My cat, real food and the abject stupidity of the human race

[GiaK]

A piece about our food supply and chemicals etc in our environment inspired by my cat...

 

My cat, real food and the abject stupidity of the human race

http://beyondmeds.com/2012/04/01/catfoodhumanrace/

 

So we may not really be stupid. We are in fact incredibly clever animals. What we are instead is afflicted with incredible amounts of hubris and denial of that which we find inconvenient. Together those two flaws seem to blind us to the obvious, making us appear pretty damn stupid pretty damn often. That longer description of our species didn’t fit so well into a catchy headline.

 

In any case what has that all got to do with my cat and real food?

 

My cat, Jezebel, has been ill for about 4 years. Seriously ill at times and dangerously underweight. Among other issues she supposedly had a thyroid problem. We spent a lot of money on vet visits, medications and high priced special diets. All for naught. She did not improve and was on a scary roller-coaster ride. Thyroid problems in cats seem to mimic something like what gets labeled “bipolar” in humans too! She oscillated between complete flat lethargy that included eyes that looked simply dead and manic meowing while prowling the house with a look of frantic despair in her eyes. She was clearly miserable much of the time. Our vet told us we would be managing her illness until she died.

 

Well. Recently, at the suggestion of a holistic vet we started her on a raw food diet. Yes, raw meat and liver with a bonemeal supplement that includes some vital nutrients. A diet much closer to that which nature intended. Cats eat ENTIRE small animals: bones, fur, and organs. So we’ve come closer to matching that for her.

 

Within days she started putting on weight. Her energy normalized. She became like a kitten again, playing and behaving in mischievous fashion. She no longer seems old, nor is she underweight any longer. Her thyroid has become normal. SHE IS NO LONGER SICK!! And no longer takes any medication.

 

She was very ill for over four years because cat food, like most human food is FILLED WITH CRAP! Even expensive special diets are most often filled with all sorts of stuff that cats most certainly did not evolve to eat. We tried so many different things but all of it was still from packages or cans or pharma.

 

Now when this became glaringly apparent, that I had been feeding a diet to my most beloved cat, that was toxic to her — that most veterinarians and pretty much everyone else also feed their own cats, I was only marginally surprised but horrified nonetheless. I have learned the same about human beings. We are doing the same to our children and ourselves — eating highly processed food that is filled with toxins and chemicals and all manner of food that has been altered from what our bodies evolved to eat. We humans, too, largely eat food that is making us sick. If not obviously sick right now, then years from now it’s highly likely we will be, so any illusion of “convenience” is only that: ILLUSION. Many people already live largely compromised lives and are very ill but don’t even consider life could be different. They take their maintenance meds daily while continuing to eat highly processed foods as well as genetically modified and conventionally grown foods and believe that for them that is what is healthy. That too is a sad tragedy. Many of us do not even know how to conceive of good health!

 

It’s odd, perhaps that I am again and again so blatantly confronted with this fact. My body is broken from toxins — from our food supply, from our environment and (mostly) from the neurotoxins called psychiatric medication I took for decades. So perhaps I’ve learned to look for it. We actually paid attention to the holistic vet and fed our cat real food so that we SAW her miraculous recovery. Most people would likely balk and not bother even trying the diet switch. Much like they do for themselves even as their health and that of their children is often plummeting. I must admit it had crossed my mind, years ago now, since I started understanding the importance of diet, that we do, indeed, feed our pets food filled with crap. I thought of it years ago, but did nothing because like most of us humans I couldn’t be bothered…most of us humans can’t be bothered to feed ourselves and our children real food so the step to doing it for our pets, well it’s a bigger one, isn’t it?

 

My pets will always get real food from now on as will any human that enters my house. I’m an Italian mother and I like feeding people and animals wholesome food! There is no turning back once you really know this stuff. It’s hard though, too, because others will never stop mocking you for the realization.

 

“It’s inconvenient” we all say when first confronted with the fact that sentient beings need to eat wholesome real food without added toxins and chemicals. But is it really? Is it really more inconvenient to cook your child’s breakfast with fresh, clean ingredients rather than pour it from a box? Really? I’d say the real inconvenience is the chronic illness, diabetes, mental illness, behavioral issues etc, etc, etc… that often results from NOT feeding your children and yourselves real food.

 

Another thing I was struck with recently as my cat became the picture of health on her real food diet: I realized that I fed my cat, and all my animals, food that could not possibly support them in an optimal way out of ignorance. A deep and dark ignorance that most of us are party to and that we learn from everyone around us from the day we are born. I fed beloved creatures that I was willing to spend large amounts of money on to keep alive food that countered that very impetus of love. Here is where we are blinded by our hubris and denial of things obvious. We are in this way pack animals. We pay attention to what we’ve been told even when it really makes no sense at all.

 

I realized that my feeding my cats toxic non-food was not all that different than my doctor feeding me neurotoxic “medicine.” He gave me, in his ignorant pack herd animal way, drugs that could not possibly heal me, nor support growth or wellbeing in any imaginable way. He gave me drugs that stole my life and crippled me all with the same good intention that I fed my cat fake phood. It’s tragic. It makes me want to scream. It makes me want to cry out loud.

 

What are we doing to ourselves? To ourselves, to our children, to our pets, to our entire planet? Really?!! We must wake up! We must because it will be too late if we do not.

In the end it’s about much more than yours and my individual wellbeing. It is instead about the health of the planet and therefore the health of every living creature on it.

I’ve collected some links so that you might learn more about the above. Some are links to articles or videos from the news recently and others are links to posts I’ve done on this blog. To truly understand the serious nature of this issue one must educate oneself. One must go out of their way to do this as there are far too many forces working to keep you ignorant. The change that is needed in our individual lives and then collectively end up being massive. We have to start now.

