Cooked Vs. Raw Foods For Our Carnivore Pets
Posted by article by Dr. Jeannie Thomason on Jul 24, 2022
Proper, Species Appropriate Nutrition is the foundation and basis for health.
It is a foregone conclusion that dogs and cats are carnivores which means they should be eating a carnivore diet. While most processed pet foods usually have “meat” or “meat meal” as the basis of their product, it is meat that no longer has any nutritive value due to being processed in the first place. Processing involves heating and cooking and extruding at high temperatures.
Cooked Vs. Raw Foods For Our Dogs and Cats
Eighty million species of life on the earth, (about 700,000 of which are animals) thrive on raw food. In fact, humans are the only ones that apply heat to what they eat. Humans on average as a race, die at or below half their potential life span of chronic illness that is largely diet and lifestyle related. Our domesticated dogs and cats are most often fed cooked, processed, packaged food that likewise is denatured by heat. As a consequence, they suffer human-like chronic ailments including cancer, arthritis and other degenerative diseases.
The Effects of Heat
What if you were to burn your finger, what happens? The skin tissue dies. When you apply heat to food the nutrients are progressively killed/destroyed as the temperature rises. It should be well understood and recognized in scientific literature that heat breaks down vitamins, amino acids and produces undesirable cross-linkages in proteins, particularly in meat.
At only 110 degrees Fahrenheit (approximately 43 degrees Centigrade), two of the 8 essential amino acids, tryptophan and lysine, are destroyed.
When food is cooked above 117 degrees Fahrenheit for only three minutes the following deleterious changes begin and progressively cause increased nutritional damage as temperatures are increased or as they are applied over prolonged periods of time:
*proteins coagulate
*high temperatures denature protein molecular structure, leading to deficiency of some essential amino acids
*carbohydrates caramelize
*overly heated fats generate numerous carcinogens including acrolein, nitrosamines, hydrocarbons, and benzopyrene (one of the most potent cancer-causing agents known)
*natural fibers break down, cellulose is completely changed from its natural condition: it loses its ability to sweep the alimentary canal clean
*30% to 50% of vitamins and minerals are destroyed
*100% of enzymes are damaged, the body’s enzyme potential is depleted which drains energy needed to maintain and repair tissue and organ systems, thereby shortening the life span.
Cooked or Heat Processed Pet Food
In my opinion, it is no coincidence that since 1950, as processed food proliferated for both humans and pets, that cancer rates, irritable bowel disease, kidney and liver disease rates in the United States have steadily increased and are now at the highest point in history (for pets as well as humans). The effect from consuming overly cooked food equates to – no true or live nutrition. The body is forced to raid its dwindling supply of nutrient and enzyme reserves and as a result, remains hungry for quality nutrients after a typical meal. This leads to further hunger even though the stomach is full. The result can be malnutrition, chronic overeating and rampant obesity that is now seen in our dogs and cats as well as ourselves – world-wide.
You see, wellness and life its self is all about energy, vibrational frequencies of life. Every living thing on this planet is made up of energy and this especially includes live food.
This energy can be measured in megahertz (MHz) frequency ratings. This may sound a little funny, but it’s true. The core organs such as our lungs, heart, and brain, also emit an energy or electrical frequency rating that measures typically around 70 MHz. So, with that concept in mind, what does that make you think about the food choices you may have been making for your pets? Seems to me that it only make sense that you would want to be feeding foods that would speak to your pet’s body; foods that would”vibrate” the same or higher MHz frequency.
In 1992 Bruce Tainio, of Tainio Technology, an independent division of Eastern State University in Cheny, Washington, developed and built the world’s first frequency monitor, which measures frequencies in hertz, megahertz, and kilohertz. This frequency monitor was perfected until it proved 100% accurate.
Further, Tainio has discovered that when an individual’s frequency drops, the immune system becomes compromised, which can lead to serious health disorders.
Tainio found that when tested, canned and processed foods contained “0” frequencies, it was dead in other words!
Dogs, being carnivores, are not designed or equipped to eat cooked foods in the first place, let alone processed foods, grains and vegetables. Cooking destroys the nutrients and enzymes so by feeding kibble, canned or home cooked pet foods to our dogs they are not actually getting any true nutrition – there are no life giving ingredients usable.
By consuming foods devoid of vibrational frequency (i.e., processed and GM foods), we are indirectly polluting our dog’s body; we are filling them with substances that are not beneficial to health and well-being.
Pet food manufactures tell you that the food is complete and balanced nutrition for your pet and even lists the nutrients on the label. However, these nutrients listed are either what was available PRIOR the processing of the ingredients or it is a list of the synthetic vitamins and minerals that were sprayed onto the end product before sealing the bag or can. So, if there is any nutrition at all in the processed food, please know that it is not coming from the ingredients of meat, grains and vegetables they started out with since that has all been destroyed by the processing and cooking at the high temperatures used in the processing. This is the reason the majority of kibble and canned fed animals are pretty much starving for nutrition and always begging for more food. They become obese, not from over-feeding as much as from malnutrition.
Scientific Research shows what Denaturation/Cooking Does to Protein:
Cooking denatures protein. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, denaturation is a modification of the molecular structure of protein by heat or by an acid, an alkali, or ultraviolet radiation that destroys or diminishes its original properties and biological activity.
Denaturation alters protein and makes it unusable or less usable. According to Britannica, protein molecules are readily altered by heat: Unlike simple organic molecules, the physical and chemical properties of protein are markedly altered when the substance is just boiled in water. Further: All of the agents able to cause denaturat-ion are able to break the secondary bonds that hold the chains in place. Once these weak bonds are broken, the molecule falls into a disorganized tangle devoid of biological function.
