Fort Knox: The Most Secure Vault in the World

I wouldn't know about Fort Knox if I hadn't been staying up late at night watching History Channel. Well, I'm not really a big fan of History as a subject in school, but I just love learning about anything at all just for general knowledge. As a teacher, a vast fund of general knowledge could come in handy. It has proven so in many occasions for me.

What is Fort Knox?
Fort Know is the name commonly used to refer to the US Bullion Depository located south of Loiusville, Kentucky, next to a 109,000 acre US army base. The vault is said to hold 147.3 million ounces of gold. Based on a price of $1833 per ounce, the approximate value of those gold bars is $270 billion.

Internal Defenses

First of all, the walls of the depository  are 4-foot-thick granite, which many believe is lined with cement, steel and fire-proof material. It is said that the depository could withstand a direct hit from an atomic bomb. The front door weighs about 22 tons and is made of blast-proof material. No single person can enter the vault. Several members of the depository staff must dial separate combinations, changed daily. The staff operate on a random time schedule. The windows are sealed from the inside and out. The glass is fire-proof, bullet-proof and blackened so that no eyes can peek through. The foundation of the building is composed of multiple layers of cement, with 10 feet of solid granite on top. The granite supports the weight of the vault structures and prevents underground infiltration. At every corner of the depository are multi-focus surveillance systems.They allow for every inch of the depository to be under surveillance at all times. There are also four armed sentinel stations located on the ground level. At each station are security personnel and Thompson submachine guns. Additional sentinel stations are placed on upper levels as well. The vaults are said to be 27 inches thick, made of steel and concrete and are impermeable to atomic bombs.

External Defenses

In addition of its internal defenses, Fort Knox has a system of barriers and external defenses that make it virtually impenetrable. The first barrier is a seemingly simple wire fence surrounds the outermost perimeter that touches the highway and roads. There are several motion sensors along this fence. The second barrier is a 10-foot electrical  fence with additional concrete supports. The final electric fence encloses a rectangular area. There are several secured doorways along this fence for patrolling guards. Next, the original fence, built in 1937, is a black wrought-iron barrier forming an octagonal defense around the building. In addition to these, the depository is within sight of Fort Knox, a large US army post home to the 16th Cavalry Regiment, 19th Engineer Battalion, US Army Armor School, and the 3rd Brigade Combat Team. In total, nearly 30,000 soldiers and 300 tanks, armed personnel carriers, attack helicopters and artillery are available for protection. Last but not least, the depository is also placed far enough inland to avoid sea assaults and is protected to the east by the Appalachian mountains.

Speculated Defenses

The defenses described above are only a small fraction of what is known to defend Fort Knox. Its greatest defense is its secrecy. It is speculated that the depository has a system of virtual trip wires that can alert security personnel of an object nearly 15,000 feet away. They are intelligent enough to distinguish between a moving car an a loitering person. The depository is said to use stereo camera identification and fingerprint analysis as standard methods of identification. The stereo camera is so precise, it can point out features altered by plastic surgery. Original builders of the depository have stated that many features were modeled on the Bank of France. Most corridors are said to instantly flood the moment an intruder is detected. It is widely believed that between the second and third barricades there is a system of land mines, surface-to-air missiles and motion-sensored automatic rifles. In addition to these terrestrial defense system, the vaults are said to be protected from above by a satellite defense system. It can identify potential intruders and attack remotely.

What Are They Protecting?

Here comes the big question. With such defenses, it is only logical that whatever hidden inside the vault should be something of tremendous value - or a secret so sinister it can destroy the world as we know it if let loose. Here is a list of things rumored to be kept inside Fort Knox:

1. $270 billion worth of gold bars
2. The Crown Jewels
3. Declaration of Independence
4. Morphine and other drugs
5. Anthrax powder
6. Bodies of assasinated world leaders and criminals
7. Roswell aliens

I don't want to speculate things even further but I do hope they store aliens in there.

Read More

The Brilliant Mind of Nikola Tesla

Today (Jan 7, 2013), 70 years ago, a man died alone in Room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel, penniless and in debt. His name was Nikola Tesla. Perhaps some of you have never heard of him, so in honor of the anniversary of his death today, let me tell you who this man was. 

