This was very interesting. Since my kitten was very ill when I got her, I’ve been reading everything I can on cat nutrition and pet foods. I was also interested in the mention of home cooked (for lack of a better term) foods for pets and the nutritional balance therein. I’m currently using real ground lamb and white rice, along with a kitten vitamin, and the results have been exceptional. Just out of curiosity, did you think that by putting all of your notes on the ng, you would impress people, or were you just trying to show them exactly how smart you think you are?

Personally, I think that this was a complete waste of time, energy and effort not only to read your post, but to reply to it, which is probably why I’m the only one who has thus far responded, though your post has been up 24 hrs. Maybe I’m pathetic for saying it’s a waste of time to reply and then doing it anyway, but I’m tired and typing is also a good way to keep up the circulation in my fingers. Enjoy the rest of your nutritional classes, though I’m not sure that they have any material left to cover since it seems that they covered it all in the first day. Are you sure that this was your first class and not your only class on the topic? I don’t agree with this.

Granted dogs have a hard time being totally herbivorous, but that doesn’t stop them from being omnivorous. They *can* and do process plant material and do gain nutrients from them, and therefore in my opinion, at least, are just as omnivorous as humans are. Granted there are many humans who choose to live a herbivorous lifestyle (total ‘vegan’ vegetarian; no animal products of any kind) but these people need to be careful to plan their diet in such a way as to combine the right proteins so that their body can use it, and to avoid vitamin deficiency. This seems pretty much like a dog, to me. I understand that cats don’t have this ability to live as herbivores no matter how carefully you plan their diets, but although they lean more on the carnivorous side of the fence than the herbivorous side, I suspect that many if not most cats eat an omnivorous diet.

I would assume that people are dismissive about home cooked diets (even veterinary nutritionists) because of lack of knowledge on the subject.A vet friend of mine feeds her three dogs and three cats primarily raw meat and vegetables along with the proper supplements. For individuals interested in home cooked, raw meat diets please refer to Richard Pitcairn’s outstanding book, “Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural health for Dogs and Cats,” Second Edition, Rodale Press, Inc., 1995. Chapter 3 addresses natural diets and proper supplementation. Chapter 4 addresses “Easy-to Make-Recipes for Pet Food,” and Chapter 5 deals with “Special Diets for Special Pets”

It is a very common misconception that medical school creates a doctor. It is irrelevant if med students get nutrition courses or not because most will never deal with a patients nutritional needs. Why would a med student going into radiation oncology, rahab med, psych, radiology, etc.. need nutrition courses? That is why there are various residencies and the training is very specific. I cannot speak for any specialty except general surgery in which nutrition is mandatory. In both the written and oral general surgery boards (exams after completion of a 5-7 year general surgery residency) there are many questions on nutrition in the critical care questions.

In the hospital setting nutritionists are consulted for patient assessment when needed. Lets face it, a nutritionist will always know the most about nutrition because that is what they do exclusively. While this is a widely made statement I think it is very misleading, to the point of being false. Medical students learn about each vitamin both in the context of biochemistry and pharmacology, and learn about nutritional diseases, actually commonly managing both mild and severe nutritional diseases while in medical school. Every medical student spends a lot of time learning about and seeing patients with several major nutritional diseases and states, including alcoholism, diabetes, nutritional anemias, pregnancy, being overweight and underweight, hypertension, being elderly and simply growing up. The average medical student learns about the realtionship between nutrition and both health and illness, and learns how to provide nutrition to hospitalized and non – hospitalized people.

The average medical student spends many hours integrating the knowledge of nutrition with the knowledge of other aspects of health and disease, because after all, the physician is in his or her best role as an integrator of knowledge and insight. I think it would be wonderful if many physicians knew more about nutrition than they as individuals do, but it would also be wonderful of the general public knew more about what physicians do know about nutrition, and followed sound advice. Do you have any idea how often sound nutritional advice ny physicians is ignored? We stand to gain more by working together than by throwing stones. Note that in the popular literature there is a common thread of attack on physicians for a number of reasons, nutrition being one, but also note the lack of physicians attacking their attackers.

When you look at the plethora of nutritional products out there, and examine how rapidly they are replaced with yet one more “new and improved” version, it leads a skeptic to wonder if perhaps there is less “knowledge” out there and more hope and striving, or giving the best benefit of the doubt, that the human organism seems to be able to absorb what it needs even if challenged with the most creative swill we can present it. I do not mean to cast any stones at the products you mention. I am simply pointing out that your premise regarding physicians is in question. Furthermore, even if true it is really irrelevant to the question whether you have a good product. Your next statement to the effect that a person should know what they eat is entirely reasonable, and widely recommended by physicians as well as many others. My point is that the two sentences are unrelated to each other.

Decisions regarding the appropriate use of nutrition support in inflammatory bowel disease require an integrated assessment of nutritional status, disease severity, function of the gastrointestinal tract, and need for surgery. Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory disorder of unknown etiology that may affect any level of the gastrointestinal tract. Because many Crohn’s disease patients are significantly at risk for protein-calorie malnutrition, nutrition support can be an important adjunct to medical therapy.

While the mechanism is uncertain, nutrition support also has a primary role in inducing remission in patients with acute flares of Crohn’s disease.[2] This review examines the role of nutrition support in 4 major clinical presentations of Crohn’s disease: (1) acute exacerbation; (2) intestinal obstruction; (3) perianal disease; and (4) fistulizing disease. In addition, the role of specialized nutrients and exclusion diets as well as the incidence of micronutrient deficiencies are addressed.

