Man, y'all think wax in chocolate is bad, you should hear what's in dog food. I am seriously beginning to cook my dog homemade kibble this week. While I'll fully admit to being a nerd for that, seriously, the stuff that is in...stuff is just gross. Tell me some more, "you won't believe what's in______" stories.

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

Answers

I heard in a chemistry class in college that that "BHT to preserve freshness!" you see as an ingredient in potato chips is the same compound added to gasoline to prevent it from gelling...an antioxidant of some kind. And I heard that the air that's in an unopened bag of chips is pumped-in Nitrogen, not regular air.

Now watch me be wrong about all of this...

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

Gardanna, the ingrdients in cheap dog food is generally ground corn and "crude protien" which is often ground up chicken feathers from that awful chicken factories. High quality dog food usually contains a grain like corn and the crude protien is usually animal guts from slaughterhouses. They quick dry it and then grind it into powder. That's okay, though because in the wild, wolves eat the "guts" first because that's the best part. All higher in vitamins and nutirtion than the muscle meat. Dogs probably think humans are stupid by keeping the "bad cuts" for ourselves and leave them the goodies. My wife and I raise german shepherds and quite frankly, they'd rather eat a run over 'possum that's on the high side than dog food. There is no accounting for taste. Look at who your friends married. :)

-- Anonymous, November 02, 2000

Fruitbat, the N2 in the potato chips is very intriging. I'll call one of the companies and ask. It makes sense. Nitogen gas wouldn't be harmful and would keep the starch in the chips from breaking down due to oxidation.

I had an uncle that was a chemist for Purine years ago. My dad was a huge jokester. Dad wrote the CEO a letter about how our family really enjoys Purina products. The CEO wrote back a very diplomatic letter about how he was glad we liked it, but it really wasn't for human consumption. I think everyone got a howl (pun intended). I knew this Chemical Engineer who ate cat food all through school, yuk. Ramon noodles would of been a lot better for him.

You can find lists of what all those acronyms in ingredients mean. I keep meaning to get it. I called today and gave Soft Soap heck. For awhile, all they produced was antibacterial soap. Having a strong Micro. background I disagree with that a lot. First, you have to wash your hands a long time (like a full minute or maybe even a lot longer) for Triclosan to work, so it really isn't effective and you're adding to the emergence of resistant bacteria. Second, you expose yourself to a chemical whose long term side effects are unknown. You puppies won't remember, but my parents for years used an antibacterial soap (Bubba Cracker help me here) hexachloro something, that was pulled because bad side effects started showing up. Third, plain old soap works just as well, all you want to do is get a good lather because the soap breaks down the bacterial cell wall. Due to consumer demand, Soft Soap has just re-released a non- antibacterial version.

I don't eat much pork because I had an advisor that was a developmental biologist. She would go to slaugter houses and pigs intestines are full of gigantic round worms. They would wait by the drains and scoop them up then come back with 8 liters in H2O of these disgusting "dancing worms" we had to dissect. Guess what they wrap sausage in.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

A good quality dog food isn't all that awful. Maybe not what I'd choose to eat for dinner, but I also don't snack out of the kitty litter box as my dogs would prefer to do. There's a ton of misinformation on *both* sides of the story.

If you do the homemade diet or "BARF" (bones and raw food) diet, it becomes a lot of work to do it right. It's more work than what I put into cooking for my family -- though perhaps that's not a fair comparison....

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

Gack! Okay, I'm not reading this forum OR the grossest-thing one. Now I keep imagining round worms in my mouth. (I imagine them feeling like cold tortellini.)

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

dammit gwen..

I read somewhere once that the fda standards for dog food are more stringent than they are for people-food..

The more I read about how meat and poultry are prepared, the less meat I eat..

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

JD, not true. Basically, a lot dog food is made of stuff picked up off the floor of slaughterhouses then they add preservative that allows rendered fat to sit on shelf for years at a time.. I agree, good quality dog foods aren't that bad. They're expensive as hell, but not that bad. I just can't pay $40 for a bag of kibble.I resisted the idea of BARF for a long time because I was wondering what kind of freaks would cook for their dogs (apparently, that would be me), but I got some really easy recipes that I'm going to try that don't involve a lot of time or effort. Mary Ellen's right, though, people argue a lot on both sides. I have some articles about dog food ingredients if anyone wants to take a gander, email me.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

I remeber what you're talking about Vicki...It was called "Phisohex" by the makers of "Phisoderm". I remember by mom pitching a bottle of it when it was yanked from the market for containing something as bad for you as it was for germs...