First off, Nikola Tesla was brilliant. He spoke eight languages, almost single-handedly developed technology that harnessed the power of electricity for household use, and invented things like electrical generators, FM radio, remote control, robots, spark plugs, fluorescent lights, and  machines that shoot enormous lightning bolts. He had an unyielding, steel-trap photographic memory and an insane ability to visualize even the most complex pieces of machinery – the guy did advanced calculus and physics equations in his head, memorized entire books at a time, and successfully pulled off scientific experiments that modern-day technology still can't replicate. For instance, in 2007 a group of lesser geniuses at MIT got all pumped up out of their minds because they wirelessly transmitted energy a distance seven feet through the air. Nikola Tesla once lit 200 lightbulbs from a power source 26 miles away, and he did it in 1899 with a machine he built from spare parts in the middle of a desert. To this day, nobody can really figure out how did he manage that, because two-thirds of the schematics only existed in the darkest recesses of Tesla's incredible brain.

Of course, much like many other eccentric giga-geniuses and diabolical masterminds, Tesla was also completely insane.  He was prone to nervous breakdowns, claimed to receive weird visions in the middle of the night, spoke to pigeons, and occasionally thought he was receiving electromagnetic signals from extraterrestrials on Mars.  He was also obsessive-compulsive and hated round objects, human hair, jewelry, and anything that wasn't divisible by three. He was also asexual and celibate for his entire life. Basically, Nikola Tesla was the ultimate mad scientist, which is seriously awesome.

Another sweet thing about Tesla is that he conducted the sort of crazy experiments that generally result in hordes of angry villagers breaking down the door to your lab with torches and pitchforks. One time, while he was working on magnetic resonance, he discovered the resonant frequency of the Earth and caused an earthquake so powerful that it almost obliterated the 5th Avenue New York building that housed his Frankenstein Castle of a laboratory.  Stuff was flying off the walls, the drywall was breaking apart, the cops were coming after him, and Tesla had to smash his device with a sledge hammer to keep it from demolishing an entire city block.  Later, he boasted that he could have built a device powerful enough to split the Earth in two. Nobody dared him to prove it.

Tesla also ordered the construction of the Wardenclyffe Tesla Tower. The massive structure, ostensibly designed to wirelessly transmit power, has been cited as a potential cause of the mysterious 1908 Tunguska Event – a ten-megaton blast that detonated in the wastelands above central Russia that completely obliterated and deforested everything unlucky enough to be located within a several hundred mile radius.  While nothing has ever successfully proven Tesla's involvement in the huge explosion, it's pretty awesome that this guy could potentially have detonated a weapon 1,000 times more powerful than the nuclear bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, and have done it back before they'd even invented the submachine gun.

Tesla in his lab.

During his adventures blinding half of the world with science, Nikola Tesla harnessed the power of Niagara Falls into the first hydroelectric power plant, constructed a bath designed to cleanse the human body of germs using nothing but electricity, and created a 130-foot long bolt of lightning from one of his massive coils (a feat which to this day remains the world record for man-made lightning), but perhaps his most badass invention was his face-melting, tank-destroying, super-secret Atomic Death Ray.  In the 1920s he claimed to be working on a tower that could potentially have spewed forth a gigantic beam of ionized particles capable of disintegrating aircraft from 200 miles away and blinking most men out of existence like something out of a Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers comic. His weapon, known as the "Teleforce Beam", allegedly shot ball lightning at 60 million volts, liquefying its targets with enough power to vaporize steel, and, while it could shoot further than 200 miles, its effectiveness beyond that range was limited only by the curvature of the Earth. Luckily for all humans, this crazy insanity never came to fruition – most of the schematics and plans existed only in Tesla's head, and when he died of heart failure in 1943, little hard data on the project existed.  Still, J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI confiscated all his personal stuff and locked it away anyways, just to be safe.

Despite being incredibly popular during his day, now Tesla remains largely overlooked among lists of the greatest inventors and scientists of the modern era. Thomas Edison gets all the glory for discovering the lightbulb, but it was his one-time assistant and life-long arch-nemesis, Nikola Tesla, who made the breakthroughs in alternating-current technology that allowed for people to cheaply use electricity to power appliances and lighting in their homes. They constantly fought about whether to use alternating or direct-currents, but ultimately Tesla was the one who ended the battle – at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, his AC generators illuminated the entire experience, marking the first time that an event of that magnitude had ever taken place under the glow of artificial light. Today, all homes and appliances run on Tesla's AC current.