Malnutrition and Crohn’s Disease Malnutrition is very common in Crohn’s disease, with an incidence ranging from 25%-80%.[1] While several factors, including malabsorption[1] and increased resting energy expenditure in septic or underweight patients, may contribute to malnutrition,[3,4] decreased oral intake is the primary cause.[5] Based on its ability to improve body composition and promote weight gain even in patients with active Crohn’s disease, enteral nutrition is the treatment of choice in this setting.[6] In the outpatient management of Crohn’s disease, the use of nutritional supplements should be instituted in nutritionally-at-risk patients.

However, the timing of specific nutritional intervention and the effect of nutritional support on clinically based outcomes such as infectious complications and functional status have not been well defined in this disease setting. The VA cooperative study on the use of preoperative total parenteral nutrition (TPN) therapy provides a valuable database for identifying biomarkers of clinically significant and severe malnutrition.[7] The severely malnourished, as defined by a score of < 83.5 on the nutrition risk index (NRI; 1.519 × serum albumin [g/L] + 0.417 × [current weight/usual weight] × 100) had a decrease in noninfectious complications when supported preoperatively with TPN.

Patients who have a serum albumin <30 g/L and a 10 % loss of usual body weight would fall into this category, as would the individual with severe hypoalbuminemia (< 27.5 g/L) or severe weight loss (25%) alone. The significance of weight loss on functional status has been demonstrated in other studies as well.[8,9] Hydration status must be considered in the evaluation of weight loss. Based on this index, a highly select group of at-risk patients who are appropriate candidates for nutritional support can be identified using the criteria defined above. In all cases, if the gastrointestinal tract is functional, enteral feeding would be the nutritional therapy of choice.

Max Milner, a food and nutrition scientist who retired in 1984 as executive officer of the Bethesda, Maryland-based American Society for Nutritional Sciences, died January 16, 2003, at the Hospice of Washington [DC], having suffered a stroke December 7, 2002, at the age fo 88. For six years, Dr. Milner had been executive officer of the Society for Nutritional Sciences. Earlier, he had held a variety of food- and nutrition-related positions with the U.S. Agency for International Development, U.N. agencies and in academia.

The Chevy Chase, Maryland, resident was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and graduated from the University of Saskatchewan. He received a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Minnesota. In 1944, he became a U.S. citizen. Early in his career, he was a research chemist for Pillsbury Mills in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he specialized in the development of military field rations. Later, he was a professor of cereal food sciences at Kansas State University. As a senior U.N. food technologist, he advised U.N. agencies on child nutrition and supervised projects in tropical countries.

He was a consultant to the government of Israel in the upgrading of wheat imports and in cereal foods and industries. From 1966 to 1968, he worked in Washington, where he initiated an AID nutrition program. Later, he served on AID advisory committees. From 1975 to 1978, he was associate director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s International Nutrition Program. He then returned to the Washington area as executive officer of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences. Dr. Milner organized and chaired several national and international symposiums on nutrition-related issues. He was a member of the Cosmos Club and Congregation Beth El in Bethesda, Maryland. His avocations included photography and gardening.

There are actually 20 mineral elements necessary or beneficial for plant growth. Carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) are supplied by air and water. The six macronutrients, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulfur (S) are required by plants in large amounts. The rest of the elements are required in trace amounts (micronutrients). Essential trace elements include boron (B), chlorine (Cl), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), sodium (Na), zinc (Zn), molybdenum (Mo), and nickel (Ni). Beneficial mineral elements include silicon (Si) and cobalt (Co).

The beneficial elements have not been deemed essential for all plants but may be essential for some. The distinction between beneficial and essential is often difficult in the case of some trace elements. Cobalt for instance is essential for nitrogen fixation in legumes. It may also inhibit ethylene formation (Samimy, 1978) and extend the life of cut roses (Venkatarayappa et al., 1980). Silicon, deposited in cell walls, has been found to improve heat and drought tolerance and increase resistance to insects and fungal infections. Silicon, acting as a beneficial element, can help compensate for toxic levels of manganese, iron, phosphorus and aluminum as well as zinc deficiency. A more holistic approach to plant nutrition would not be limited to nutrients essential to survival but would include mineral elements at levels beneficial for optimum growth. With developments in analytical chemistry and the ability to eliminate contaminants in nutrient cultures, the list of essential elements may well increase in the future.

THE MINERAL ELEMENTS IN PLANT PRODUCTION The use of soil for greenhouse production before the 1960 s was common. Today a few growers still use soil in their mixes. The bulk of production is in soilless mixes. Soilless mixes must provide support, aeration, nutrient and moisture retention just as soils do, but the addition of fertilizers or nutrients are different. Many soilless mixes have calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, sulfur, nitrogen, potassium and some micronutrients incorporated as a pre-plant fertilizer.

Nitrogen and potassium still must be applied to the crop during production. Difficulty in blending a homogenous mix using pre-plant fertilizers may often result in uneven crops and possible toxic or deficient levels of nutrients. Soilless mixes that require addition of micro and macronutrients applied as liquid throughout the growth of the crop, may actually give the grower more control of his crop.

To achieve optimum production, the grower can adjust nutrient levels to compensate for other environmental factors during the growing season. The absorption of mineral ions is dependent on a number of factors in addition to weather conditions. These include the cation exchange capacity or CEC and the pH or relative amount of hydrogen (H() or hydroxyl ions (OH() of the growing medium, and the total alkalinity of the irrigation water.