Message Number: YG11325 | New FHL Archives Search
From: miamiferret
Date: 2002-02-21 15:56:00 UTC
Subject: Re: How much Chromium does a ferret with Insulinoma need?

The reason those recipes have chromium is because in the past, it was
believed that "chromium helps glucose levels" meant that it raised
glucose levels, something one would want to do for a hypoglycemic
ferret.

Within the last year or two, this has been a hotly debated topic.
Most now agree that the statement that chromium helps blood sugar
levels means that it actually lowers it, and this is why it is useful
to diabetics. Many of those recipes are a few years old and still
list chromium because that was the thinking back then. It has
nothing to do with any sugar contained in the recipes.

I'm VERY glad you brought this up because I need to add a warning to
that page on this topic. I have the warning on the "Insulinoma
Elixer" page, but overlooked the duck soup page. Thank you for
pointing it out!

mike

--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., "funnifamily" <funnifamily@a...>
wrote:

> I was looking at the "duck soup recipes" thinking I should probably
> make some for Spaz (our 7 week old ferret) could get used to
various
> foods for when and if she got sick. I noticed that most of the
> recipes called for chromium, one even specifically said add
chromium
> (the North Coast Duck Soup) to the recipe for insulinoma ferrets.