Carrageenan

[ginny]

 
My main beef (pardon the pun 

) with food purists of any kind is that by eliminating too many foods, you're actually creating a less-balanced diet which nobody knows the long-term effects of.

Just to be clear, the food purist I mentioned (from what I gather from his articles) eliminates highly processed foods and most grains, GMO foods, table sugar, soft drinks, and foods tainted with pesticides. He has 2 nutritionists who work for him as well so I'm pretty sure his diet is balanced.  Not saying all other purists are balanced, but I think his diet is.   

 

[lisahe]

 
Just to be clear, the food purist I mentioned (from what I gather from his articles) eliminates highly processed foods and most grains, GMO foods, table sugar, soft drinks, and foods tainted with pesticides. He has 2 nutritionists who work for him as well so I'm pretty sure his diet is balanced.  Not saying all other purists are balanced, but I think his diet is.   

Yes, it's certainly possible to do this! We've cut back or cut out a lot of these things from our diet, too, though keeping things balanced doesn't feel difficult to me because my mother's a dietitian so I've been hearing about balanced diets all my life. I'm no foodie zealot but part of my issue with ingredients like carrageenan -- beyond the suspicions that it can cause inflammation -- is that foods just don't need them in the first place. There are plenty of great ice creams and gelatos without carrageenan!

Getting back to cats, though, I cut carrageenan out of our cats' diet a year or so ago: like Columbine's cat, they have sensitive stomachs and there are plenty of canned foods and commercial raw foods that don't have carrageenan. I've also cut back on their gums and introduced homemade food made with the EZcomplete supplement. The cats' diet is probably more varied than it ever was in terms of various proteins and even our formerly hesitant cat is now a happy and very eager eater.