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Old August 5th 03, 09:25 PM
Orchid
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On Tue, 05 Aug 2003 14:10:25 -0400, "E. R."
wrote:


Which makes you wonder if nicotine is intentionally placed in the foods that we
eat and this alone is leading to the problem of obesity. Who knows? It
wouldn't surprise me, either. Look at all of the boxed and processed foods for
sale in the supermarkets and how they compete for shelf space. Then there are
the junk food outlets like McDonald's, Burger King, etc.. Sometimes when eating
these foods or packaged, pre-made cookies, I can taste something strange and ash
like.


Ye gods. Any other conspiracy theories you'd like to espouse?
The Secret Service offing JFK? Aliens?
It has been very well-documented that we form our eating
habits before the age of two. It is, in essence, when we are taught
what is food and good and what isn't. Raise a kid on processed crap,
and they will crave processed crap. It's the whole idea of comfort
food.
As for the 'strange, ash-like' taste, processed crap is loaded
with preservatives, which can contribute to off flavours in the food
itself.
Finally, I'd want to see a lot more confirmation of the
supposed nicotine in cat food than simply the anecdotal evidence of a
pet shop employee. Had anyone bothered to get an ingredient list from
any of the accused companies? A guaranteed analysis? Anything?

Is "Ash" a typical ingredient in some cat foods, in fact, nicotine? Hill's
Science Diet dry food for kittens has 7% Ash. I checked some cans of Friskies
and no Ash was found in the listing of ingredients. Can somebody explain the
presence of Ash in one brand of cat food, but not in another?


Ash = minerals. The amount of 'ash' is determined by burning
a sample of the food and measuring the amount of noncombusted
material. Ash is neither good nor bad for cats. In the 80's it was
briefly thought that the amount of ash might have something to do with
UTIs or CRF, but that has been rather soundly disproven in the
scientific arena. Unfortunately, the consumer arena is nearly as
quick to catch up or nearly as educated, and so people get ideas into
their heads and refuse to let them go. This is why cat food labels
still include the essentially meaningless amount of 'ash'.
A better thing to look at and worry about is the calcium -
phosphorus ratio. It should be somwhere in the neighborhood of 1.5:1,
IIRC.



Orchid

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