"Let food be thy medicine ... and medicine be thy food"
- Hippocrates, 460–377 BC,1
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Pet Food Recalls:
When things go really wrong and serious problems are discovered in pet food, the company
usually works with the FDA to coordinate a recall of the affected products. While many
recalls have been widely publicized, quite a few have not.
• In 1995, Nature’s Recipe recalled almost a million pounds of dry dog and cat food after
consumers complained that their pets were vomiting and losing their appetite. The problem
was a fungus that produced vomitoxin contaminating the wheat.
• In 1999, Doane Pet Care recalled more than a million bags of corn-based dry dog food
contaminated with aflatoxin. Products included Ol’ Roy (Wal-Mart’s brand) and 53 other
brands. This time, the toxin killed 25 dogs.
• In 2000, Iams recalled 248,000 pounds of dry dog food distributed in 7 states due to excess
DL-Methionine Amino Acid, a urinary acidifier.
• In 2003, a recall was made by Petcurean “Go! Natural” pet food due to circumstantial
association with some dogs suffering from liver disease; no cause was ever found.
• In late 2005, a similar recall by Diamond Foods was announced; this time the moldy corn
contained a particularly nasty fungal product called aflatoxin; 100 dogs died.
• Also in 2005, 123,000 pounds of cat and dog treats were recalled due to Salmonella
contamination.
• In 2006, more than 5 million cans of Ol’ Roy, American Fare, and other dog foods distributed
in the southeast were recalled by the manufacturer, Simmons Pet Food, because the cans’
enamel lining was flaking off into the food.
• Also in 2006, Merrick Pet Care recalled almost 200,000 cans of “Wingalings” dog food when
metal tags were found in some samples.
• In the most deadly recall of 2006, 4 prescription canned dog and cat foods were recalled by
Royal Canin (owned by Mars). The culprit was a serious overdose of Vitamin D that caused
calcium deficiency and kidney disease.
• In February 2007, the FDA issued a warning to consumers not to buy “Wild Kitty,” a frozen
food containing raw meat. Routine testing by FDA had revealed Salmonella in the food. FDA
specifically warned about the potential for illness in humans, not pets. There were no reports
of illness or death of any pets, and the food was not recalled.
• In March 2007, the most lethal pet food in history was the subject of the largest recall ever.
Menu Foods recalled more than 100 brands including Iams, Eukanuba, Hill’s Science Diet, Purina Mighty Dog, and many store brands including Wal-Mart’s. Thousands of pets were sickened.
The FDA received more than 17,000 reports and an estimated 20% died from acute renal failure caused by the food. Cats were more frequently and more severely affected than dogs.
The toxin was initially believed to be a pesticide, the rat poison “aminopterin” in one of the ingredients. In April, scientists discovered high levels of melamine, a chemical used in plastics and fertilizers, in wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate imported from China.
The melamine had been purposefully added to the ingredients to falsely boost their protein content. Subsequent tests revealed that the melamine-tainted ingredients had also been used in feed for cows, pigs, and chickens and thousands of animals were quarantined and destroyed.
In early May 2007, scientists identified the cause of the rapid onset kidney disease that had appeared in dogs and cats as a reaction caused by the combination of melamine and cyanuric acid, both unauthorized chemicals.
The fallout from this recall is ongoing as of May 2007 so please be sure to check the FDA web site for the most recent updates (www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.html).
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Nutrition-Related Diseases:
The idea that one pet food provides all the nutrition a companion animal will ever need for its
entire life is a dangerous myth. Today, the diets of cats and dogs are a far cry from the variable meat-based diets that their ancestors ate. The unpleasant results of grain-based, processed, year-in and year-out diets are common. Health problems associated with diet include:
• Urinary Tract Disease:
Plugs, crystals, and stones are more common in cats eating dry diets, due to the chronic dehydration and highly concentrated urine they cause. “Struvite” stones used to be the most common type in cats, but another more dangerous type, calcium oxalate, has increased and is now tied with struvite.
Manipulation of manufactured cat food formulas to increase the acidity of urine has caused the switch. Dogs can also form stones as a result of their diet.
• Kidney Disease:
Chronic dehydration associated with dry diets may also be a contributing factor in the development of kidney disease and chronic renal failure in older cats. Cats have a low thirst drive; in the wild they would get most of their water from their prey. Cats eating dry food do not drink enough water to make up for the lack of moisture in the food. Cats on dry food diets drink more water, but the total water intake of a cat eating canned food is twice as great.
• Dental Disease:
Contrary to the myth propagated by pet food companies, dry food is not good for teeth. Given that the vast majority of pets eat dry food, yet the most common health problem in pets is dental disease, this should be obvious. Humans do not floss with crackers, and dry food does not clean the teeth.
• Obesity:
Feeding recommendations or instructions on the packaging are sometimes inflated so that the consumer will end up feeding — and purchasing — more food.