 

For collected links to additional info visit the original post (scroll to bottom of post): http://beyondmeds.com/2012/04/01/catfoodhumanrace/

[alexjuice]

Hey GiaK,

 

I've been reading your articles on your site. I am really impressed with the quality of your writing. While I know that you are still struggling to get to where you want to get to, you are doing great in print.

 

I try to write but it's a challenge. It takes many passes for anything over 100 words to resemble anything worthwhile. For my writing, that is.

 

Does each post require a lot of drafts and proofs before you post? Any tips on how I might be able to write more like I used to, making fewer mistakes and being economical?

 

Alex

[GiaK]

Hi Alex and thank you...

 

my ability to write has been a curse and a blessing both. It's got me through this nightmare trip and it's also led many people to greatly overestimate the level of my functioning. All in all I'm grateful to have felt productive during this time.

 

I can't tell you how I do it...it's all very "muse" based. A total mystery to me.

 

The reason I don't have comments and mostly hide online is because beyond the posts I really can't do much and hence my minimal participation here and elsewhere. Please forgive my frequent lack of response....I've come to have to do that now...(that goes out to everyone on the board!)

 

boundaries and keeping them have been very important in this phase of recovery.

 

And Alex, I suppose the only piece of advice I have is to write! and not care about perfection...my blog is RIDDLED with typos and grammatical errors...I simply had to stop caring about that if I wanted to produce.

 

now, I again put a bit more effort into editing but really not enough! had I cared about that early on however I wouldn't have gotten anywhere.

 

thanks again!

xo

[alexjuice]

Hi Alex and thank you...

 

my ability to write has been a curse and a blessing both. It's got me through this nightmare trip and it's also led many people to greatly overestimate the level of my functioning. All in all I'm grateful to have felt productive during this time.

 

I can't tell you how I do it...it's all very "muse" based. A total mystery to me.

 

The reason I don't have comments and mostly hide online is because beyond the posts I really can't do much and hence my minimal participation here and elsewhere. Please forgive my frequent lack of response....I've come to have to do that now...(that goes out to everyone on the board!)

 

boundaries and keeping them have been very important in this phase of recovery.

 

And Alex, I suppose the only piece of advice I have is to write! and not care about perfection...my blog is RIDDLED with typos and grammatical errors...I simply had to stop caring about that if I wanted to produce.

 

now, I again put a bit more effort into editing but really not enough! had I cared about that early on however I wouldn't have gotten anywhere.

 

thanks again!

xo

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

Ya know, I totally understand the blessing and the curse part. For me, I have my two out of state friends from school who telephone fairly often. They are among the only people I speak to regularly other than my family members.

 

When I feel badly, I miss these calls but otherwise they provide a great opportunity to get out of my head and try to feel normal. For the most part we talk about old times and their lives. I've only touched upon my health issues because...well I just had to stop talking about it or stop talking to them. They couldn't understand and a big part of the reason was "you sound fine on the phone."

 

It's one of my least favorite things about dealing with what I deal with, that people see me on a good day or talk to me 30 minutes twice a week and then cant understand why im not doing more with my life. I assume, since we never discuss this but through their innuendo, that they see me as just lazy or crazy or irresponsible. It's a terribly isolating feeling, to be totally misunderstood by my only remaining friends.

 

I live with my mother. She's the only person in my real life who understands how unwell I am. She has seen it everyday. Two years with some tough stretches. It's hard on mom, my sickness, because I started on Drugs as a teen and she wasn't very active in my life then.

 

I have noticed that you don't take comments on your blog. That's okay. There is so much each of us can do, and then it's counter productive. For me over exertion, second to over supplementation, has led to some of my worst setbacks. I know you don't need me to tell you this, but you're doing terrifically. And I've been around enough to know I'm not near alone in this opinion.

 

Keep up the good work... :-)

 

Alex

[Nikki]

Writing is sooo helpful, getting pen to paper is a life-saver for me. I enjoy your posts.

 

I cook for my dogs. Brown rice, ground turkey and chicken livers are their favorite. Historically, there never was Dog Food. It was scraps from people food.

 

My dogs like veggies too.....asparagus, broccoli, green beans.

 

They won't touch dog food. I did try the raw chicken with my Westie and she like it, but my Chihuahua is so old he can't chew, so I do the cooking for both.

 

Hugs

[Jemima]

Rant on, girl! ((((APPLAUSE))))!

 

I agree with you wholeheartedly about what we and our pets eat being of utmost importance. I have two retired friends who don't cook any more, preferring the "convenience" of microwave dinners and eating out (YECH) and I find there's just no talking to them about it. They sit around and watch a lot of TV as well, and to my way of thinking the combination of poor food and lack of exercise is a prescription for how to rot, get sick, and be miserable in your old age. One of these friends chronically complains about lack of money, yet she eats poorly and spends plenty on supplements, which makes no sense at all to me.

 

A few years ago I started feeding my cat Fromm Gold Holistic Adult Dry Cat Food, a natural food made by a family company in Mequon, WI (near Milwaukee), and the difference in her health is remarkable. She never was very sick like your kitty, but within three weeks her coat got thick and glossy to the point that the veterinarian was astonished and asked what I fed her. (You won't find this food on any of the big box pet food websites - Fromm distributes only to individual, privately owned stores. Anyone who's interested can mail order it here: http://www.petfooddirect.com/Product/7772/Fromm-Gold-Holistic-Adult-Dry-Cat-Food)

 

For myself, I go organic whenever possible, have an organic garden, and avoid GM foods like the plague they are. I'd rather spend more money now for both myself and Most Precious Kitty than pay it out to doctors and pharmacies later on!