# Potatoes in Grainless Food



## Natsu (May 13, 2011)

I was looking at the ingredients in grainless dry food and noticed they replaced the grains with potatoes, potato starch or dehydrated potatoes.
I was wondering if potatoes are actually better than rice, barley or brown rice. Doesn't it have a lot of carbs?


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## MinkaMuffin (Apr 1, 2011)

Doodlebug can probably answer this better, but imo potatoes are better than grains because grains are less digestible than potatoes and more apt to cause allergies. As far as carbs, I don't know which is higher in them, but what's more important is how many carbs are in the Whole can, rather than how much a particular ingredient might have.


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## laurief (Jun 22, 2008)

Shhhhhhhhh! Don't tell! We ignorant pet owners aren't supposed to notice that grain-free doesn't equate with carb-free. Pet food manufacturers are counting on us being so dazzled by "grain-free" that we overlook the fact that many of those foods are still packed with vegetable and fruit carb sources that our cats DO NOT NEED. As far as I understand, it doesn't matter where the carbs come from; they are still dietary sludge for our feline friends.

Good for you for reading the labels. Consider yourself enlightened.

Laurie


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

In my mind, there are 3 "classes" of carbs when it comes to cat (or dog) food:


Corn and wheat which are simple carbs, are digested extremely fast, spike the blood sugars to extreme highs, are very difficult to digest (especially corn) and cause many allergic reactions.
Whole grains such as oatmeal, barley, brown rice etc. which are complex carbs. They digest slower, the blood sugars don't spike as dramatically, but many cats find them difficult to digest.
Non-grain complex carbs such as potatoes, peas, chick peas, and tapioca. These are easier to digest than whole grains and also don't spike the blood sugars like the simple carbs. Also less likely to be an allergy source.
But, anyway you cut it...carbs are carbs and cats don't need them. So finding a high protein, high fat food with minimal carbs is the goal. I'll take food with 10% carbs from whole grain sources before I take one with 20% carbs from non-grain sources (assuming my cat doesn't have issues with grains). 

Many people mistakenly believe that a food without corn and wheat are "grain free". And others think grain free means carb free. But kibble has to have some sort of "glue" to hold it together and that has to be a carb. There are some wet foods that are very close to being carb free.


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## Meezer_lover (Apr 19, 2011)

Nature's Logic does not contain any of the carbs mentioned. Their Chicken flavored dry kibble ingredients is listed at the bottom here. (The wet food doesn't contain them either)

The starch used in their food is *millet*. This quote came from something they posted on their Facebook page recently about it....

_This grain contains less natural sugar than other starches frequently used in pet foods. Further, a grass seed, like millet, is similar to one a carnivore in the wild might consume from eating the stomach of a bird or herbivore. It is much more likely to occur naturally in a wild dog or cat’s diet than chick peas or potato, so will be more familiar to their digestive systems. Also, millet contains NO gluten, a relatively common allergen for pets._

Ingredients: Chicken Meal, Millet, Chicken Fat, Montmorillonite, Brewer's Yeast, Flaxseed, Dried Egg Product, Spray Dried Chicken Liver, Pumpkin Seed, Animal Plasma, Kelp, Natural Flavoring, Cottage Cheese, Suncured Alfalfa Meal, Egg Shell Meal, Avocado, Chicory Root, Tomato Powder, Almonds, Spray Dried Cod Liver Oil, Apple Powder, Blueberry Powder, Apricot Powder, Carrot Powder, Pumpkin Powder, Cranberry Powder, Broccoli Powder, Spinach Powder, Parsley, Artichoke, Rosemary, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Casei Fermentation Product, Dried Bifidobacterium Bifidium Fermentation Product, Dried Enterococcus Faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Bacillus Coagulans Fermentation Product, Dried Pineapple Extract, Dried Aspergillus Niger Fermentation Extract, Dried Aspergillus Oryzae Fermentation Extract, Dried Trichoderma Longibrachtium Fermentation Extract, Mixed Tocopherols.


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

Nature's Logic kibble is not a low carb food. Compare to EVO:

The following is on a dry matter basis....

NL:

Protein: 39%
Fat: 18.1
Leaving 42.9% for vitamins/minerals and carbs (inc fiber, which they don't list). 

EVO:

Protein: 55.6%
Fat: 24.4%
Leaving 20% for vitamins/minerals and carbs (inc fiber, which is 2.2%)

Vitamins & minerals are going to be about the same for each food, so NL has a significantly higher carb load than EVO...and carbs are carbs whether they come from millet or potatoes or oatmeal.


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## Meezer_lover (Apr 19, 2011)

I was only commenting about Nature's Logic in that they don't use the usual sources of starch that most pet food companies use.

I personally do believe that it does matter what the source is. Yes carbs are carbs, but if they are from ingredients that are known as common allergens or may not be easily digestible for some pets, then I think that is something to consider.


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

Yes, of course the source of a carb is important. Millet is a gluten free grain...but potatoes and chick peas are also gluten free. I guess I don't see any significant advantage to millet over potatoes or peas. If we go with the premise that cats don't need carbs and don't handle them well in general...then is giving a cat lots of a carb source that may be a little easier to digest better than a little of a carb source that may be slightly more difficult to digest? I think there may be some cats where the answer is yes, but I think the majority will do better on the significantly lower carb food.


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## MinkaMuffin (Apr 1, 2011)

It might not contain any of the usual carbs listed, but it contains: pumpkin seed, kelp, alfalfa meal, avocado, chicory root, almonds, powders of 9 different fruits and veggies, parsley, artichoke, rosemary, etc..

While its great that the millet is gluten free, like doodlebug said, all those other ingredients add up to a Lot of carbs.


Unrelated comment, OMG Yoshi is getting so big and beautiful!! :love2


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

MinkaMuffin said:


> It might not contain any of the usual carbs listed, but it contains: pumpkin seed, kelp, alfalfa meal, avocado, chicory root, almonds, powders of 9 different fruits and veggies, parsley, artichoke, rosemary, etc..


That stuff is the tradeoff for it not containing any synthetic vitamins or minerals. I actually kind of like that. I disagree with the folks who get bent out of shape because there's a little fruits and veggies in a canned food. The vits/mins have to come from somewhere...synthetic or some natural plant matter...I'll take the latter.


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## MinkaMuffin (Apr 1, 2011)

doodlebug said:


> That stuff is the tradeoff for it not containing any synthetic vitamins or minerals. I actually kind of like that. I disagree with the folks who get bent out of shape because there's a little fruits and veggies in a canned food. The vits/mins have to come from somewhere...synthetic or some natural plant matter...I'll take the latter.


Ah, I should have noticed it didn't have 'vitamin A, vitamin K, etc..' My bad.
Adds in a lot of carbs though.


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## Meezer_lover (Apr 19, 2011)

I will take the carbs over synthetic vitamins and minerals. Since you really can't trust anything about pet food, I would prefer everything possible be from natural sources.


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