Image Source: Bogart Handsome Devil
In the 1940′s Dr. Francis Pottenger M.D. conducted research using extracts of adrenal cortices removed from donated laboratory cats, for use in the treatment of human patients suffering from allergies and exhaustion. Cats cannot live without their adrenal glands, so by determining how much extract was required to keep a cat alive, drug manufacturers could determine how to fine-tune the potency of their adrenal hormone products for human use.
Pottenger became concerned when most of his cats died either during the removal of their adrenal glands, or shortly thereafter. Up to this point, all cats were being fed a seemingly healthy diet of raw milk, cod liver oil and cooked meat scraps, which included liver, tripe, sweetbreads (pancreas and/or thymus), brains, heart and muscle.
Note: I assume the cats were given life sustaining dosages of adrenal extract and that the mortality rate was due to other factors.
Soon Dr. Pottenger had more donated cats than he could supply with cooked meat scraps, so he began ordering meat scraps and offal from a local meat packing plant which he fed raw to a separate group of cats. Within a few months the raw fed group was in much better health than the group eating the cooked meat, which led to the study of how the nutrients in food are destroyed by heat. The study spanned 10 years and involved 900 cats.
The Meat Study
One group of cats was fed a diet of two-thirds raw meat, one-third raw milk, and cod-liver oil while the second group was fed a diet of two-thirds cooked meat, one-third raw milk, and cod-liver oil.
The following two quotes by Dr. Pottenger explain the health consequences between the two diets.
The Good
“The cats receiving raw meat and raw milk reproduced in homogeneity from one generation to the next. Abortion was uncommon and the mother cats nursed their young in a normal manner. The cats had good resistance to vermin, infections, and parasites. They behaved in a predictable manner. Their organic development was complete and functioned normally.”
The Not So Good
“Cats receiving the cooked-meat scraps reproduced a heterogeneous strain of kittens, each kitten of the litter being different in skeletal pattern. Abortion in these cats was common, running about 25 per cent in the first generation to about 70 per cent in the second generation. Deliveries were in general difficult, many cats dying in labor. Mortality rates of the kittens were high, frequently due to the failure of the mother to lactate. The kittens were often too frail to nurse.”
It took four generations for the ancestors of the cats fed cooked meat and pasteurized milk to recover to perfect health. You can read the whole of Dr. Pottenger’s work in his book, Pottenger’s Cats- A Study in Nutrition.
The Importance of Taurine in Feline Health
“What vital elements were destroyed in the heat processing of the foods fed the cats? – Dr. Francis Pottenger
At the time Dr. Pottenger conducted his study, the amino acid taurine had been discovered, but had not yet been identified as “essential” for cats. Taurine is considered essential for cats and they must derive it from their diet because they cannot synthesize it.
In 2010 it is common knowledge that cooking destroys many important nutrients in food that are required for good health. It is also well known that the amino acid taurine (essential for cats) is one of those nutrients destroyed during food processing (cooking). Taurine is required for digestion, cardiac function, immune health, and eye functions. A deficiency in taurine can lead to a number of health problems in cats, including blindness, tooth decay and hair loss.
Hey, I Thought This Was a Dog Blog?
Go easy on me, cats and dog blogs can get along!
Cooking Kills
As I mentioned in the last paragraph, and as you probably already knew, cooking destroys many healthful nutrients found in raw foods. Whether you feed dry kibble, canned or home cooked food, it’s all cooked, reducing the potency of many of the nutrients, or completely destroying them altogether. Many of the nutrients that have been damaged by cooking are required by our pets (as well as us) to be healthy.
Cooking Destroys Vitamins
In order for vegetables to be digestible for dogs, they must be minced, juiced or cooked. Vitamin C is a very dainty compound. It oxidizes quickly when exposed to air or light, and cooking destroys about 75% of the vitamin C in food.
A number of the B vitamins are also destroyed by cooking including pantothenic acid (B5), folic acid and vitamin B12.
Enzymes are lost when food is heated above 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius)
Why does that matter?
Well, enzymes in raw food are responsible for at least two things;
- Aiding in the digestion of the foods they are found in.
- Helping to slow the aging process.
Cooked foods/kibble (with the exception of vegetables) are more difficult for our dogs to digest than raw foods. This means that the dog’s pancreas has to work double time to produce more digestive enzymes to break down the food. A life time of being forced to eat cooked foods can lead to pancreatitis and diabetes.
Sure, the pet food manufacturers throw in a few vitamins and minerals to make up for nutrients lost during processing, but these inclusions are almost always synthetic and not as well tolerated as natural source vitamins, minerals and amino acids.
Then there’s the guy in a white coat armed with the latest “scientific” research, doing his level best to try and duplicate the genius of Mother Nature, with the hopes adding “optimal” levels of these micro-nutrients back into the product.
Of course there are other potential drawbacks to cooking a dogs food such as;
- softer food = no teeth cleaning benefits which can lead to periodontal disease and even more health problems
- denatured protein
- cooking certain meats may increase the risk of cancer
The bottom line is – just as we know that for ourselves, fresh raw food is a more nutritious and healthy (in most cases), so is it too for our little carnivores.
I'm a dog guardian to Sweety, my 15 year old Border Collie & Zeus a stray American Pit Bull Terrier that I rescued in October of 2009. I write about canine health and nutrition focusing mainly on topics relating to feeding a raw meaty bones diet.