Nikola Tesla was one of those super-genius whose intellect placed him dangerously on the precipice between "great scientific mind" and "utter madness". He held 700 patents at the time of his death, made groundbreaking discoveries in the fields of physics, robotics, steam turbine engineering, and magnetism, and once melted one of his assistants' hands by overloading it with X-rays - which isn't really scientific, but is still pretty cool. And honestly, if there were one man on this planet who was ever capable of single-handedly destroying the entire planet through his insane scientific discoveries, it was Tesla. That alone should qualify him as the greatest geek who ever lived.

Nikola Tesla holding in his hands balls of flame.

See also: The Oatmeal: Why Nikola Tesla Was the Greatest Geek Who Ever Lived, Wikipedia: Nikola Tesla

Read More

The Origin of Sandwich

The sandwich, which is most popular with world-wide eaters, functions as a noun or a verb. Besides the more obvious occupation of being something edible between two or more slices of bread, metaphorically speaking, it also likes to squeeze in between two other people, places, things, materials, etc. For example, "he is willing to sandwich in an appointment between two other meetings" or "her car was sandwiched between two other cars in the parking lot". 

The word sandwich that we use today was born in London during the very late hours one night in 1762 when an English nobleman, John Montagu (1718-1792), the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, was too busy gambling to stop for a meal even though he was hungry. The legend goes that he ordered a waiter to bring him roast-beef between two slices of bread. The Earl was able to continue his gambling while eating his snack; and from that incident, we have inherited that quick-food product that we now know as the sandwich. He apparently had the meat put on slices of bread so he would not get his fingers greasy while he was playing cards. Now I wonder why it has not been called "montagu" instead. Imagine "Cheesy Chicken Montagu" and "I have my diary montagued between the two books". 

Perhaps people of that time just love to name their food based on a place or town. Several other food also has their names derived from places. Contrary to some people's belief, burger does not originate from England. "Burger" or "hamburger" (as it is originally called), originates from Hamburg, Germany. "Frankfurter" originates from Frankfurt, Germany. Also called "wiener" which means the people of Vienna (Wien), Austria. 

Apparently, the First Earl of Sandwich, Edward Montagu, originally intended to take the title of the Earl of Portsmouth. A sandwich could just as easily have been called a “portsmouth” if he had not changed his mind. "I'm thinking of making some tuna portsmouth for breakfast". Well, why not?

Read More

Alternative Sleep Cycles

Most people only think that there is one way to sleep: Go to sleep at night for 6-8 hours, wake up in the morning, stay awake for 16-18 hours and then repeat. Actually, that is called a monophasic sleep cycle, which is only 1 of 5 major sleep cycles that have been used successfully throughout history. The other 4 are considered polyphasic sleep cycles due to the multiple number of naps they require each day. How is this possible? How is this healthy? Well the most important of every sleep cycle is the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep stage, which has been shown to provide the benefits of sleep to the brain above all other stages of sleep. When changing over to a polyphasic cycle, the lack of sleep tricks the body into entering REM sleep immediately instead of 45 to 75 minutes into sleep like in the monophasic sleep. This way, you still get the benefits of 8 hours of sleep without wasting all of the time it takes to get to REM cycles, resulting in a much more efficient sleep cycle. You can get more information about stages of sleep here.

Here are polyphasic cycles:

Uberman Cycle:

20 to 30 minute naps every 4 hours, resulting in 6 naps each day. The uberman cycle is highly efficient, and usually results in feeling healthy,  feeling refreshed upon waking and extremely vivid dreams. Many uberman-users report increased ability to lucid dream as well. However, the rigid schedule makes it near impossible to miss naps without feeling horribly tired. Blogger Steve Pavlina tried the cycle for 5.5 months and had amazingly positive results. He only reverted to monophasic sleep so that he could be on the same cycle as his wife and children. Read his report here.

Everyman Cycle:

One longer “core” nap that is supplemented with several 20-30 minute naps. The most successful variations that I have read about are either one 3 hour nap and three 20-minute naps or one 1.5 hour nap with 4-5 20 minute naps, all of which have equal amounts of time in between each nap. This cycle is much easier to adjust to than the Uberman and allows for more flexibity in nap times and in skipping naps when necessary. It is also still extremely efficient compared to monophasic with only 3-4 hours of sleep per day. Many bloggers have tried out this cycle and reported no negative effects on their health.

