Easily Calculate Carbs in Your Cat's Food

High Carb Diets Contribute To Diseases In Cats

Over the past two decades, diseases like obesity, diabetes, and cancer are on the rise in cats. When you look closely at the diet most cats are fed and see the amount of carbohydrates that are in dry cat food it makes sense. These dry food formulas are loaded with carbs which can lead to blood sugar fluctuations, insulin resistance, and other health problems in your cat.

Cats have a physiological decrease in the ability to utilize carbohydrates due to the lack of specific enzymatic pathways that are present in other mammals, and they lack a salivary enzyme called amylase.

It is as illogical to feed a carnivore a steady diet of meat-flavored cereals as it would be to feed meat to a vegetarian like a horse or a cow. So why are we continuing to feed our carnivores like herbivores? Why are we feeding such a species-inappropriate diet? Because grains, potatoes, and beans are cheap. Dry food is convenient. Affordability and convenience sells.

Cats have no dietary need for carbohydrates and, more worrisome is the fact that a diet that is high in carbohydrates can be detrimental to their health.

Carb intake above the daily needs of cats (no more than10 percent) triggers internal enzyme factors to store the excess as body fat. It has also helped create an epidemic of sugar-related health conditions in cats.

Simply feeding grain free kibble is not the solution, either, because the alternative ingredients used in place of grains nearly always include pea products (the leader by a large margin), followed by chickpeas, lentils, sweet potatoes and tapioca.

So why not feed your cat dry food with pea products, beans, sweet potatoes or tapioca?