Pet food has some dietary advantages for people and is a viable survival meals, however consuming it long-term may adversely have an effect on your well being.
Is Canine Meals Secure for People to Eat?
Pet food is a viable choice for those who’ve nothing else to eat and, supplied it’s saved in an hermetic container, ought to be protected.
Learn: The best way to retailer pet food long run
Canine and people have related dietary wants, which is why canine can survive on scraps and byproducts of human meals. Meaning a serving of canned pet food or kibble may have dietary advantages for people.
As each all these pet food are designed as full sources of vitamin, they comprise all of the vitamins and micronutrients a canine wants. It could present a extra dietary and balanced eating regimen than many survival meals!
The pet meals business should adjust to a inflexible algorithm and security processing requirements, however they’re not fairly as rigorous as those governing human meals processing.
However, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act require that every one animal meals
“be fit for human consumption, produced underneath sanitary situations, comprise no dangerous substances, and be in truth labeled.”
Canned canine meals are the most secure due to how they’re processed. Earlier than canning, the meals is heated, killing off any food-borne pathogens. The hermetic can protects the meals towards future contamination, fats oxidation, and rancidity up till its expiration date.
Kibble isn’t canned and is subsequently prone to contamination. Over the previous six months, the FDA has recalled 4 merchandise, three attributable to potential salmonella contamination.
If the fat within the kibble are uncovered to air, it will probably trigger oxidation, resulting in rancidity. Consuming contained or rancid kibble is doubtlessly harmful, inflicting vomiting, diarrhea, and different digestive points.
How Lengthy May You Survive on Canine Meals?
You would survive for weeks, if not months, consuming solely pet food, however chances are you’ll expertise some well being points.
Canine’ stomachs are much more acidic than people, permitting them to digest bones and protein effectively. As pet food accommodates extra protein than human meals, you stand a superb likelihood of gaining weight on a pet food eating regimen.
Canine additionally produce their very own vitamin C, so it’s hardly ever included in any business pet food. People get their required vitamin C from meals, and with out it might endure irritability, anorexia, pores and skin issues, and even scurvy.
Not solely would pet food go away you vitamin C poor, however it will additionally overload your physique with vitamin A.
If a can of pet food accommodates “5000 IU of Vitamin A per kilogram,” and the common human wants round 1.3 to 1.8 kgs of meals per day, their day by day consumption of vitamin A could be between 6,500 and 9,000 IU per day.
That’s thrice the recommended dietary allowance for men! Consuming this a lot vitamin A may cause aching muscular tissues, complications, nausea, and poor coordination, none of that are very helpful in a survival state of affairs.
Dana Hunnes, an assistant professor on the Fielding College of Public Well being on the College of California in Los Angeles, recommends limiting your pet food consumption to “a brief length — ideally not more than a few days.” Any longer than this, and also you danger dietary deficiency.
Does Canine Meals Style Good?
Simply because one thing’s fit for human consumption doesn’t imply you need to eat it. Pet food might supply dietary advantages however accommodates stuff you wouldn’t often discover in your plate.
Pet meals is made from byproducts and leftovers, so you can discover intestines and different organs in a can of pet food. It could additionally comprise bone meal and different grain byproducts that you just’ve by no means tasted earlier than.
Meaning chances are you’ll expertise tastes and textures which might be utterly new to you and might not be very nice.
The Finest Kind of Canine Meals to Eat in an Emergency
Pet meals merchandise are extensively different however often are available in three kinds – moist canned, dry kibble, or freeze-dried. Whereas I haven’t tried any of those myself, somebody referred to as Anne Kadet as soon as did and wrote about it.
In accordance with her, high-end kibble “has a nutty, barely bitter style” however is dry and gritty and takes plenty of chewing. Canned meals is best, particularly sure manufacturers that comprise complete greens however has a “metallic and disturbingly bland” taste.
On the finish of her six-day experiment, Kadet concluded that if she was in a good spot, she’d “select to reside on kibble over Kraft dinner or ramen noodles.” I’m wondering the way it compares to MREs?
Conclusion
For those who’ve obtained nothing else, pet food is a viable survival meals, not less than for just a few days. It has dietary advantages for people, containing most of the similar meals we often eat. Nonetheless, consuming it for longer may trigger nutrient deficiencies and even weight acquire.
