BLOOPERS: smosh.com Anthony and Ian fight to the death to prove which of their favorite foods is superior… again! Can celery stand up against pink-frosted sprinkled donut, or will it wilt under pressure? smosh.com http myspace.com
China’s economy is expanding at an astounding rate – but its waistlines are too. The food of the streets tells the story of a culture torn between tradition and modernity, the customs of an ancient past competing with the convenience age of the new. What will survive and what will be lost? In a China which has gone within two generations from mass starvation to mass obesity, what does the future hold?
From www.ImprovEverywhere.com, 16 agents create a spontaneous musical in a food court in a Los Angeles mall. Using wireless microphones and the mall’s PA system, both their voices and the music was amplified throughout the food court. All cameras were hidden behind two-way mirrors and other concealed structures. This is one ofover 70 different missions Improv Everywhere has executed over the past six years in New York City. Others include Frozen Grand Central, the Best Buy uniform prank, and …
“Why do some pet foods have puppy food (or kitten food) and others do not? Shouldn’t I give my new pup – puppy food?”
Before I answer that question – I need to share a little pet food history. Back in the early days of commercial pet food, veterinarians noticed that when puppies were fed the same commercial food that the adult dogs were eating – they did not grow and thrive the way they should. Back then, commercial dog foods and cat foods contained very little quality meat – the protein mostly came from grains the food contained. It was determined that puppies and kittens need a higher protein food in order to develop properly. This change was important, however the bad news is that the protein was not required to come from meat sources – the majority came from inferior grain sources. The new requirements just required a higher percentage of protein for a growth food – a puppy food or a kitten food – there were no specifications as to where the protein came from (still holds true today).
Today, AAFCO has set standards for puppy foods to be a minimum of 22% protein (adult dog food minimum 18% protein), standards for kitten food must be a minimum of 30% protein (adult cat food 26% minimal protein). Besides a few other very insignificant differences – the amount of protein is the only difference between an adult dog food or an adult cat food to a puppy food or kitten food.
So, to answer the question above – you can feed a puppy food or kitten food, but you don’t have to if you are feeding the right food! Remember, except for percentage of protein, there are no significant differences in an adult pet food to kitten or puppy food.
Many pet food lines have protein percentages above the minimal requirements for puppies and kittens. Some pet food formulators have determined in their research that 18% protein for adult dogs and 26% protein for adult cats is not optimal – so they formulate their foods with higher protein levels than the required minimal. In other words – many adult foods meet the same nutritional requirements for puppies and kittens even though they are not labeled specifically as puppy food or kitten food. As an example…ABC Chicken & Rice Puppy Food has a protein percentage of 23% and ABC Chicken Kitten Food has a protein percentage of 32% – but XYZ Chicken & Rice Dog food has a protein percentage of 25% and XYZ Chicken Cat Food as a protein percentage of 35%. Both ABC brands and XYZ brands meet the required protein levels for puppy or kitten foods as well as adult dog and adult cat food. So, a puppy owner or a kitten owner could feed their new baby the XYZ pet food – even though it is not labeled specifically for puppies or kittens.
Before I go any further – I have to mention a little about canned pet foods. ANY canned or pouched pet food (a moist pet food) contains at least 70% to 85% moisture. Protein percentages in canned pet foods vary from 7% to 11% – far below the minimal requirements necessary for adult dogs and cats as well as kittens and puppies. Pet owners do not want to feed solely a canned or pouched pet food to adult dogs and cats or puppies and kittens. They simply do not provide the necessary nutrition. If you want to feed a canned pet food, feed it WITH a quality dry food. Maybe soft for breakfast and kibble for dinner.
OK, back to puppy foods and kitten foods…a common question I hear on this subject is…’Is it ok for my adult dog (or cat) to be eating a food that has such a high protein percentage?’ Many pet owners – after hearing my explanation of puppy foods and kitten foods, are then concerned about feeding an adult dog or cat a pet food that has a higher percentage of protein. The best way I can ease those concerns is from sharing the words of many pet nutrition experts. As a dog or cat goes from being a puppy or kitten, to a young adult, to a mature adult, to a senior pet – their body continually produces new cells, new tissue, and new muscle – the entire process feeds off of protein. So the pet continues to need a quality protein source throughout its entire life. (There are exceptions for senior pets and pets with illnesses – this discussion is strictly for healthy animals – consult your veterinarian if you have any questions.) Science – not speculation – has determined that a higher protein level benefits young dogs and cats as well as adult pets. I have reviewed some dog and cat foods in Petsumer Report that have protein levels as high as 50%! I’m not so confident that 50% protein in a dog food or cat food is optimal for house pets (more for a working dog – example being a working cattle dog tending to a herd) – the point is that higher protein level pet foods are out there, and not all of them are labeled as puppy food or kitten food.
