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Pottenger's Cats: A Study in Nutrition
A comparison of healthy cats on raw foods and those on heated diets. Behavioral characteristics, arthritis, sterility, skeletal deformities and allergies are some of the problems that are associated with the consumption of cooked foods.
123 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1983
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February 22, 2025
Потнгер е учен от началото на 20 век, който е правил медицински експерименти, а експерименталните му животни са били котки. За целта той е развъждал голямо количество котки, гледал ги е в клетки.
Забелязал е, че има разлика в здравето на животните в зависимост от храната, с която ги храни - разлика в козината, костите, теглото, както и огромна разлика в поколението, което раждат.
Така той пренасочва част от изследванията си към храната и отношение й към здравето, като храни различни групи от котки с различна храна и записва тяхното здраве и здравето на малките котета, които раждат.
Резултатите са показателни.
Котките, хранени със сурова храна (животински остатъци и мляко) са най-здрави, а котките които се хранят с варена храна не само са по-малко здрави, а следващите поколения показват все повече отклонения, малформации, алергии - до степен да не могат да се размножават.
Понеже е лекар, Потенгер се опитва да прилага наученото от експериментите си при лекуването на хора, като прави някои интересни (доколко верни сами си преценете и имайте предвид, че това е било нивото на науката и мисленето през периода) изводи относно физическото, умственото и моралното развитие на подрастващите хора в зависимост от това каква храна консумират по време на растежа си - по-природна или по-индустриално обработена.
Забелязал е, че има разлика в здравето на животните в зависимост от храната, с която ги храни - разлика в козината, костите, теглото, както и огромна разлика в поколението, което раждат.
Така той пренасочва част от изследванията си към храната и отношение й към здравето, като храни различни групи от котки с различна храна и записва тяхното здраве и здравето на малките котета, които раждат.
Резултатите са показателни.
Котките, хранени със сурова храна (животински остатъци и мляко) са най-здрави, а котките които се хранят с варена храна не само са по-малко здрави, а следващите поколения показват все повече отклонения, малформации, алергии - до степен да не могат да се размножават.
Понеже е лекар, Потенгер се опитва да прилага наученото от експериментите си при лекуването на хора, като прави някои интересни (доколко верни сами си преценете и имайте предвид, че това е било нивото на науката и мисленето през периода) изводи относно физическото, умственото и моралното развитие на подрастващите хора в зависимост от това каква храна консумират по време на растежа си - по-природна или по-индустриално обработена.
September 11, 2008
Even though these studies began in the '30s and the book was published in the '40s, this book is an important read for my family. My dad actually gave each of us this book for Christmas a few years back. We are susceptible to arthritis, which my dad *lovingly* refers to as "Arthur." "Arthur's hurting me again today," he would say with a crooked smile. My grandfather (on my dad's side) also died of heart disease, a disease of affluence. My dad's mom also had debilitating arthritis. What this book says about nutrition is that it is important to eat well not only for yourself, but for future generations that you could be affecting.
Pottenger didn't start out experimenting on cats. He actually was a great physician working in Monrovia, CA, treating tuberculosis and other respiratory ailments. He needed cats for his treatments, and he got donated laboratory cats to extract adrenal cortex for his patients' treatments. But he began to notice certain characteristics happening in these cats. He decided to explore these observations further with a study.
The cats in this study were placed into 5 different groups and given different diets according to group. Each group was then observed, and not just for those cats' lives, but for their offspring's lives and so on. All the groups were given carnivorous diets typical for cats, high in meat. However, the degree to which food had been cooked and processed varied. (This book is probably the precursor to a lot of those "RAW DIETS" we read about these days.)
Cats eating the diet with the raw meat were healthier (and more likely to survive the adrenal cortex removal process). Their offspring was healthy and had a low mortality rate. Good stuff. Pottenger concluded that there was probably an enzyme or protein that he hadn't yet identified that was "heat-sensitive" and destroyed in the cooking process, that was vital to proper cat nutrition. It was an amino acid - Taurine - that had recently been discovered, but not yet linked to the raw meat that these cats were eating.
What happened to the cats in the other four groups was not so pretty. Previously healthy cats began to develop certain diseases and disorders and became lazy. Their offspring was sickly, and tended to develop the same disorders, but earlier on in their lives. Third generation cats did even worse. The males became very docile, and the females were unusually aggressive. Bones became more brittle and more easily broken. Some of the groups were unable to produce a fourth generation, with sterilation being a prominent problem. Some of the cats showed homosexual tendencies and were disinterested in mating for procreation.
