Food charts - general comments

Hi all,

Thanks to everyone for your kind words on the Food Chart x2 posting!

Now for a general comment about any food chart...

Do not take them too literally!!

"5%" carbs is no different from "10%" carbs and I often see people getting way too fixated on the values. There is TREMENDOUS variability from batch-to-batch....so much that I almost stopped gathering data and contemplated going to just two sentences that state:

"Gravy foods are typically higher in carbs. If the food is free of grains, potatoes, peas, etc. (any starchy food) it is low in carbs."

Ok...so foods WITH those starchy ingredients, sure, we need to know the composition but please try not to get too fixated on the numbers. A batch really could be 5% one day and a 10% (or more) the next.

Don't drive yourself nuts. Very few things in life are consistent and etched in stone.

Different subject - regarding Wellness. A member wrote to me asking why the values on my chart are different from what they got from Wellness. My values are correct (thankfully). Note that they made a huge error in several of their Core products. I called them to inform them of the problem and they said "oops...you are right....wow....nobody has ever scrutinized this data to that level and picked up the error!"

Note that the DM that Wellness lists for carbs is far too high. The tip? Add up the moisture + protein + fat + fiber + ash. Subtract from 100. That is your carb value for either As Fed, or Dry Matter.

For instance, Indoor Core is listed at 26.92 DM carbs but it is actually 14.17. Several of the other Core data points are also wrong but my chart is correct.

Lisa dvm said:

"5%" carbs is no different from "10%" carbs

Click to expand...

There seems to be some confusion regarding the above statement. Of course, 10% is double 5% which is a significant difference but when I stated that there is "no difference" I meant with respect to the chart itself. ie....that "10%" could be 5% tomorrow...and vice versa. In other words, we really have no idea of the exact amount of carbs in any food on any given day.

Therefore, no matter how much we want it to be different.....scientific conclusions cannot be tightly drawn (ie "5% carbs is better for my cat than 8%) when the data is so erratic/inconsistent and **unknown** at any given time.

ECID....with C = "can"

Why am I beating this to death? Because I don't like to see people get so fixated on the carb numbers to the point where they drive themselves nuts.

Thank you Dr Lisa. We love you.
jeanne

Thank you Dr Lisa, wet noodle for self-flagellation has been put away. ;-)

Thank you, Dr. Lisa, for compiling this detailed data for us. I never knew that Evo 95% Chicken & Turkey was 2% in carbs. I always thought it was 0%. Regardless, Blackie is doing very well on it.