Pop-top cans and hyperthyroidism in cats

This is interesting. I have to thank my Mother for bringing this to my attention. I thought it was total bunk, but there might be a little something to it.

There have been no studies that demonstrate that canned foods or pop-top cans cause hyperthyroidism. However, there have been two retrospective studies that looked at many, many different things in the life of a hyperthyroid cat to try and see if there were any statistically significant findings. There were. More hyperthyroid cats ate canned food compared to dry. (But there were several other statistics about lifestyle, sex, age at onset - that's all for another blog post). One study suggested that cats eating fish, giblet, and liver flavors were over represented.

These studies looked back as far as 1974. Canned foods at that time were not prepared using the same chemicals used now, but the link was still there.

So - is it the can, the lining, or something else? Iodine may be the culprit. It may be the plastic, it might be the teflon, it might be preservatives, it might be aluminum, it might be just plain bad nutrition.

The moral of the story is - we don't know. But it's awfully darned suspicious. Feline nutrition needs to be improved upon. We've let our cats down in this respect. Canned food is recommended for many cats, some experts suggest cats should ONLY eat canned food. (increased water intake is a good thing in cats - again, something for another post).

AMH