Dymaxion Cycle:

Bucky Fuller invented the cycle based on his belief that we have two energy tanks, the first is easy to replenish whereas the second tank (second wind) is much harder to replenish. So Bucky began sleeping for 30 minutes every 6 hours. That’s 2 hours a day of sleep! He reported feeling, “the most vigorous and alert condition I have ever enjoyed.” Doctors examined him after several years of using the cycle and pronounced him perfectly healthy. In fact, Fuller only stopped the cycle because his business associates were still stuck on monophasic cycles. This is by far the most extreme of the 4 alternate cycles, but also the most efficient.

Biphasic/Siesta Cycle:

Not even worthy of a diagram, the biphasic cycle is basically that of every college student. The biphasic cycle consists of sleeping for 4-4.5 hours at night, and then taking a 90 minute nap around noon. So not all that different, still more efficient than monophasic, but not by much.

However, not everyone agrees with these unnatural sleep patterns. Dr. Piotr Wozniak suggests some negative long-term effects of polyphasic cycles, available here and a follow-up article available here. I have to warn you though, they are both very long (which is why I don't even bother to summarize them for you here).

You might also want to check out a cool iPhone Sleep Cycle alarm clock app that monitors your movement and wakes you up when you're in your lightest sleep phase. This could be useful since being awaken while in your deep sleep (REM stage) is proven to interfere your long-term memory.

Sleep Cycle app screenshot

Read More

Breakfast and School Performance

I always ask my students if they took breakfast before coming to school. It was quite surprising to me at first when the mass majority of the students answered "no". When I asked why, they said "tak sempat". I dismissed the conversation upon hearing so but I never really stop thinking whether it is really the time issue that's hindering breakfast, or has it become a bad habit instead? I mean, it could not be so time-consuming to have some ready-made breakfast like a couple slices of bread, some cereal or simply drink some Milo. When I was in primary school, my mother never failed to serve me breakfast everyday. We couldn't afford expensive breakfast cereals so it was normally nasi goreng with eggs or when in the rush, just bread with jam. Perhaps many of us has overlooked the importance of having breakfast to kickstart our day, but despite this, these people still perform well in school or workplace. Because of this, it puzzles me if having breakfast really has something to do with an improved performance in school. Logically, there should be a connection, but I will not believe so simply because I'm told so.

So I did a quick research and I want to share what I found with you.

Mahoney et al. did a research on the effect of breakfast composition on cognitive processes in elementary school children. The research is focused on the following cognitive processes: spatial memory, short-term memory, visual perception, visual attention, auditory attention and verbal memory. 

Spatial memory: Spatial memory relates to how the brain stores information regarding the location of physical objects in space - the environment around you. Spatial memory is extremely vital for many species' survival, including us humans: it allows you to find your way in a familiar city, it allows a rat to learn the location of food in a maze, and it allows cats to find their food bowl in the kitchen. Obviously, earlier on in our evolution, it allowed our ancestors to locate sources of water, food, and shelter.

Short-term memory: Short-term memory, also known as primary or active memory, is the information we are currently aware of or thinking about. 

Visual perception: Visual perception is the ability to interpret the surrounding environment by processing information that is contained in visible light. 

Visual attention: Visual attention is the ability to maintain visual fixation and concentration on a particular target or object. This skill is of critical necessity for school children and helps them maintain on‐task behaviors. 

Auditory attention: Auditory attention is the ability to focus on relevant acoustic signals, particularly speech or linguistic stimuli, and sustain that attention for an age-appropriate amount of time. 

Verbal memory: Verbal memory is a term used in cognitive psychology that refers to memory of words and other abstractions involving language. 

Mahoney et al. examined the effects of breakfast composition versus no breakfast on cognitive performance. Results suggest that performance on most measures is enhanced by breakfast consumption and that the composition of breakfast can also influence children’s cognitive performance on some measures, particularly spatial memory, short-term memory, and auditory attention.

Another research by Murphy et al. studied if a relationship exists between participation in a school breakfast program and measures of psychosocial and academic functioning in school-aged children. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal data from this study provide strong evidence that higher rates of participation in school breakfast programs are associated in the short-term with improved student functioning on a broad range of psychosocial and academic measures.

Cueto's research relates breakfast consumption with increased available levels of energy, improved nutritional status and better school attendance which would improve the capacity of active learning and subsequently school performance. This is summarized in the following theoretical model:

The following conclusions can be drawn from the findings of this study:

1. Breakfast consumption has a short-term effect in improving selected learning skills, especially work memory. 
2. School breakfast has a positive effect on the nutritional status of the children involved.
3. School breakfast programmes have a positive effect on school attendance and probably on dropout rates. 
4. The effect of breakfast consumption on school performance depends on the interaction between the programme, student characteristics (malnutrition) and school organisation.

