Yeah, and I see no reason for my cats to eat “pretty much harmless” stuff, I want them to eat only healthy stuff
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Carrageenan/agar Agar
- Thread starter Rini
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I think I will pass on the carrageenan from what I've read. There are enough foods without it, and there's nothing currently in the rotation that has it. Why take the risk?
Avoiding gums entirely may lead to madness and or bankruptcy though.
Avoiding gums entirely may lead to madness and or bankruptcy though.
So is carrageenan a thickener or for flavor? I do not buy anything with that ingredient which does make food more expensive.
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It's a thickener. It's also used a lot in people food especially ice cream. I don't eat much ice cream but when I do, I go for this one gelato that doesn't include it.
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I would avoid carageenan at a minimum and agar agar out of caution. Not every cat is as sensitive as my Krista. Maybe xanthan gum doesn't soup every cat's poops.
Avoiding gums altogether isn't impossible. But it doesn't leave you many choices either. Rawz is a wonderful brand that my multiple-sensitivity IBD kitty, Krista, does well with. I would try First Mate/Kasik with her but they use chicken liver in their turkey food.
Chicken is one of her no-go's. Tiki Cat is a more affordable brand than Rawz that has a lot of gum-free options. Not all of their foods are gum-free but enough to build a decent rotation.
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They are the same. However Firstmates still have potatoes. That’s why I said Kasiks only uses pea as a thickener.
How do you know for sure than these gums are hurting your cats?
A lot of this fear mongering propaganda/marketing to get you to buy very expensive "natural" cat food. Marketing is HUGE in both human and pet food.
In high acid environments carrageenan gum can form 'polygeenan', which has been thought to cause cancer. It hasn't been scientifically proven though.
They use gelatin in cat food now? I did not know that.
BTW, gelatin is made from beef or pork. They pulverize and process the hoofs, bones, tendons, ligaments and connective tissues. That is why gelatin can never be made kosher.
Sound gross, but gelatin can be beneficial to senior cats with arthritis.
That is gross if it's in human food too
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The sad thing is we don’t need them in cat food. Looking at canned cat food outside the US without thickerens make me wish we had this option.
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Krista has IBD. I have had to pretty much ignore all those stupid expensive natural brands because there's a problem with almost all of them. Don't even get me started on marketing, especially the uselessness of "Limited Ingredient Diet" foods. Most of them are neither limited ingredient nor species-appropriate formulas. After I've short-listed all the foods that are either single protein or made up entirely of proteins I know Krista can eat, it's a very short list (maybe three or four cans in an entire Petco/PetSmart.) If there's any fruits, vegetables, grains, starches, non-animal ingredients besides the moisture and the supplements, then that can or pouch goes back on the shelf. If it's a Petsmart, I'm probably emptyhanded now. At least Petco carries Tiki Cat. What I'm left with is picking which gum Krista tolerates better than another. How do I know it's the gums? When a Tiki Cat formula that doesn't have xanthan gum agrees with her but a formula with xanthan gum soups her poops (mousse in, mousse out), it doesn't take a food scientist to deduce that xanthan gum is the problem. Same with agar agar. I can see it in her post-meal discomfort--the hunched, downward-looking, scrunched face--that that recipe isn't working for her. And the difference between that recipe and one that does? The agar agar.
I don't have many choices. In fact, it's pretty much one brand, Rawz, and three flavors currently. But as long as this agrees with her and as long as we have a gum free option, she's had enough intestinal discomfort and disruptions to last her 9 lives.
To me, that's the saddest part of this: cat foods don't need thickeners, be they gums, forms of seaweed, tapioca, potato starch, peas, chickpeas, or whatever else the pet food industry might come up with.
I pass on carrageenan -- for the cats and for us humans, too -- because there's research (in humans) that seems to indicate that it can have an inflammatory effect on the digestive system. It's avoidable, so like Rini, I figure why risk it. Like daftcat75, I buy gelato instead of Ben and Jerry's now. (Or Alden's ice cream sandwiches, they're a great treat.) Ice cream doesn't need carrageenan, and hummus and tortillas don't need gums!
Avoiding gums entirely can certainly be a road to madness and bankruptcy but, like She's a witch, they're part of what led me to change the cats' diet more toward raw and homemade. The one small can a day that the cats split usually has gum(s) but at least they're not getting gums, carrageenan, or other thickeners in all their meals.
To me the real proof that the gums and thickeners aren't necessary in cat food is that the cats' favorite meals are the two kinds of cooked food that I make for them with supplements and the commercial raw food that I buy for them.
LOL
Did you know in a jar of peanut butter, the FDA allows 136 insect fragments and four rodent hairs? You are what you eat!
Off the top of my head, here are the main gums used in foods today. They are used to viscosity, gel, suspend and texturize foods, candy and beverages.
CMC (carboxy methyl cellulose) is made from wood pulp.
Pectin is made mainly from citrus peels.
Gelatin is made from pork and beef collagen.
Locust Bean gum is made from carob seeds.
Carrageenan, Agar and Alginate are made from different species of seaweed.
Xanthan/gellan gum is made from the fermentation of specific bacteria(s).
With the exception of fresh produce, these gums are in 80% of prepared foods/beverages you buy at the supermarket.
Modified food starch is long chain carbohydrate thickener. It's originally derived/modified from regular corn starch and used in many food products since the 1960's.
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You should definitely avoid both of those. Authority and Simply Nourish are two pet smart brands that don't contain them.
Gummy bears are basically flavored gelatin. So gelatin is not only IN human food, it IS human food.
And there's Jello, too!
Luckily, I don't eat either of those but that is good to know because my nieces do!
With sugar, corn syrup, starch, color, acid, coconut oil, carnuba wax, beeswax coating. The oil and wax is used to polish them after the starch is blown off and make them shinny. My fav is Haribo Golden Bears, but some of them are a bit over-flavored. They do this intentionally so the flavor can last through the shelf life.
You can use this knowledge to impress friends and family!
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Life Savers sour gummies for us. I don't care what's in them. They are one of my last "food" vices. Just a few a day. I even cared less about what was in Godiva Belgium Chocolate ice cream. That stuff was awesome !!! My slightly elevated sugar thanks them for discontinuing it but my taste buds damn them to hell for it.
I like those too, but be careful though... those "sour" candies have LOTS of acid in/on them. That will literally melt the teeth right out of your mouth.