The thing that makes most pet owners choose a puppy food or kitten food is the marketing. Those television commercials that show adorable puppies and kittens stating this food ‘meets the unique needs’ or ‘specially formulated’ or ‘Extra Nutrition’ or ‘developed to meet the higher energy needs’ and so forth have lured pet owners into firm beliefs that their puppy or kitten has to have a puppy food or kitten food. The cute little faces along with the expertly researched tag lines – have helped to grow the puppy food and kitten food business into phenomenal numbers. Part of the marketing strategy is to get puppy owners hooked into a particular emotional commitment to the manufacturer through a puppy or kitten food. If you start off with ABC puppy food – the marketing goal is for you to stay loyal to that company later with ABC adult dog food. The pet food manufacturers have become SO successful at this marketing technique – several manufacturers that make a quality maintenance pet food (not a specific puppy food or kitten food) have been forced to package their food in a puppy or kitten format.
I am not saying that puppy foods and kitten foods are bad – it still boils down to ingredients in the pet food. What I am saying is that it is not a requirement to feed a puppy or kitten specifically a puppy food or a kitten food. As long as you provide them with a quality pet food that meets the protein percentage they need – you are fine.
Always, always, always – consult your veterinarian.
And one more quick bit of information – I wish I could tell you that when you find a good puppy food or kitten food, with quality human grade US ingredients, and added health bonuses such as chelated or proteinated minerals and probiotics – that you can stick with that same manufacturer for your adult pet food and treats…but that is not always the case. Actually it is more just the opposite. From reviewing many lines of pet food and pet treats from one manufacturer for Petsumer Report, I have found that many pet food manufacturers make some pet foods that have quality human grade ingredients and then their pet treats are close to junk food. While others might have one or two varieties of pet food that are good, and have several more varieties that I would never recommend a pet owner to feed. It’s just not that easy. You must look at the ingredients, ask the questions, and look at the Guaranteed Analysis and Best By Date on everything.
Wishing you and your pet the best.
Découvrez le premier single de Miss Platnum – Give me the food sur PTiTBloG.net !
www.thaifoodtonight.com for more free Thai cooking videos. Dim and Cathy show you how to prepare beef Panang a mouth watering Malaysian dish with Sliced beef in a creamy coconut and Panang curry sauce. Thai recipes, Thai ingredients, Thai cooking instructions included
Last year turned out to be the worst in history for pet food recalls. While there is no way to be 100% certain that a pet food is not tainted or will be recalled, there are some red flags to look for when selecting your dog’s or cat’s food. Avoiding these common pet food ingredients can greatly improve your odds in purchasing a healthy, safe pet food.
Judging the safety or the nutritional value of a pet food starts by ignoring the advertising, the price of the pet food, and ignoring the front of the bag. The real signs to the safety of a dog food or cat food lie on the back or side of the bag or can in the ‘Ingredient Listing’. Regardless of what marketing terms (‘choice’, ‘premium’, and so on) are on the front of the bag or can of pet food, a pet owner cannot determine the quality or how safe the food is unless they look at the ingredients. With dry foods there can be 90 different ingredients (or more), with canned foods there can be 50 or more different ingredients. But don’t panic…you don’t have to understand hundreds of different pet food ingredients! You just need to be aware of a few key ingredients…pet food ingredients that you do NOT want to see in a dog food or cat food (or treats).
‘Wheat Gluten’, ‘Corn Gluten’, or ‘Rice Gluten’. These three ingredients were the bad boy pet food ingredients of 2007. Tainted glutens were found to be the cause of thousands of dogs and cats becoming ill and dying. It is not that glutens themselves are toxic to pets – these ingredients have been used in pet foods for years. The problem was the source or manufacturer of the glutens – imported from countries with far less quality standards than in the US. (The majority of glutens used in the US pet foods are from imported sources.) These imported glutens contained added chemicals that caused crystals to form in the kidneys of dogs and cats.
Not only is it important to avoid dog foods and cat foods (and dog and cat treats) that contain glutens because of the possibility of dangerous added chemicals, it is important because they add no real quality nutrition to the food. Glutens are used as a thickener AND as a source of protein in pet food. Adult maintenance dog foods must provide a minimum of 18% protein, adult maintenance cat foods must provide a minimum of 26% protein. If the meat source of the pet food does not provide enough protein, glutens are often added to boost the protein level of the pet food. The best nutrition for your pet comes from a meat protein pet food not from a gluten protein. Avoid dog foods and cat foods (and treats) that contain ‘corn gluten’, ‘wheat gluten’, or ‘soy gluten’.
‘By Products’. By-products have never been the cause of a pet food recall, but they are definitely ingredients you want to avoid feeding your pet. To give you an understanding of by-products, I’d like to compare this pet food ingredient to pies – you know, the dessert! How many different types of pies you can think of? There are apple pies, cherry pies, chocolate pies, meringue pies, meat pies, mud pies, pie in math, cow pies (yuck!) – I think you get my point. Now imagine if you purchased yourself a prepared ravioli dinner at the grocery and you looked at the ingredients and you see ‘pie’ listed as the first ingredient in your dinner. Hmmm, pie in ravioli – what kind of pie? You wouldn’t know if it was apple pie or mud pie or even cow pie. All you would know is that your dinner contained ‘pie’. Considering ‘pie’ could be anything from apple pie to cow pie – my guess is that you wouldn’t be having ravioli for dinner. Same thing with by-products in pet food.
AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials – the organization responsible for all animal feed manufacturing rules and regulations) defines by-products as “meat by-products is the non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low temperature fatty tissue, and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth, and hoofs. It shall be suitable for use in animal food. If it bears name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond thereto.”
So, with respect to pet food – a by-product is a catch-all ingredient name. All left over meat materials from the human food industry are clumped into one ingredient name – by-product. There is NO certainty of what you are feeding – one batch of pet food might be more intestine by-products while the next batch of pet food might be more liver or bone by-products. There is NO way of knowing what is actually contained in the pet food ingredient by-product (the pet food manufacturers themselves couldn’t tell you exactly). Avoid dog foods and cat foods (and treats) that contain By-products of any kind…Chicken By-Products, Beef By-Products, Chicken By-Product Meal, Beef By-Product Meal, and so forth.
‘Meat Meal’, ‘Meat and Bone Meal’, or ‘Animal Digest’. These three ingredients are similar to by-products. AAFCO defines Meat and Bone Meal as “the rendered product from mammal tissues, including bone, exclusive of any added blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents, except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably to good processing practices.” Again, a catch all ingredient name for the left-over parts of animals used for human food. No consistency to what is contained in these ingredients (all three of these pet food ingredient definitions are similar) – no way of knowing what is actually in your pet’s food. Avoid dog foods, cat foods, and dog and cat treats that contain ‘meat meal’, ‘meat and bone meal’, or ‘animal digest’.
‘Animal Fat’. In 2002 the FDA tested many different brands of dog food (cat food was not tested) for the presence of the drug pentobarbital. Many brands of dog food tested positive to contain the drug. Pentobarbital is the drug used to euthanize dogs, cats, cattle, and horses.
How can the drug that is used to euthanize animals be found in pet food? The answer – euthanized animals are rendered (cooked) and the end ingredients are placed in pet food. It has long been rumored that euthanized dogs and cats (from animal shelters and veterinarian offices) is the major source of the pentobarbital in pet food. However no one has been able to prove or disprove this rumor to date. The FDA/CVM (Center for Veterinary Management) developed testing methods on two separate occasions to determine the species source of the drug. No results have ever been determined. The pet food manufacturers adamantly deny they use rendered dogs or cats – but NO clinical evidence has ever been released to confirm the pentobarbital is from euthanized cattle and horses in pet food as they claim.
However, the one thing the FDA/CVM has determined through their testing is the pet food ingredient ‘animal fat’ is the most common ingredient to contain pentobarbital. In other words, if you are feeding a dog food or cat food (or treats) with the ingredient ‘animal fat’ in the ingredient listing – you are (more than likely) feeding your pet euthanized animals. Not every batch of pet food tested that contained the ingredient ‘animal fat’ has proved to contain pentobarbital – but why would any pet owner want to take the chance? Avoid dog foods, cat foods, and dog and cat treats that contain the ingredient ‘animal fat’.
‘BHA’, ‘BHT’, ‘TBHQ’, and ‘Ethoxyquin’. These pet food ingredients are chemical preservatives and you might have to look through the entire ingredient list to find them. It is worth the look because there is plenty of clinical evidence to associate all four of these chemical preservatives with cancer and tumors (simply do a Google search on any one of these chemicals). All four of these chemical preservatives are rarely used to preserve human food and if so, are used in quantities far less than what is allowed in pet food. Avoid any dog food, cat food, or dog and cat treat that contains ‘BHA’, ‘BHT’, ‘TBHQ’, and ‘Ethoxyquin’ on the label.
‘Corn’, ‘Wheat’, ‘Soy’. While there is no scientific evidence that proves these ingredients are dangerous to pets – they are potentially dangerous ingredients associated with recalls in the past (1995, 1999, and 2005). These grains are highly prone to a deadly mold (aflatoxin). It is suggested (by AAFCO) that all pet food manufacturers test grains for the mold, but as recalls of the past have proven – that doesn’t always happen. I do not think these ingredients are as risky as others mentioned above, but they are ingredients I avoid for my own pets.
There is more to selecting a true healthy pet food for your dog or cat than avoiding the above mentioned ingredients. This is just a start – based on pet food history, AAFCO ingredient definitions, science and opinion of many pet food experts including myself. There are many quality pet foods available that do NOT use the above ingredients and that add health promoting ingredients to their foods and treats. Continue to learn as much as you can about what you are feeding your pet and ALWAYS read the labels!
www.thaifoodtonight.com for more Thai cooking video recipes. In this episode Dim and Cathy Geefay cook Thai basil chicken fried rice . Thai recipes, Thai ingredients, Thai cooking instructions included
Adam travels to the Big Easy where he dives into a classic New Orleans Dish – BBQ shrimp. New episodes of Man v. Food air Wednesday nights at 10PM, only on the Travel Channel. travelchannel.com
www.lemondemon.com I found a box of awesome toy plastic food items at Target for $2.50 and it was worth every penny Shot with help from Alora Lanzillotta and Dave Kitsberg.