One of the most common health problems in pets, obesity, may also be related to high-carb, high-calorie dry foods. Both dogs and cats respond to low-carb wet food diets. Overweight pets are more prone to arthritis, heart disease, and diabetes.
• Diabetes:
Dry cat food is now considered the cause of feline diabetes; prevention and treatment include switching to a high protein, high moisture, low-carb diet.
• Chronic Digestive
Problems:
Chronic vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, and inflammatory bowel disease are among the most frequent illnesses treated. These are often the result of an allergy or intolerance to pet food ingredients.
The market for “limited antigen” or “novel protein” diets is now a multi-million dollar business.
These diets were formulated to address the increasing intolerance to commercial foods that pets have developed. Even so, an animal that tends to develop allergies can develop allergies to the new ingredients, too.
One twist is the truly “hypoallergenic” food that has had all its proteins artificially chopped into pieces smaller than can be recognized and reacted to by the immune system. Yet there are documented cases of animals becoming allergic to this food, too. It is important to change brands, flavors, and protein sources every few months to prevent problems
(N.B. Although it may not be practical ... it is important to avoid / reduce these typesof foods in your pet's diet as much as possible. Try to include alkaline mineralized water, herbs and nutritional supplements to counter the increasing detrimental health effects of nutrient deficient, genetically modified and chemically laded, modern man-made processed pet foods).
• Bloat:
Feeding only one meal per day can cause the irritation of the esophagus by stomach acid, and appears to be associated with gastric dilitation and volvulus (canine bloat). Feeding two or more smaller meals is better.
• Heart Disease:
An often-fatal heart disease in cats and some dogs is now known to be caused by a deficiency of the amino acid taurine.
This deficiency was due to inadequate amounts of taurine in cat food formulas, which in turn had occurred due to decreased amounts of animal proteins and increased reliance on carbohydrates.
Cat foods are now supplemented with taurine. New research suggests that some dog breeds are susceptible to the same condition. Supplementing taurine may also be helpful for dogs, but as yet few manufacturers are adding extra taurine to dog food.
• Heart Disease:
Blindness in pets is another symptom of taurine deficiency.
• Hyperthyroidism:
There is also evidence that hyperthyroidism in cats may be related to diet. This is a relatively new disease that first surfaced in the 1970s. Some experts theorize that excess iodine in commercial cat food is a factor. New research also points to a link between the disease and pop-top cans, and flavors including fish or “giblets.” This is a serious disease, and treatment is expensive.
Many nutritional problems appeared with the popularity of cereal-based commercial pet foods.
Some have occurred because the diet was incomplete. Although several ingredients are now
supplemented, we do not know what ingredients future researchers may discover that should
have been supplemented in pet foods all along.
- Other problems may occur from reactions to additives.
- Others are a result of contamination with bacteria, mold, drugs, or other toxins.
- In some diseases the role of commercial pet food is understood; in others, it is not.
- The bottom line is that diets composed primarily of low quality cereals and rendered meals are not as nutritious or safe as you should expect for your cat or dog.
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Pet Food Toxins - Sodium Pentobarbital (Euthanasia Drug):
Euthanized cats and dogs often end up in rendering vats along with other questionable material to make meat meal, and meat and bone meal. This can be problematic because sodium pentobarbital can withstand the heat from rendering.
For years, some veterinarians and animal advocates have known about the potential danger of sodium pentobarbital residue in commercial pet food, yet the danger has not been alleviated.
... in short, that means the poisons designed to kill pets are the same ones being fed to them.
www.naturalnews.com
Pet Food Toxins - Subclinical Malnutrition:
In Healing Pets with Nature's Miracle Cures, Henry Pasternak writes, "Remember, pet foods are primarily processed, grain-based diets. These foods are 'fortified' with synthetic B vitamins, which can cause a subclinical B vitamin deficiency."
Martin mentions in Food Pets Die For that one bag of dog food was overloaded with so much zinc that she had to take her dog to the vet because he became ill. She took the bag of food to an independent lab to verify that the zinc content of the food was 20 times the recommended daily allowance for dogs.
www.naturalnews.com
Drinking Water Toxins - Harmful Flouride:
"Fluoride causes more human cancer, and causes it faster, than any other chemical."
- Dean Burk, Chief Chemist Emeritus, U.S. National Cancer Institute
"The U.S. Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and the American Dental Association (ADA) now also advise to avoid using Fluoride"
Drinking Water Toxins - Harmful Chlorine:
"Cancer risk among people drinking chlorinated water is as much as 93% higher than among those whose water does not contain chlorine." - U.S. Council Of Environmental Quality
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Drinking Water - Harmful Demineralisation:
At one of the working meetings for preparation of guidelines for drinking water quality, the World Health Organization (WHO) considered the issue of the desired or optimum mineral composition of desalinated drinking water by focusing on the possible adverse health effects of removing some substances that are naturally present in drinking water (WHO 1979).