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

I've heard that the reason why shredded cheese doesn't stick is because they put sawdust on it. My Pampered Chef lady told me this.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

I think your Pampered Chef lady was trying to sell more of the cheese shredders.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

I agree with Vicki, I think the idea of using nitrogen to puff up chip bags makes sense. That way the chips would stay fresher. But remember, the air you breathe is 78% nitrogen, so it's not like nitrogen is bad for you or unnatural. Or at least the air I breathe here in the mountains is ~78% nitrogen, 20% oxygen. I don't know what it is nowadays over in southern CA or in other high smog places. What do you think Vic?

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

Of course...100% nitrogen to prevent oxidation from the O2 in atmospheric air. Too bad it isn't helium or we could all take a deep breath and talk like Donald Duck when we open potato chip bags.

I am pleased to see that I am not the only science dork on the boards, but once again promise to cut this out.

fruitdork

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

Fruitbat, don't cut out the science..I love that stuff! I also remember Physohex (sp?) Wasn't it in that little green drum shaped bottle (or was that Janitor in a Drum?) Anyway, i think we had some in 1970....ahhh, avacado green is coming back to me.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

Fruitbat, there are lots of us lurking scientists who secretly get off on this stuff, so keep doing it. :-)

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

Hmmmm. I wonder if Gwen realizes just how many scientists are reading her stuff. Obviously there's a little trailer trash in all of us :)

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2000

My cat will not eat anything that's not in her bowl. Isn't she well- mannered? And she's a ghetto cat! Actually, I think that she just likes the Whiskas packaging. She doesn't want to know what's in it, though, and neither do I.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2000

Ditto for me, too, fruitbat. I'm studying forensic entomology right now so I can get better at my job and write about it with some authority. If anyone knows how I can found out how blowflys are able to find a body right away, please let me know.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2000

Yes, yes Fruitbat and Lisa D. It has all come back to me. Phisohex in a green bottle. Michelle the air comp. is probably 20%O2, 30% carbon monoxide, 20% sulfur and 30% other nasty crap that turns it brown. Luckily the daily ocean breeze in San Diego gives those of us higher than. sea level fresh air, but people in the valleys or stuck up against the mountains like in L.A. suffer. Yeah, Gwen your visual imagery was right on. Like "cold tortellini", just as long but four times fatter. And if I'm not mistaken, don't they put sauage in the intestinal skins? Yum, yum. By the time we get done with this thread we'll all be vegatarians.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2000

Vicki...I think it was Hexachlorophene. Am I right? I remember the stuff. Smelled funny, too.

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2000

Yea Bubba, I think Phisohex was the marketing name and Hexachlorophene is the chemical name. I think you can still find it in use at hosiptals although Betedine soap is found more frequently.

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2000

Okay, hexochlorophene rings a bell for me . . . [going OT] I taped one of those "before they were stars" shows some years back, and I like to watch it, so I've often seen this old pre-Kotter commercial with John Travolta and two other guys in the shower (don't ask), singing "Something something gets you clean, cuz it's got something HEXOCHLOROPHENE . . . " So obviously hexo-etc. is some Scientologist plot. It enters your brain through your skin and destroys your sense of good taste.

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2000

Fixing my email

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2000

are there really gross things in wieners? cuz i love them but poeple all ways tell me they have rat poop and piggy eyes in them? is that true???

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2000

Well, it depends on what kind of franks and sausages you're buying. Regular Oscar Meyer's are principally beef and pork cuts that aren't salable in their natural state... ears, lips, and assholes. I tend to eat a lot of this in the form of kielbasa and italian sausage. If you buy chicken or turkey franks, then you're getting "mechanically separated" meat, which is everything they can scrape off after the fillet cuts have been removed, leaving nothing but naked bone. Heads, feet, and other parts are also used here. I don't think I eat much of this, except occasionally as that yummy, salty Underwood chicken salad spread. Finally, there's kosher franks and sausages. These are generally made from regular cuts of beef from lesser grade sides, never pork of course, and usually seasoned better than regular hot dogs. I always try and buy kosher hot dogs (or knockwurst), mostly just because they taste so darn good! If you really want to make sure you're not eating ears and assholes, buy your sausages and franks at a local butcher who makes his own.

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2000

wow!!! ty for all the info redcross! ill have to try all of those weeners yum!

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2000

Interesting forum. Purina use to manufacture a canned cat food that looked more tasty than Charlie in a can. I guess it got too expensive to sell....no longer on the shelves. I came to this site due to a search for the manufacturer of Phisohex. Bought a facial scrub pad 5 bucks that fell apart after a week. Kinda ticked me off. Gonna write them a letter if I can find the Web site.

-- Anonymous, January 18, 2001

Tuna cat food is just tuna that isn't good enough to be sold to humans. My father's business was grocery distribution and one time he got a pallet of canned tuna fish that was labelled incorrectly at the canning plant, and was caught before they went into the stores. People would have been buying what was supposed to be cat food.

-- Anonymous, January 18, 2001