Can you spell out what you consider "junk?" Let me start off by being
specific:

Today, I just purchased Science Diet liver & chicken entree, kitten:
Water, liver, chicken, egg product, soybean meal, fish meal, brewers
rice, corn gluten meal, chicken fat preserved with mixed tocopherols
and citric acid, corn starch, soy protein isolate, and so on.

Some of the items may not be wonderful but "junk?" There's less junk in
this food than most human foods I would wager. I am quite pleased that
the first four things appear to be real food or liquids, like water,
liver, chicken and egg product. So that's good. That's definitely not
junk. Now the fifth food is soybean meal which is not great for a
carnivore but it is fifth down the line. What we do not know are the
weights of all these foods because the FDA has not gotten down on
labels yet in any foods to that point. But the natural foods eschew
meals, strange additives, and by-products as a point of pride and
marketing. I am always attracted to the idea that less is more here.

That's nice your cats are in such good shape. I have traded off Science
Diet dry Light for other foods and noticed an improvement also. But
Science Diet is still quite well regulated and starting to introduce
"natural" products. But Newman never answered my email. And PetGuard
still has not told me what all is in their foods. As far as Evolve,
Wellness, and so forth, a common chain near me with a terribly plebian
name [Reigning Cats and Dogs has a certain cachet that Pet Warehouse
just misses] carries all those brands which is great. If my cat would
eat it, then it's just peachy but she prefers Science Diet at times so
it's a bit of a struggle. A wide spectrum is fine.

As far water, I prefer to give her filtered water since I know pretty
much what is in it and it's what I drink too. Poland Springs is
probably pretty good but I have not checked out bottled water in a long
time - I used to look at analyses on record, lab reports. And I agree
that many cats seem washed out and unfit from the really terrible foods
in the supermarkets. It's really quite sad. I think it may also be a
lack of stimulation which makes the cats seem so depressed and
listless, in addition to the junk food which you mention. Sometimes I
just hate to witness how people keep their pets all boxed up with fatty
food that tastes and looks like cardboard.

I have not tried giving my cat kosher food. Although I try not to give
her milk with meat...

If you are near a Whole

I didn't know Whole Foods carried Wellness.  I don't feed commerical
food myself, but I have some friends who feed Wellness so this is good
to know.

Lauren