My cat has been fed nothing except dry pellet cat chow for 10 years, and she is perfectly healthy. The cat food supplies all the nutrition she needs.
Why is there no dry pellet “people food” that contains all necessary nutrients? Not that I’m expecting people to eat the same dry stuff every day all their lives. But it could be very useful— Say, for soldiers, for emergency relief supplies at disaster areas, and for long-term relief of starving villagers in Africa.
I wish I could remember where I read this, but I once read something suprising: Apparently, variety in one’s diet actually correlates with unhappiness. The more routine your diet, for some reason, it turns out, the happier you tend to be.
So these people pellets might be just the thing for everybody, not just for starving villagers!
There is, although AFAIK it’s only available a liquid form (I know, you said “dry pellet”). Specifically, drinks like Ensure and Resource are complete, even to the point of containing trace elements.
It’s possible these trade names are unique to Canada, but my point is the same.
I thought of this very question last night as I was feeding the three cats and two dogs I’ve been petsitting this weekend. I agree that “People Chow” (or “Bachelor Chow,” which would be appropriate for me, though Purina might have to make some sort of payment to Matt Groening) is something I would probably eat.
Pet food is also a lot cheaper than human food.
How complete are those nutrition drinks? Could I live off of nothing but Ensure and water for decades and still be perfectly healthy?
Bear in mind, also, that your can has something like 4% of your mass and sleeps 20 hours a day. That means he burns one hell of lot less energy than you do, which means that he eats much less. You’d probably go through two bags of cat food a week.
I did some research on this.
Apparently Purina Monkey Chow fits the bill, but sucks.
It’s NOT much cheaper than a cheap diet, though.
There are also questions about the E. Coli count for that food in some tests.
I read an article about a guy who lived on pigeon feed for a year or so. It was cheap and nutritious enough, I guess.
I was at Costco the other week and they were selling those five-gallon buckets of what was basically “human chow.” But they called it “emergency rations” or something. It was bags of variously named & flavored gruel all you need to do is boil some water & mix. It wasn’t particularly cheap though. I think it was something like $80/bucket. I don’t remember what it worked out to per/meal, but it did seem to be “human chow.”
Oh, and while it apparently contained all the proteins, carbs, vitamins & minerals you need etc; it was vegetarian. I tasted some at the sample table and it wasn’t bad.
There’s an old thread on this from a few years back. I’m running a search on the phrase “people kibble” but I think they’ve run out of hamster kibble, so no luck so far.
We do this every so often, as you can see by now. It seems possible, or at least I haven’t been shown how it’s impossible, but it seems nobody with the ability to make it happen sees a market. I say they’re unimaginative clods too myopic to see past the ends of their own noses, but that’s just me.
I know I’d buy it in a second. Sometimes I just don’t have the energy or time to prepare myself a meal, much less worry about whether that meal is nutritional or healthy. I wouldn’t even care if it tastes a little weird, as long as it doesn’t induce the gag reflex.
I guess Slimfast shakes might fit the bill – they’re advertised as a meal-replacement drinks, and judging by the nutrition information on the label, they contain the right balance of protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals that a human needs to survive. They’re definitely not cheap though, and the thick, chalky texture takes some getting used too.
I for one would love decent-tasting People Kibble. But I’ve tried the Balance Bar/Power Bar test for a day and it didn’t feel so hot. It wasn’t the taste, but the discomfort of a gnawing empty stomach, despite having supposedly ingested enough calories to keep alive.
I wonder what would happen if someone tried Balance cars for a month? Does your stomach shrink THAT much if you eat non-filling food that it would get to the point of not hurting anymore when it’s mostly empty?
And oh, I heard somewhere that Power Bars WERE designed for astronauts in the hope of finding some kind of People Kibble that humans could eat and produce minimal feces from. Just an urban legend as far as I know.