The reason this rings true in my life is that my grandmother, my dad's mother, didn't eat the best of diets (often her lunch consisted of a ding-dong and a coke) also got badly crippling rhematoid arthritis around the age of 40. My dad also did not eat healthily, and was crippled much earlier in life, at the age of 19. He was becoming bed-ridden. He developed bad allergies to milk and wheat.
He now must eat healthily everyday and lift weights to stay functional. He still has a lot of pain throughout his body, but it beats being bed-ridden. My dad wants to save us, his kids, from his pain and struggle, and we ate healthy diets growing up, rich in leafy greens and stuff from our garden in the back yard, low in refined carbohydrates like white flour, white sugar, white rice, cereal from a box, etc. We've been pretty healthy, but unfortunately, we don't eat quite as healthily as he does since we've gone off to college and gotten married and the like. My sister has begun to develop arthritis in her elbows and knees and my brother has rhematoid pains now, but they made it to about 30 before the pain really started (a slight improvement from my dad's age of 19). They are also still very functional. My brother is an avid mountain-biker and my sister works out at a gym. Lately I have begun to notice more pain in my hands, nothing yet that requires pain relievers, but it makes me aware that if I don't eat better, the pain will be worse and more crippling.
Anyway, we have an uphill battle to fight because of the dietary choices of my grandmother and father early on. We have to be more aware of what we eat, both for our own health and our children's health.
Pottenger didn't start out experimenting on cats. He actually was a great physician working in Monrovia, CA, treating tuberculosis and other respiratory ailments. He needed cats for his treatments, and he got donated laboratory cats to extract adrenal cortex for his patients' treatments. But he began to notice certain characteristics happening in these cats. He decided to explore these observations further with a study.
The cats in this study were placed into 5 different groups and given different diets according to group. Each group was then observed, and not just for those cats' lives, but for their offspring's lives and so on. All the groups were given carnivorous diets typical for cats, high in meat. However, the degree to which food had been cooked and processed varied. (This book is probably the precursor to a lot of those "RAW DIETS" we read about these days.)
Cats eating the diet with the raw meat were healthier (and more likely to survive the adrenal cortex removal process). Their offspring was healthy and had a low mortality rate. Good stuff. Pottenger concluded that there was probably an enzyme or protein that he hadn't yet identified that was "heat-sensitive" and destroyed in the cooking process, that was vital to proper cat nutrition. It was an amino acid - Taurine - that had recently been discovered, but not yet linked to the raw meat that these cats were eating.
What happened to the cats in the other four groups was not so pretty. Previously healthy cats began to develop certain diseases and disorders and became lazy. Their offspring was sickly, and tended to develop the same disorders, but earlier on in their lives. Third generation cats did even worse. The males became very docile, and the females were unusually aggressive. Bones became more brittle and more easily broken. Some of the groups were unable to produce a fourth generation, with sterilation being a prominent problem. Some of the cats showed homosexual tendencies and were disinterested in mating for procreation.
The reason this rings true in my life is that my grandmother, my dad's mother, didn't eat the best of diets (often her lunch consisted of a ding-dong and a coke) also got badly crippling rhematoid arthritis around the age of 40. My dad also did not eat healthily, and was crippled much earlier in life, at the age of 19. He was becoming bed-ridden. He developed bad allergies to milk and wheat.
He now must eat healthily everyday and lift weights to stay functional. He still has a lot of pain throughout his body, but it beats being bed-ridden. My dad wants to save us, his kids, from his pain and struggle, and we ate healthy diets growing up, rich in leafy greens and stuff from our garden in the back yard, low in refined carbohydrates like white flour, white sugar, white rice, cereal from a box, etc. We've been pretty healthy, but unfortunately, we don't eat quite as healthily as he does since we've gone off to college and gotten married and the like. My sister has begun to develop arthritis in her elbows and knees and my brother has rhematoid pains now, but they made it to about 30 before the pain really started (a slight improvement from my dad's age of 19). They are also still very functional. My brother is an avid mountain-biker and my sister works out at a gym. Lately I have begun to notice more pain in my hands, nothing yet that requires pain relievers, but it makes me aware that if I don't eat better, the pain will be worse and more crippling.
