Freshpet Select Cat Food-Is this ok for Diabetic Cat?

[Michele&Rusty]

This is the food that is in a refrigerator in the pet food aisle, they have it for dogs and cats. I have bought it before Rusty was diagnosed, and am wondering about it now, I have a bunch of coupons for it.
Here is the info for one of the flavors:
here is the link to it also- http://www.freshpetselect.com/products/ ... tefish.htm




Available in 5.5 oz (156 g)



Freshpet® Select Ocean Whitefish & Salmon Recipe in Sauce is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Cat Food Nutrient Profiles for Adult Maintenance.



Product Information:
Ingredients:
Fish Broth, Ocean Whitefish, Salmon, Chicken, Natural Flavors, Carrots, Guar Gum, Carrageenan.


Vitamins:
Beta Carotene, Choline Chloride, Niacin Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Manganous Oxide, Vitamin A Supplement, Riboflavin, Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid.


Minerals:
Calcium Carbonate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Taurine, Potassium Chloride, Iron Proteinate, Zinc Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Proteinate, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Proteinate, Calcium Iodate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex, Sodium Selenite.


Feeding Guidelines
Feed adult cats 1.5 container per day per 5lbs of body weight.






Guaranteed Analysis:

Crude Protein (min) 7.0%

Crude Fat (min) 2.0%

Crude Fiber (max) 1.0%

Moisture (max) 85.0%
Taurine (min) 0.03%

 

[Lisa dvm]

Diabetic or not...it is not a good idea to feed fish to cats other than as a treat every now and then.

Stick with poultry.

I am also trying to get people to stay away from carrageenan due to its inflammatory effects but....the problem is that ~90% of all commercial cat food contains it so that makes it a difficult task to keep out of a cat's diet.

 

[LynnLee + Mousie]

i get it from time to time for my kids and it doesn't effect Mousie's BG levels

 

[Michele&Rusty]

they also have a chicken and a beef flavor. I just happened to put the whitefish info on here. What is carrageenan? I will be looking out for it.

 

[Lisa dvm]

they also have a chicken and a beef flavor. I just happened to put the whitefish info on here. What is carrageenan? I will be looking out for it.

Here is one of my recent VIN posts to the Feline Medicine board. We see a lot of IBD (inflammatory bowel dz) in cats and we need to start looking for answers and carrageenan is a good place to start considering that we already KNOW that it causes inflammation. (Note that it is in a lot of foods for humans such as cottage cheese...etc...etc...etc.)

Start VIN post:

Being obsessed with cat food ingredients and what we bathe our cats' GI tracts in....I found the article linked below of interest.

Carrageenan is in the vast majority of canned cat foods on the market (including some of the Rx diets such as Royal Canin's Gastrointestinal diet) and I wonder what part it may play in our IBD patients. In doing a quick PubMed search I see the phrase "carrageenan-induced inflammation" used frequently with respect to synovitis, prostatitis, ulcerative colitis, and paw inflammation.

(Iodine content in cat food.....being all over the map....also concerns me as it pertains to hyperthyroidism but that is for another thread.)

http://ajpgi.physiology.org/content/292/3/G829.full

Carrageenan induces interleukin-8 production through distinct Bcl10 pathway in normal human colonic epithelial cells

Alip Borthakur,* Sumit Bhattacharyya,* Pradeep K. Dudeja,** and Joanne K. Tobacman**
Department of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago and Jesse Brown Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois

Submitted 15 August 2006 ; accepted in final form 2 November 2006


ABSTRACT
Carrageenan is a high molecular weight sulfated polygalactan used to improve the texture of commercial food products. Its use increased markedly during the last half century, although carrageenan is known to induce inflammation in rheumatological models and in intestinal models of colitis.

We performed studies to determine its direct effects on human intestinal cells, including normal human intestinal epithelial cells from colonic surgeries, the normal intestinal epithelial cell line NCM460, and normal rat ileal epithelial cells. Cells were treated with high molecular weight λ-carrageenan at a concentration of 1 µg/ml for 1–96 h. IL-8, IL-8 promoter activity, total and nuclear NF-κB, IκBα, phospho-IκBα, and Bcl10 were assessed by immunohistochemistry, Western blot, ELISA, and cDNA microarray.

Increased Bcl10, nuclear and cytoplasmic NF-κB, IL-8 promoter activation, and IL-8 secretion were detected following carrageenan exposure. Knockdown of Bcl10 by siRNA markedly reduced the increase in IL-8 that followed carrageenan exposure in the NCM460 cells.

These results show, for the first time, that exposure of human intestinal epithelial cells to carrageenan triggers a distinct inflammatory pathway via activation of Bcl10 with NF-κB activation and upregulation of IL-8 secretion.

Since Bcl10 contains a caspase-recruitment domain, similar to that found in NOD2/CARD15 and associated with genetic predisposition to Crohn's disease, the study findings may represent a link between genetic and environmental etiologies of inflammatory bowel disease. Because of the high use of carrageenan as a food additive in the diet, the findings may have clinical significance.

 

[squeem3]

they also have a chicken and a beef flavor. I just happened to put the whitefish info on here. What is carrageenan? I will be looking out for it.

Carrageenan is a high molecular weight sulfated polygalactan used to improve the texture of commercial food products. Its use increased markedly during the last half century, although carrageenan is known to induce inflammation in rheumatological models and in intestinal models of colitis.

Short answer for non-sciencepeople: Carrageenan is an extract made from seaweed. It is used as a thickener in pet foods.

 

[tessielou]

I have been reading about caraggeenan, too. In the new book, "What Your Cat Should Eat" by Dr. Jean Hofve, and in the http://www.PetsumerReport.com --a monthly subscription report on different cat foods, they give all cat foods containing it a "red flag." Still, like Dr. Lisa says, it is hard to find a cat food without it!

Also I read to watch for something called menadione, which is a synthetic form of Vitamin K that some pet food manfacturers use cause it's cheaper. It is also supposedly linked to cancer? Is this true, Dr. Lisa?