Based on these facts, I am convinced that breakfast consumption does have some positive effects in school performance in general. Just eat something in the morning, before you go to school or work to make sure your brain and body have sufficient energy level to support active learning and maximize work rate as well as productivity. Please, do not skip your breakfast and do encourage your students/children to take breakfast.

This post is written in response to Tidak Sarapan Jejas Pembelajaran (Utusan Malaysia 12/11/2012)

Read More

The Actual Mayan Predictions

Tortuguero Monument Six, supposedly predicting the "end of the world" in December, actually tells the life and battles of a ruler.

The Mayans calendar ends today - December 21, 2012 - but will the world ends too? It is unlikely so, but perhaps we'll never know until it's December 21 in  the present-day southern Mexican states of Chiapas, Tabasco, and the Yucatán Peninsula states of Quintana Roo, Campeche and Yucatán, where the Maya civilization used to be. So at the time this post is written, we have a few more hours in the waiting.

Let me talk about this so-called world apocalypse that some of us fear as the end of the world. If you read the history, the Mayans never predicted that the world will end today. In fact, ancient Maya actually said we’ll be around another 7,000 years or so. It is merely a coincidence that their 5000-year calendar ends today. It is the different interpretations of this that leads to the 'prediction' of the end of the world.

First in the list of blame is Nostradamus. But neither did he nor the Mayans predicted exactly so. The Mayans’ long count calendar ends in December of 2012, but that does not necessarily mean doom, and  contrary to what most of us believes, Nostradamus has no exact prediction that conclusively dates to 2012. You must know that frankly Nostradamus predicted a whole bunch of stuff. Also, nothing of any significance ever happens without someone claiming that Nostradamus predicted it. I just want to make that part very clear here in the beginning. However, there is a very interesting prediction of Nostradamus that does seem to give credence to the many people who combine his predictions with the 2012 date.

“After a great misery of mankind, an even greater approaches. The great cycle of the centuries renewed, it will rain blood, milk, famine, war, disease. In the sky will be seen a great fire dragging a trail of sparks.”

Before we go any farther, know this: this is the exact same prediction that was used before Y2K to show that Nostradamus predicted the end of the world in 2000. It seemed to make sense for them then too, but it did not happen. So now this prediction has been attributed to the 2012 Mayan date. The reason is because what could be a greater meaning for “great cycle of the centuries renewed” than the ending of a 5,000 year old calendar? So, it seems to make some sense at least.

So, who first predicted so? It was an archaeologist by the name Michael Coe who in 1966 first brought forth the idea of Armageddon occurring on this date, the completion of the Mayan 2012 calendar. Now, Coe is not just any archaeologist  he is one of the greatest living experts on ancient Mayan culture. Furthermore, he has a doctorate in anthropology from Harvard and he worked for the CIA. I am only giving you this brief biography so that you would not merely dismiss him as a crackpot. So, the Mayans never predicted that December 21, 2012 will be the end of the world, but it was Dr. Michael Coe who studied the ancient Mayan texts and it is his interpretation that there is a possibility that Armageddon would occur at the completion of the Mayan long count calendar in 2012, which is today.

Today simply marks the end of the long-count Mayan calendar. Just because an archaeologist interpreted this as the end of the world, it is unnecessary to believe so. Please do not blame the Mayans as according to the National Geographic, there's only one Maya monument that even has the 2012 date on it, and apocalypse anticipators are ignoring that according to the Maya, when one great cycle ends, another begins.  This could mean that instead of symbolizing death, December 21 is about rebirth. Let's just be optimistic and take this as a symbol of a new and better beginning. As Muslims, this 'rebirth' could mean a hijrah to become a better person. InsyaAllah.

Read More

What's Really in Pet Food

I know commercial pet food (the ones they sell in supermarkets) are not good for cats. So since I started working, I've been alternating them with premium cat food like Royal Canin and Regal. I thought I've been feeding my cat good, nutritious food until I read a report by the American Pet Institute (API) last night. This repor t explores the differences between what consumers like me think they are buying compared to what they are actually getting. 

What most consumers are unaware of is that the pet food industry is an extension of the human food industry, also known as the agriculture industry. Pet food provides a place for slaughterhouse waste and grains considered "unfit for human consumption" to be turned into profit. This waste includes cow tongues, esophagi, and possibly diseased and cancerous meat. The "whole grains" used have had the starch removed and the oil extracted -- usually by chemical processing -- for vegetable oil, or they are the hulls and other remnants from the milling process. Some of the truly whole grains used may have been deemed unfit for human consumption because of mold, contaminants, or poor storage practices.

