We are often asked if there have been any studies done on animals regarding cooked vs. raw pet food diets. Here are a couple of very interesting ones. Dr. Francis M. Pottenger had some very revealing results on a study he did between the years 1932 and 1942. His study was done on seven generations of a colony of cats. He fed half of the animals an all raw pet food diet, and the other half the same foods except that they were cooked. After only three generations on the cooked caat food, those cats were no longer able to reproduce. Mouth and gum infections, arthritis, bladder problems, heart lesions, irritable bowel syndrome, and thyroid problems also became common in the cats on the cooked cat foods. And many of these health issues are common in todays pets.
On the contrary, the cats on the raw cat food remained completely healthy and needed no veterinary attention. Dr. Pottenger then switched the weakened colony of cats back to all raw cat foods and after four generations the cats had a complete recovery from the ill-effects of the cooked pet food. I had an issue as to whether or not to write about a different study because of the sensitive issue of killing laboratory animals. I decided to write about it because the information learned from it is significant to the nutrition debate. Please feel free to bypass this next paragraph if you like.
The study in question was done on more than 1000 rats over 27 months. Dr Robert McCarrison, while stationed in India, became interested in the diet habits of different regions of the earth. In particular he noted the health of the Hunza, Pathan and Sikh peoples. He wondered if comparable diets would produce the same effects for rats. He fed the rats a variety of fresh foods, including bean sprouts, fresh raw carrots, cabbage and raw whole milk. Once-a-week he also mixed in flat bread and meat with bones in them. He provided the rats with sunlight, good air and sanitary living conditions. At the close of the study when the rats were the equivalent of 55 human years in age, he sacrificed them and autopsied them. He was stunned to find no signs of disease. The only deaths that occurred were accidental and not due to degenerative diseases.
We realize the need for more studies to once-and-for-all prove the benefits of raw pet foods. The difficulty is that raw pet food companies such as ours are small, and don't have the financial resources to fund a long-term study. But recently we have been in contact with other small companies and are working on a way to pool our resources together to sponsor such a study. We will keep you posted.
According to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Women who eat their meat well-done had almost a five times greater risk of breast cancer than those who ate meats cooked rare or medium. Wei Zheng, M.D., Ph.D., professor of epidemiology at the University of South Carolina School of Public Health, who was co-author of the study states, " When meat is cooked at high temperatures it gives off substances called hetrocyclicamines, which have induced tumors in animal studies." Remember, you lose vitamins and enzymes at only 126 degrees, which is not much warmer than tap water. I find that with many people I talk to, convenience is the only deciding factor in choosing how to feed their pets -- regardless of the dog health problems that might occur. I have to stress that convenience has absolutely nothing to do with wellness.
What we feed ourselves and our animals should be based on what is best for the body and not what takes the least amount of effort. I feel that the trade off is way too big when we approach health and wellness in this fashion. Don't get me wrong, I really like the cash machine at the grocery store. I really like the after hours drop-off for the movies I rent. I like the convenience in those win-win situations. The trade-off is definitely worth it. My dad used to have to walk ten miles in the snow to return movies, and I don't want to do that. But when it comes to my wellness, or the wellness of my animals, convenience isn't even in the equation.
