Cat food is expensive too, and have a much less variety. There is only one brand on the shelves that the kitties will eat.
The only good thing about this place is that they sell lots of fresh meat for cats and dogs, and Kaylee absolutely loves chicken over here!

Sorry went off track just wanted to put my two cents in
 
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