Anyway, we have an uphill battle to fight because of the dietary choices of my grandmother and father early on. We have to be more aware of what we eat, both for our own health and our children's health.
December 10, 2020
I love small science, back when experiments were done by curious guys with enough money to fund studying something they wanted to know. Then they publish their results in a book for anyone to read.
That being said, I think Pottenger could have published a much better book if far more pictures were included.
Favorite quote:
"Experimental work with animals shows a loss of secondary sexual characteristics after two or three generations on impoverished diets. Males lose their heavy masculine frame and their general contour begins to resemble the female. Females also tend to lose their distinguishing build so that both sexes approach a state of physical neutrality."
"1. All people are influenced by preceding generations and 2. people can be healthy only if the stock from which they come is healthy and the food this they eat is adequate."
"Modern man has gleaned his fields to fill his larder, but his system of sanitary engineering has destroyed most of the soil rejuvenating organic materials. No longer does man return to the soil those materials taken from the soil." [on modern plumbing]
That being said, I think Pottenger could have published a much better book if far more pictures were included.
Favorite quote:
"Experimental work with animals shows a loss of secondary sexual characteristics after two or three generations on impoverished diets. Males lose their heavy masculine frame and their general contour begins to resemble the female. Females also tend to lose their distinguishing build so that both sexes approach a state of physical neutrality."
"1. All people are influenced by preceding generations and 2. people can be healthy only if the stock from which they come is healthy and the food this they eat is adequate."
"Modern man has gleaned his fields to fill his larder, but his system of sanitary engineering has destroyed most of the soil rejuvenating organic materials. No longer does man return to the soil those materials taken from the soil." [on modern plumbing]
July 10, 2009
I've read tons of health books and this is one of the best. No big corporation funded this work and they do have a website.
May 17, 2014
Pottenger’s Cats walks you through the research of Francis Pottenger M.D. as he, from the years 1932-1942, conducted feeding experiments on cats comparing the use of raw foods and cooked foods. His published research has been compiled into this (somewhat dry) book.
Dr. Pottenger discovered that when cats were fed a diet of cooked meat and milk instead of their natural diet of raw food, the cats developed deficiencies and health problems that are similar to what we see in many people. For example, the cats fed cooked food would exhibit thyroid issues, poor bone development, birth defects, reproductive problems, arthritis, crowding of the teeth, and so on. It even got to the point that after a few generations, the cats born of that group would effectively be sterile.
The book never states that you can compare humans to cats. Obviously, we have very different natural diets and physiology, but it shows clearly what happens to a species that eats a diet that it is not designed for and what kinds of problems can come about because of it. As I read the book, I couldn’t help but notice the parallels between the cats and us humans.
You would think that the act of cooking milk or meat wouldn't make such a big difference. Meat is meat and milk is milk, right? This book, as well as the research of many others, sheds serious doubts on those beliefs and begs us to question our culture which sets out of sterilize all of our foods out of fear of contamination.
Dr Pottenger’s research, although a bit dry at times, is very compelling and unique. At just a little over a hundred pages, it can be a quick read and may make a huge difference in the way that you see things in life. I know it did for me
Dr. Pottenger discovered that when cats were fed a diet of cooked meat and milk instead of their natural diet of raw food, the cats developed deficiencies and health problems that are similar to what we see in many people. For example, the cats fed cooked food would exhibit thyroid issues, poor bone development, birth defects, reproductive problems, arthritis, crowding of the teeth, and so on. It even got to the point that after a few generations, the cats born of that group would effectively be sterile.
The book never states that you can compare humans to cats. Obviously, we have very different natural diets and physiology, but it shows clearly what happens to a species that eats a diet that it is not designed for and what kinds of problems can come about because of it. As I read the book, I couldn’t help but notice the parallels between the cats and us humans.
You would think that the act of cooking milk or meat wouldn't make such a big difference. Meat is meat and milk is milk, right? This book, as well as the research of many others, sheds serious doubts on those beliefs and begs us to question our culture which sets out of sterilize all of our foods out of fear of contamination.
