What is the best cat food for optimal health?
What is the best cat food? This is a common question from people looking for solutions to poor health, wanting the best for a new addition to the family, or seeking health.
Food is the cornerstone of health. No one will do well on a species-inappropriate diet. This is a fact that is universal. Never change. it is eternal
That today is plagued by corporations convincing them of lies simply for profit will not undo this fact. You can believe them, but your health, or your cat’s, will prove otherwise.
Many people are convinced that their cat does well on dry or canned food. What they really mean is that your cat has not yet succumbed to a serious illness.
The reason for this is that everyone’s body will do everything in its power to stay healthy even when their diet is wrong or deficient in nutrients. This means that ill health takes time to appear. Chronic diseases are ‘worked out’ for a long time before they become apparent. And cats are very good at hiding their illnesses in the early stages.
They were all fine before their tumor showed up or their kidney failed or their liver failed or they had a stroke.
So what’s wrong with commercial cat food?
- Dry cat food is (obviously) low in water content. Too low for cats.
- Commercial cat food is too high in carbohydrates.
- Commercial cat food is not high enough in quality animal protein.
So let’s take a look at each of these aspects in turn.
1 Cat prey has all the liquid content a cat needs to stay healthy. This means cats don’t naturally drink much. Even cats that drink more on a dry food diet rarely drink enough, perhaps half of what they need. This means that they are much more susceptible to kidney and bladder problems. Since cats are more prone to kidney problems than any other, this alone shows you how unhealthy dry food is.
For indoor cats, you can use the litter box as a guide. A properly hydrated cat will urinate more than a dehydrated cat. They are cleaning your system regularly.
2 Cats are carnivores. true carnivores. They are neither omnivores nor herbivores. They have evolved to consume meat, not carbohydrates. They may consume small amounts of carbohydrates from the prey’s stomach. But this will constitute perhaps 1% of the diet. Not the 50 – 70% that is common with commercial cat food.
Cats cannot assimilate the large amounts of carbohydrates found in commercial cat food. Their systems have not evolved to do so. A high carbohydrate diet is one of the main causes of diabetes in cats.
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Considering that commercial cat food caused the illness, what is the probability that another similar diet will help them? The food will still be high in carbohydrates. It may still be dry. It is unlikely to contain any quality animal protein, as it all goes to the more lucrative human market.
3 The meat in commercial cat food is of poor quality (by-products such as hooves, intestines, heads or fat) or is out of natural balance. Muscle meat should represent a much higher proportion than organ meat, but since muscle meat commands a higher price on the human market, this does not happen.
Problems cats face when fed diets high in carbohydrates and low in animal protein (in terms of quality or balance) are problems in the kidney, intestine, liver and respiratory systems, as well as obesity, cancer, leukemia , etc.
So what is the best cat food for cats that are now suffering from chronic diseases? It is the same that will prevent such diseases. It’s where they evolved. Naturally healthy cats fed a species-specific diet are much more resistant to chronic disease than those fed commercial cat food. They can also regain good health, recover from serious chronic illness.
