Taurine Related IssuesOne of the concerns of cooked food is the lack of Taurine. A scientist called Dr. Francis Pottenger carried out an experiment where one set of cats was fed raw meat and milk, and one batch fed cooked food. He noted that the batch that was fed cooked food, were weaker, produced weak kittens while the batch fed raw food, was stronger and produced good offspring. This was attributed to the nutrient Taurine, which is known to promote health and well being in the heart, eyes and kidney. Taurine was only discovered during the last 20 years or so.For this reason, Dr. Henry Pasternak always recommends raw foods. He feels that, we as humans do not know all the undiscovered nutrients in raw food, not to mention all the valuable enzymes. I have often wonder how much Taurine do cats need and how much is lost by just undercooking the meat? Dr. Pitcairn did some studies in Taurine and outlined this in his book Natural Healing for Cats and Dogs. The standard Taurine used in cat food is 60 - 80 mg of Taurine. per day's serving Raw chicken and beef based diets contain 30 - 50 mg of Taurine per day's serving. Cooked meat contains 12 - 35mg. However upon investigating further, he learnt that the daily Taurine content of the wild feline diet is only 25- 50 mg and that amount has found to be enough in most studies. Robert Backus DVM, PHD of the Dept. of BioSciences of the University of California agreed with Dr. Hassan PHD microbiology (North California)in that taurine can be heated in hydrochloric acid up to 110 o C (262 oF) for 24 hours without substantial destruction. This was what author, Ann Martin (Protect Your Pet) found out when she sent her questions out to these biologists. So based on this, I don't feel so concerned that my cat is not getting her taurine due to her food being cooked. However it can be very well possible that cooked meat lacks many enzymes and nutrients that are present in raw fresh meat. I honestly wish more studies were done with regard to cooked vs raw food in feeding our animal friends. Include tuna, mackerel, clams and heart in the diet. All are naturally high in taurine. |
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