Although the purchase price of pet food does not always determine whether a pet food is good or bad, the price is often a good indicator of quality. So basically premium cat foot are generally better than commercial brands. The protein used in pet food comes from a variety of sources. When cattle, swine, chickens, lambs, or any number of other animals are slaughtered, the choice cuts such as lean muscle tissue are trimmed away from the carcass for human consumption. Whatever remains of the carcass -- bones, blood, pus, intestines, ligaments, and almost all the other parts not generally consumed by humans -- is used in pet food. These "other parts" are known as "by-products" or other names on pet food labels. The ambiguous labels list the ingredients, but do not provide a definition for the products listed. Many of these remnants are indigestible and provide a questionable source of nutrition for our pets.

The next point raised in the report is probably the one that disturbs me the most. Another source of meat you won't find mentioned on pet food labels are dogs and cats. 

In 1990 the San Francisco Chronicle reported that euthanized companion animals were being used in pet food. Although pet food manufacturers vehemently denied the report, the American Veterinary Medical Association confirmed the Chronicle's story.

Yuck! This has definitely never crossed my mind. 

What can the feeding of such ingredients do to your pets? Some veterinarians claim that feeding slaughterhouse wastes to animals increases their risk of getting cancer and other degenerative diseases. One factor is that the cooking methods used by pet food manufacturers and rendering plants do not destroy many of the hormones used to fatten livestock, or medications such as those used to euthanize dogs and cats.

Also, restaurant grease has become a major component of feed grade animal fat over the last fifteen years. This grease, often held in fifty-gallon drums, is usually kept outside for weeks, exposed to extreme temperatures with no regard for its future use. "Fat blenders" or rendering companies then pick up this rancid grease and mix the different types of fat together, stabilize them with powerful antioxidants to retard further spoilage, and then sell the blended products to pet food companies.

These fats are sprayed directly onto dried kibble or extruded pellets to make an otherwise bland or distasteful product palatable. The fat also acts as a binding agent to which manufacturers add other flavor enhancers as well. Pet food scientists have discovered that animals love the taste of these sprayed fats. 

The amount of grain products used in pet food has risen over the last decade. Once considered filler by the pet food industry, grain products now make up a considerable portion of pet food. The availability of nutrients in grain products is dependent upon the digestibility of the grain. The amount and type of carbohydrate in pet food determines the amount of nutrient value the animal actually gets. Dogs and cats can almost completely absorb carbohydrates from some grains, such as white rice. Up to 20% of other grains can escape digestion. The availability of nutrients for wheat, beans, and oats is poor. The nutrients in potatoes and corn are far less available than those in rice. Carbohydrate that escapes digestion is of little nutritional value due to bacteria in the colon that ferment carbohydrates. Some ingredients, such as peanut hulls, are used strictly for "filler" and have no nutritional value at all! Then, there's the additives and preservatives that have been known to cause cancer. 

Commercially manufactured or rendered meat meals are highly contaminated with bacteria because their source is not always slaughtered animals. Animals that have died because of disease, injury, or natural causes are a source of meat for meat meal. The dead animal may not be rendered or cooked until days after its death. Therefore the carcass is often contaminated with bacteria -- Salmonella bacteria contaminate 25-50% of meat meals. While the cooking process may kill bacteria, it does not eliminate the endotoxins that result from the bacteria. These toxins can cause disease. Pet food manufacturers do not test their products for endotoxins. 

Escherichia coli (E Coli) is another bacteria that can be found in contaminated pet foods. E Coli bacteria, like Salmonella, can be destroyed by cooking at high temperatures, however, the endotoxin produced by the bacteria will remain. This endotoxin can cause disease as well.

Cereals are the primary ingredients in most commercial pet foods. Most people select one pet food and feed it to their dogs and cats for a prolonged period of time. Therefore, dogs and cats eat a primarily carbohydrate diet with little variety. Today, the diets of cats and dogs are a far cry from the primarily protein diets with a lot of variety that their ancestors ate. The problems associated with a commercial diet are seen every day at veterinary establishments. Chronic digestive problems, such as chronic diarrhea, are among the most frequent illnesses treated.

So, should I start feeding my cat with fresh fish instead?

Read More