In the late 1970’s, the WHO also commissioned a study to provide background information for issuing guidelines for desalinated water. That study was conducted by a team of researchers of the A.N. Sysin Institute of General and Public Hygiene and USSR Academy of Medical Sciences under the direction of Professor Sidorenko and Dr. Rakhmanin.
The final report, published as an internal working document (WHO 1980), concluded that “not only does completely demineralised water (distillate) have unsatisfactory organoleptic properities, but
it also has a definite adverse influence on the animal and human organism.”
The possible health consequences of low mineral content water consumption are discussed in the following categories:
• Direct effects on the intestinal mucous membrane, metabolism and mineral homeostasis or other body functions.
• Practically zero calcium and magnesium intake.
• Low intake of other essential elements and microelements.
• Loss of calcium, magnesium and other essential elements in prepared food.
• Possible increased dietary intake of toxic metals leached from water pipe.
• Possible bacterial re-growth.
- World Health Organisation (WHO)
http://nutrionomics.com/Article%20-%20WHO/WHO_water_medicine.pdf
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Chemical Toxicity ... Cancer and Disease
In a study led by Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, in collaboration with the Environmental Working Group and Commonwealth, researchers at two major laboratories found an average of 91 industrial compounds, pollutants, and other chemicals in the blood and urine of nine volunteers, with a total of 167 chemicals, pollutants, and pesticides found in the group.
Like most of us, none of the nine volunteers work with chemicals on the job, do not live near an industrial facility, and all lead healthy lives. Yet, the subjects contained an average of 91 compounds – most of which did not exist 75 years ago. Scientists refer to this contamination as a person’s body burden. Of the 167 chemicals found:
- 76 cause cancer in humans or animals,
- 94 are toxic to the brain and nervous system
- 79 cause birth defects or abnormal development.
The dangers of exposure to these chemicals in combination has never been studied. Study results appear in a recently-published edition of the journal Public Health Reports (Thornton, et al. 2002) – the first publicly available, comprehensive look at the chemical burden we carry in our bodies.
http://www.ewg.org/sites/bodyburden1/es.php
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TABLE 1: The chemicals we found are linked to serious health problems:
Health Effect
or
Body System Affected |
Number of chemicals found in 9 people tested that are linked to the listed health impact |
Average number found in 9 people |
Total found in all 9 people |
Range
(lowest and highest number found in
all 9 people) |
Birth Defects / Developmental Delays |
55 |
79 [3] |
37 to 68 |
Brain / Nervous System |
62 |
94 [8] |
46 to 73 |
Breathing / Lungs / Respiratory |
55 |
82 [10] |
38 to 67 |
Cancer [1] |
53 |
76 [2] |
36 to 65 |
Cardiovascular System or Blood |
55 |
82 [13] |
37 to 68 |
Hearing |
34 |
50 [14] |
16 to 47 |
Hormone System |
58 |
86 [5] |
40 to 71 |
Immune System |
53 |
77 [15] |
35 to 65 |
Kidney |
54 |
80 [7] |
37 to 67 |
Liver |
42 |
69 [12] |
26 to 54 |
Reproductive System |
55 |
77 [9] |
37 to 68 |
Reproductive System - Female |
42 |
61 [17] |
24 to 56 |
Reproductive System - Male |
47 |
70 [16] |
28 to 60 |
Skin |
56 |
84 [11] |
37 to 70 |
Stomach or Intestines |
59 |
84 [6] |
41 to 72 |
Vision |
5 |
11 [4] |
4 to 7 |
* Some chemicals are associated with multiple health impacts, and appear in multiple categories in this table.
Source: Environmental Working Group compilation | References: Health Effects
http://www.ewg.org/sites/bodyburden1/es.php
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Chemical Toxicity ... Mother to Baby Umbilicords
In September 2005, Greenpeace International with the World Wildlife Fund published a document entitled “Present for Life: Hazardous Chemicals in Umbilical Cord Blood.”
The research was a real eye-opener as it showed convincingly that newborns tested positive for hundreds of different toxins. Specifically, the blood tests showed that these newborns had an average of 287 toxins in their bodies:
... 180 of these are known carcinogens [cancer causing substances]. All these had been passed on from the mother to the baby.
In particular Phthalates, one of them most omnipresent groups of chemicals and mainly used in PVC were found in most of the tested babies. This particular group of toxins can be particularly damaging to the male reproductive tract, and are toxic to reproduction.
Do you want to protect yourself? HMD does not only eliminate heavy metals, initial trials have shown that it also chelates [binds & eliminates] Phthalates and other chemicals.
http://www.detoxmetals.com/pages/Are-you-toxic?.html
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