Cats are love — I don’t know about you, but for me at least. And as an owner of a cat, I think I should know all feline things. Sometimes, I consider myself a cat too. A few days back, I was searching for my kitty's food on the net and started looking at its ingredients.
Ingredients
Chicken: Cat food contains chicken's flesh and skin which provide protein. Protein is necessary to build strong muscles.
Corn Gluten Meal: This is dried residue from corn after removing starch and germs which provides carbohydrates. It is easy to digest and provides energy quickly.
Beef: It is a source of fat in cat food basically added for flavor.
Fish Oils: They provide omega 3s, omega 6s, and vitamin A, which is important for healthy skin and a healthy immune system.
Dairy Products: They are necessary for healthy bones and teeth.
Taurine: It is an amino acid needed by cats in excessive quantity as they cannot produce it on their own. It prevents tooth decay, hair loss and blindness.
Ash: Cat food contains high mineral ash too.
Well, a question crossed my mind, “Can I eat my kitty’s food?” I know it’s an absurd one, but just in an emergency or if there is a scarcity of food. If you have seen cat food, it looks good. If you taste high quality canned cat food containing meat and sauce, it is actually delicious.
You might have had the urge to try it once, maybe the health factor stopped you. However, cat food is not that harmful for our bodies.
According to Dawn Jackson Blatner, a registered dietitian with the American Dietetic Association who talked to Popular Science, our body can handle cat food and our liver, kidney and skin will remove the foreign substances without any clue.
Cat food has meat by-products, chicken by-product meal, turkey by-product meal, ash, taurine etc. Ash has high mineral content, but our body will do the job of clearing it quickly. There’s no known fatal side effect of taurine for humans, but its excessive intake is still not commendable.
Can we now give kitty's food a try?
Yes, you can actually have a spoon full of it as it tastes good. If you are daring enough, you can eat it as a meal. But don’t make it a part of your regular diet. After all, it's made for cats and your cat definitely won’t like to share it with you daily.
Consuming it frequently will affect our body and you will start behaving as a cat. Just kidding. But eventually, it will fill your body with a large amount of taurine, ash and unnecessary vitamins. Cats have different digestive systems. But cat food can save you from food scarcity, but not for a long time. You will definitely miss your human food.