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About Cat Food Ingredients?
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Cat Food Ingredients?
Ever wonder what this stuff is on the label of your cat or dog food?
Guar Gum
Wheat Gluten
Tricalcium Phosphate
Dicalcium Phosphate
Titanium Dioxide
Zinc Oxide
Sodium Selenite
Crude Protein & Protein Requirements
Here is a little information to help you make heads or tails out of a few items that may show up on your label.
Guar GumAlso called guaran, is a natural gum; an edible thickening agent extracted from the leguminous guar bean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba) shrub. It has very similar properties to locust bean gum, which is extracted from the seeds of the carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua). It is typically produced as a free flowing, pale off-white colored, coarse to fine ground powder. It is nearly odorless. The largest market for guar gum (EU food additive code E412) is in the food industry, where guar gum is used as a thickener and binder of free water in sauces, salad dressings, ice creams, instant noodles, pet foods, processed meats, bread improvers and beverages to name some.
Uses
Bakery - increases dough yield, gives greater resiliency, and improves texture and shelf life; in pastry fillings, it prevents "weeping" (syneresis) of the water in the filling, keeping the pastry crust crisp.
Dairy - thickens milk, yogurt, kefir, and liquid cheese products; helps maintain homogeneity and texture of ice creams and - functions as lubricant and binder.
Dressing and sauces - improves the stability and appearance of salad dressings, barbecue sauces, relishes, ketchups and others.
Misc. - Dry soups, sweet desserts, canned fish in sauce, frozen food items and animal feed.
Guar gum is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) with differing percentages set for its allowable concentration in various food applications.[15]
Nutritional and medicinal effects
Guar gum is a soluble fiber. Until 2006 the dietary fiber supplement Benefiber® consisted of 100% partially hydrolyzed guar gum. (Starting in 2006 Novartis changed Benefiber powder ingredients to consist of 100% wheat dextrin.)
Guar Gum is a water soluble bulk forming laxative, and as such, it is claimed to be effective in promoting regular bowel movements and relieve constipation and chronic related functional bowel ailments; such as diverticulosis, Crohn's disease, colitis and irritable bowel syndrome, among others. The increased mass in the intestines stimulates the movement of waste and toxins from the system, which is particularly helpful for good colon health, because it speeds the removal of waste and bacteria from the bowel and colon. In addition, because it is soluble, it is also able to absorb toxic substances (bacteria) that cause infective diarrhea.
Several studies have found significant decreases in human serum cholesterol levels following guar gum ingestion. These decreases are thought to be a function of its high soluble fiber content.
Guar gum is of interest with regards to both weight loss and diabetic diets. It is a thermogenic substance.[16] Moreover, its low digestability lends its use in recipes as a filler, which can help to provide satiety, or slow the digestion of a meal, thus lowering the glycemic index of that meal. In the late 1980s, guar gum was used and heavily promoted in several weight loss products. The USFDA eventually recalled these due to reports of esophageal blockage from insufficient fluid intake. For this reason, guar gum is no longer approved for use in over-the-counter weight loss aids in the United States. Moreover, a meta-analysis that combined the results of 11 randomized controlled trials found that guar gum supplements were not effective in reducing body weight.[17]
Wheat Gluten
Also called seitan (pronounced SAY-tahn), wheat meat, wheat-meat, wheatmeat, gluten meat, or simply gluten - is a foodstuff made from the gluten of wheat. It is made by washing dough made from wheat flour in water until the starch is rinsed away, leaving only the gluten, which can then be cooked and processed in various ways.
