Pottenger’s Cats Discussion Questions
1. What particular component of foods available only in raw foods did the Pottenger cat study focus on?
A. Heat labile factors
2. What area of medicine did Pottenger focus on?
A. Respiratory diseases such as TB, asthma, allergy, and emphysema
3. What foods did Pottenger focus on for dietary treatment of these problems?
A. Cod liver oil, butter, cream, liver, and eggs
4. What glands was Pottenger removing from his cats because he believed weakness in this organ contributed to allergy and asthma? Why did he remove the glands of the cats?
A. The adrenal glands—he was trying to standardize the dose he was giving his patients and potency varied depending upon the diet of the animals. He eventually learned that green grass gave cattle healthy adrenals while a dried, processed diet resulted in weak adrenals.
5. What diet enabled the cats to survive the removal of the glands optimally?
A. A raw food diet
6. How long was the cat study and how many animals were involved?
A. The study lasted 10 years and involved 900 cats.
7. Through how many generations did the study extend?
A. Three generations. The third generation was so deteriorated that it could not reproduce.
8. What was the experimental diet and the control diet?
A. The control diet was raw meat and raw milk. The experimental diets consisted of 2/3 heated foods and 1/3 raw food. Heated foods included cooked meat, pasteurized milk, and sweetened, condensed milk.
9. The general response to malnutrition was lethargy. Which group of cats was the exception pacing back and forth in their cages and described as “nervous” animals? How do people seek out stimulation in our society in an attempt to feel better?
A. The animals given sweetened, condensed milk. People stimulate themselves with sugar, caffeine, chocolate, arguments, thriller movies, pharmaceutical and recreational drugs.
10. Pottenger noted that his male animals became docile and unaggressive while female animals became aggressive. Three were named Tiger, Cobra and Rattlesnake “because of their proclivity for biting and scratching.” (11) What observations can you make regarding the relationship between diet and behavior in your own life or in the lives of those you know well?
A. Diet influences the health of both the nervous system and the glandular system contributing to a wide variety of altered behaviors including aggressiveness, depression, and violence.
11. What changes in physical health were observed in the animals?
A. Arthritis, asthma, allergies, intestinal parasites, reproductive failure, degenerative diseases, glandular problems, heart problems, inflammation and infections, thyroid problems, heart problems, nearsightedness and farsightedness, paralysis, skeletal changes with a decrease in the calcium content of the skeleton from 12-17% in the 1st generation to 10-12% in the 2nd generation to 1 ½% to 3% in the 3rd generation. Animals on poor diets usually died of infections.
12. What can we learn from the Pottenger Cat Study about the need for supplementation and the fragility of our nutrient supply. What factors can you think of that lead to nutritional losses of the foods we eat today?
A. Malnutrition is relatively easy to achieve and nutrition is rarely optimal in nature. Today foods are not only cooked but also refined, transported long distances and stored for long periods of time. We also drench produce with herbicides and pesticides in the growing process, genetically modify the seeds, and irradiate or microwave many foods.
13. Pottenger said, “While no attempt will be made to correlate the changes in the animals studies with malformations found in humans, the similarity is so obvious that parallel pictures will suggest themselves.” (3)
Resource: Pottenger,Jr., Francis M., Pottenger’s Cats: A Study in Nutrition, La Mesa, CA: Price Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, 1983.