Do Cats Need Vitamines?
Do They Need Vitamines?
Pet owners of today face a wide variety of choices when deciding what to buy for their cats. These choices can and will determine the health of the feline. Good nutritional choices will mean a long, sustainable, illness-free life. Bad choices can mean suffering and premature aging and death for the animal.
What do you need to know about helping your cat remain healthy? Well there are several options. First of all a feline is a carnivore. Cats have always needed the nutrition of meat in order to survive. In fact in the wild cats will hunt their meat, for example just look at lions and tigers. Your domestic cat should not be any different with regard to offering protein in the meal. Water is also an important source of nutrients. To maintain healthy weight water is needed.
Other vitamins your cat needs include vitamin A, D, E and B complex. Also niacin, riboflavin, and thiamin are needed for a complete nutritional complement. Taurine is an important amino acid for felines. They cannot manufacture enough of this nutritional supplement by themselves. One supplement they do not need to consume is vitamin C. Cats synthesize enough of this nutrient within their bodies, as well as vitamin K.
The Mediterranean diet. The benefits of an ancient tradition
Rather than a diet commonly understood, the so-called Mediterranean diet is a diet that is characterized as a real lifestyle. This name refers to the typical diet, even with heightened local diversity, the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea (especially Italy, Spain, Greece and southern France).
It was the American nutritionist Ancel Keys first to sense that the low incidence of mortality from cardiovascular disease in the Mediterranean region was attributed to the characteristics of food to these people, then gave birth to an epidemiological study, Seven Countries Study showed that, comparing the diets of seven different countries (Finland, Japan, Italy, Greece, United States, Holland and Yugoslavia), which shows that in countries bordering on the Mediterranean has the lowest mortality rate due to heart disease nutrition which includes the consumption of animal fats as privileging those few plants, just think that, contrary to what happens in other European paesei where they are used in abundance animal fats like butter and lard, seasonings and fried foods at the base of in our country are based on olive oil which has a high content of monounsaturated fats, which protect against heart disease, and antioxidants like vitamin E.
The Mediterranean diet ensures adequate intake of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and fiber. Consumed at least three meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner) which can add two small meals (known snacks) in mid-morning or mid afternoon. Contarini to popular belief, does not allow consumption of large quantities of bread and pasta rather have a more important role legumes and cereals, consumed a lot of white meat, in small quantities than red, and fish, especially blue, rich in omega 3 with vasodilator and anti-inflammatory properties. The diet also includes moderate consumption of red wine that has an antioxidant effect of the high content of flavonoids. Characteristic of the Mediterranean diet are also the unique dishes, are an example of the pasta and vegetables or pasta with meat, soups, pizza. Typically, the main meal always ends with fruit or vegetables.
The diet itself should then add the beneficial effects of an active lifestyle. High consumption of fruits, vegetables, cereals, pulses, bread, the preferential use of vegetable fats such as olive oil, moderate consumption of cheese fat, and seasonal products, local and fresh, along with other factors protection, such as exercise, avoid smoking, and a stressful lifestyle trope and of course still moderate consumption of food (the Mediterranean countries are certainly not free from threats such as obesity) may be a useful tool not only prevention of cardiovascular diseases but also diseases such as colon cancer, breast and lung.
Breastfeed. All the benefits of breast milk
Breastfeeding is the single most healthy and natural that a mother can do for your child. Besides being the most suitable food from nutritional point of view as it ensures the right amount of protein, fats, sugars, minerals and vitamins, breast milk provides the child an outstanding weapon against germs and viruses because his mother at every feeding passes to the child's own antibodies and other protective factors such as lactoferrin and lysozyme.
Breast milk is also extremely safe as a food does not trigger food allergies and by changing its formula in the day is to meet from time to time the different needs of the small, in the morning for example, when the child needs most energy, is richer in fat and protein. With casomorphin, substance painkiller and sedative effect, children breast, have a more regular sleep and quiet.
Breast-feeding, as well as benefit the health of small, has some positive effects also on the mother: mothers who are breastfeeding their children have a lower risk than other women to develop breast or ovarian cancer and are less exposed the risk of developing the osteoporosis in old age. Furthermore, the suction stimulates production of oxytocin in maternal blood, a hormone that promotes uterine contractions, reducing bleeding after childbirth. Because lactation involves considerable consumption of calories, nursing mothers faster return to weight.
The baby should be at the breast immediately after birth to stimulate the mammary gland and hence the production of colostrums, a yellowish liquid product before the actual milk and rich in substances that stimulate and strengthen the immune system of the child. Colostrums are sufficient to meet the needs of the child for the first three to four days, after which you will have the appearance of breast milk, the so-called lacto genesis. The breastfed baby has to eat as often as you wish, and then feeding should not be scheduled at fixed hours, also exclusive breastfeeding and you should never offer any kind of substitute for small breasts as pacifiers or baby bottles. The feedings should be frequent and close-ups and during the night must meet the same intervals. Because breast milk is composed of 87% of water is not necessary to administer other liquids such as water or herbal teas.
Of course, breastfeed your baby can be tiring but it makes countless benefit mother and child. First strengthens the bond between the two and facilitate the proper and balanced physical and psychological development of the baby. Breastfeeding is also practical, because the child can be fed at anytime and anywhere, and economic, because obviously the mother's milk does not cost anything! Finally, it is true that there are forbidden foods during lactation, if anything it should reduce the consumption of foods which may also disturb the mother and, as always, limit your intake of alcohol (it is true that the beer or red wine are increase the production of milk!)