The Pottenger Cat Experiment

[62shelby]

Since I have been lurking on primal blogs, I have never seen mention of the Pottenger Cat Experiment.

http://www.ppnf.org/catalog/ppnf/PottengerResearch.htm

It was an experiment on four groups of cats, feeding group A a traditional diet of raw meat and raw milk (though not sure how the milk for cats is trad, as in the wild, how would they have access?), and down to group D, which was fed cooked meat and sweetened condensed milk. As you might have guessed, group A of course thrived, while each group down to D suffered varying levels of degeneration and ability to procreate. Pottenger found this reversable, but it took four generations to get the cats back to optimal health.

Ok, I know its cats, and not humans, but Pottenger found parallels between this experiment and what was happening to tribes that had abandoned their traditional diet. Btw, he was a peer and friend of Weston Price.

[pkafka]

Thanks Shelby for posting this... It is funny you bring this up, because, recently, I have been thinking a lot about how my dog lives... And have realized that animals (we are animals too!) live totally primal lifestyles.

My dog eats meat (only meat), and then lays around all day resting until she sees a squirrel. At that point she sprints as hard as she can to try and catch it. After a few all out attempts, she returns to resting, and just waits for her next purely primal meal.

I used to worry about her - I thought she was resting too much, but then I realized, this is how she would have been in nature - resting until she had to go out and sprint for her prey. Now, she and I essentially live by the same principles - rest, play, sprint, and eat meat!

Neither of us have ever felt better.

So to answer your question - I think the studies performed on cats are very pertinent.

Thanks.

-pk