Again, according to Britannica the most significant effect of protein denaturation is the loss of its biological function. For example, enzymes lose their catalytic powers and hemoglobin loses its capacity to carry oxygen. The changes that accompany denaturation have been shown to result from destruction of the specific pattern in which the amino acid chains are folded in the native protein. In Britannica is the acknowledgment that “cooking destroys protein to make it practically useless”
There are two ways to denature the proteins:
1. Chemically using digestive enzymes
2. Through the use of heat.
Via heat, the body does not have the recombinant ability to utilize damaged denatured protein components (amino acids) and rebuild them once again into viable protein molecules.
Some Physiologists claim that cooking and digestion are virtually the same: that cooking is a form of predigesting where heat is used to hydrolyze nutrients that would otherwise be hydrolyzed at body temperature through digestion. This due to the enormous heat exposure during cooking, that denatures the protein molecule past a point of being bioactive However, body heat is too low to effect the protein molecule so adversely.
When proteins are subjected to high heat during cooking, enzyme resistant linkages are formed between the amino acid chains. The body cannot separate these amino acids. What the body cannot use, it must eliminate. Cooked proteins become a source of toxicity: dead organic waste material acted upon and elaborated by bacterial flora. When wholesome protein foods are eaten raw, the body makes maximum use of all amino acids without the accompanying toxins of cooked food.
According to the textbook Nutritional Value of Food Processing, 3rd Edition, (by Karmas, Harris, published by Van Nostrand Reinhold) which is written for food chemists in the industrial processed food industry: changes that occur during processing either result in nutrient loss or destruction. Heat processing has a detrimental effect on nutrients since thermal degradation of nutrients can and does occur. Reduction in nutrient content depends on the severity of the thermal processing.
Protein molecules under ideal eating and digestive conditions are broken down into amino acids by gastric enzymes. Every protein molecule in the body is synthesized from these amino acids. Protein you consume IS NOT used as protein: it is first recycled or broken down into its constituent amino acids AND THEN used to build protein molecules the body needs.
There are 23 different amino acids; these link together in different combinations in extremely long chains to create protein molecules, like individual rail cars form a train. The amino group gives each amino acid its specific identifying characteristic that differentiates it from the others. Excessive heat sloughs off or decapitates the amino group. Without this amino group, the amino acid is rendered useless and is toxic.
Allergies From Cooked Meats?
First of, it needs to be understood that “allergies” are merely a symptom of a breakdown in the immune system as a result of years of improper feeding. Yes I said a symptom.
Have you read or been told (possibly by a veterinarian) that your dog has allergies to chicken or beef or some other animal protein? More than likely you have had an allergy test done on your dog and your veterinarian has shown you the results that just somehow don’t make logical sense, right? I mean, after all, how can a carnivore be allergic to meat of any kind?
You must first understand that the allergy testing works. The test measures the amount of immune globulin E (IgE) is produced when exposed to a foreign invader – introduced for testing purposes. The substances used in testing are all highly refined and processed down proteins extracted from both plant and animal sources. The tests do NOT use the raw substance your dog would naturally come into contact with.
For instance, just because your dog may produce IgE antibodies against a highly refined protein particle from a piece of chicken does NOT mean he is allergic to RAW chicken. The refining process totally alters the molecular structure which naturally would not be something recognized by the body.
There was a study done a few years ago with humans that speaks volumes to what is going on during allergy testing which tests for antibodies against REFINED and sometimes even synthetic compounds introduced to the animal’s blood sample. Here are the findings: “Compared to raw food antigens, IgE antibodies showed a 3 fold increase against processed food antigens in 31% of the patients. Similarly, IgG, IgA and IgM antibodies against modified food antigens overall were found at much higher levels than antibody reactions against raw food antigens…” – 2009 Vojdani; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. (bolding emphasis mine)
Cooked vs. Raw Food and Pottenger’s Cats
Dr. Francis M. Pottenger Jr. MD wrote about his experiments with 900 cats over a period of ten years. Pottenger fed raw meat to a portion of his test cats, and fed cooked meat to the other test cats. Pottenger wrote, Cooked meat fed cats were irritable. The females were dangerous to handle, occasionally biting the keeper.
Cooked meat and a pasteurized milk diet led to progressive degeneration of the animals. He compared healthy cats on raw foods with those on heated diets with mention of parallel findings among humans in Dr. Weston A. Price’s worldwide studies. Behavioral characteristics, arthritis, sterility, skeletal deformities and allergies are some of the problems that were associated with the consumption of all-cooked foods.
The cooked meat fed cats suffered with pneumonia, empyema, diarrhea, osteomyelitis, cardiac lesions, hyperopia and myopia (eye diseases), thyroid diseases, nephritis, orchitis, oophoritis (ovarian inflammation) and many other degenerative diseases. No cooked food is benign. Cooked foods act malignantly by exhausting energy, inhibiting healing, and decreasing alertness, efficiency and productivity. SEE ARTICLE ON POTTENGER HERE
Dr. Kouchakoff of Switzerland conducted over 300 detailed experiments, which pinpointed the pathogenic nature of cooked and processed foods. Food heated to temperatures of just 120 to 190 degrees F (a range usually relegated to warming rather than cooking which, nevertheless destroys all enzymes), causes leukocytosis in the body. Leukocytosis is a term applied to an abnormally high white corpuscle count.
These facts apply to all animals – birds (pet birds), horses, rabbits and our carnivorous companions – dogs and cats.
So, you decide – which do you believe is healthier for our pets – Kibble, pellets or fresh raw, whole, species specific foods?
Are you ready to be liberated by this information and be free from dependency upon the status quo? – the current pet food and veterinary industry paradigm? Are you ready to stop listening to the fear mongering and step out in faith and watch your dog’s (or cat or bird or horse) health improve by eating a raw species specific diet?
