THE BEST PET FOOD PREVENTS MELAMINE DISASTERS

In 2007, thousands of pets were poisoned by melamine, an adulterant added to proteins in China that were in turn used in commercial pet foods. The toxin, an industrial chemical used in plastics and fertilizers, has since been found in human foods as well.

There is much that can be learned from the widely publicized melamine poisoning of American pets. But the takeaway is not what the media and public assumed. The problem was not an evil country, China, nor was it sloppy manufacturing or inadequate testing of American pet foods.

Let's take a fresh look at the disaster and toxicity in general.

This is what we know:

• There are tens of thousands of man-made and natural toxins in our environment.
• It would be impossible for any food manufacturer to test for them all.
• Unscrupulous people will always be with us - such as those in China who added the chemical to create falsely high protein readings in the ingredients they were selling. (When % protein is measured, what is really measured is nitrogen. Since melamine is high in nitrogen the % protein was boosted, and % protein is what drives price.)

We simply have to deal with these facts. They will not go away. Yes we can try to sort out toxins, prosecute bad people, and fill government with more regulators who may or may not be competent. But the danger does not go away.

Here's the most important fact that has been totally missed. If pets had not been eating one food meal after meal, if pet food labels did not claim "100% completeness," if companies were not preoccupied with % protein, if regulators, manufacturers, veterinarians, nutritionists, and the rest of the pet industry were not on the "complete and balanced" bandwagon, this disaster would have been greatly reduced.

Pets were poisoned because of the dose of melamine they were consuming. Melamine is so ubiquitous, that it, like pesticides and herbicides, is consumed by pets and people every day. The dose makes the poison. Only by eating the toxin at every meal were pets affected. If people had been achieving the best pet food by rotating the diet, adding fresh foods, and intelligently supplementing, these pets would have been able to overcome the occasional melamine-tainted meal.

So the solution is not war with China, suing pet food manufacturers who fell victim to the fraud, or making sure every molecule in pet foods is safe. The solution is to achieve the best pet food by feeding as nature intended and not believe any nonsense about complete and balanced foods.

(As a side note. I was contacted by people in the media for an interview when this disaster occurred. When I told them what I am telling you here, they totally ignored it. That just did not compute, was too rational, or was not sensational enough. They just wanted to hear about how evil the pet food manufacturers and China were.)

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Thought for the day: Belief and faith are evil sorts of things nourished by suppressing doubt and avoiding investigation.

Phrase for the day: 'nutrient densit' - the measurement of the amount of a nutrient per fixed portion of food. Health is achieved by consuming highly nutrient dense foods. Unfortunately, modern processed foods consist of food fractions such as sugars and starches which are high in calories and low in other nutrients. We get too much of too little. The result, over time, is obesity and the host of other degenerative diseases.