Dr Pottenger’s research, although a bit dry at times, is very compelling and unique. At just a little over a hundred pages, it can be a quick read and may make a huge difference in the way that you see things in life. I know it did for me
July 24, 2019
For the minimalist page count this book is rich in reasearch documentation. Pottenger provided the world with some of the best research on nutrition to date. Many people misquote this efflulent river of wise clear flowing nutritional research. This study helped many people in its time. I am so very greatful that this book was redcommended to me to read and that I listened. To all who work in the wellness field I highly recommend this book. The language is dense and complex. The studies were saddeding, even if you do not care for cats like me. If you are a vegan or a vegetarian be aware the research does not take into account modern opinions on meat.
April 28, 2020
Pottenger discovered that nutrition is important to health, not just your own but also your children's. You would think that was obvious but I don't think our society gets that. They think they can eat fast food, chips and soda to fill their bellies and live a healthy life. That is not the case, they are dooming themselves and their children and even grandchildren to debilitating conditions in later life and even infertility and early death.
July 29, 2019
Thought-provoking. Sometimes hard to understand (you best get a dictionary for all the bone-related terms), and some of the pictures are hard to decipher (because they're tiny and black-and-white). Good read.
May 18, 2019
Not what I was expecting but a good incentive to feed raw meat and milk.
January 2, 2020
Most frightening book I have ever read. If you mean business with your health then this is the most important book beside "Nutrition and physical degeneration" by Weston A. Price, ever written.
February 23, 2017
This is a good book to read if you're interested in reading studies, specifically on pet nutrition. You basically get the gist of what was learned through Pottenger's experiment within the first chapter or so, otherwise I would have given a better rating. But it's good information for cat owner's and pet nutrition and/or raw enthusiasts.
March 13, 2013
Interesting premise: cats are healthier on a raw meat diet rather than a cooked meat diet. I've since cross-checked Pottenger's 1930's studies have found this hypothesis to be relatively sound - for the times. Pottenger did not know about taurine, which changes the game on cooked meat and limits the impact of his initial findings.
That was the first third of the book. The remaining two thirds of the book is abysmal. The Price-Pottenger Foundation published this book in '83 in an attempt to validated the woefully misguided and inacurrate nutritional ideas of Weston A Price. Besides the overwhelming current scientific studies that debunk many of the ideas put forth by the Price Foundation in general, this book attempts to correlate the nutritional findings on cats to the nutritional needs of humans, by saying "...the similarity is so obvious that parallel pictures will suggest themselves" and "it must be remembered that cats and humans both are mammalian biological systems" (p.3). By that logic Dolphins could survive on human's diet of cheesburgers and we could survive on a whale's diet of krill and plankton.
That was the first third of the book. The remaining two thirds of the book is abysmal. The Price-Pottenger Foundation published this book in '83 in an attempt to validated the woefully misguided and inacurrate nutritional ideas of Weston A Price. Besides the overwhelming current scientific studies that debunk many of the ideas put forth by the Price Foundation in general, this book attempts to correlate the nutritional findings on cats to the nutritional needs of humans, by saying "...the similarity is so obvious that parallel pictures will suggest themselves" and "it must be remembered that cats and humans both are mammalian biological systems" (p.3). By that logic Dolphins could survive on human's diet of cheesburgers and we could survive on a whale's diet of krill and plankton.
January 8, 2021
Interesting set of studies. Ahead of its time. Would of liked to seen the statistical analysis of the cat data (seems like someone would of run that at some point). The human studies are smaller and less conclusive and did not convince me to eat raw liver and brains (as recommended). It did make me look up where certified raw milk distributors are near me (4hours away).
I think there are too many variables that go unspoken with the human studies to make drastic dietary changes, but the Fats are good for you chapter and the 1/3 fat 1/3 protein 1/3 carbs (or less) that are recommended could of come right out of any diet book today.
I think there are too many variables that go unspoken with the human studies to make drastic dietary changes, but the Fats are good for you chapter and the 1/3 fat 1/3 protein 1/3 carbs (or less) that are recommended could of come right out of any diet book today.
May 31, 2014
This book was difficult to read at times due to the large presence of medical terminology. However, it did have some intriguing commentary that I found quite thought provoking such as various health issues being tied to nutrition (of course) as well as generational effects (who knew?). It was also interesting to consider the potential to alter bone malformations through improved nutrition.
March 14, 2015
it's amazing how much difference food can make in these cats, imagine what we are doing to our bodies!
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