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Can one feed a cat with regular food? I always feel bad for my friends cat as she gets cat food and that is not very good food.
Most dry food brands have nutrients for cats that they might not find in human food, aside maybe from fish (if they don't get enough taurine their vision deteriorates more as they age). As for everything else in the cat food, well...those might actually be worse, considering some cats get old healthy enough living off generous restaurant owners (that or they get run over).
As for wet food...well, try not to feed the cats while nursing a hangover. I've managed o plunk down the liver spread on my cat's bowl and spread the Fancy Feast (whatever flavor that was) on my bread. Good thing I noticed my liver smelled "fishy," literally. (Could be the orange one, Salmon) With or without that blooper though take into consideration that wet food tends to have more meat (as opposed to grain, as dry food is effectively cereal) and nutrients but since they're moist are also more saturated with preservatives.
One trick to giving cats human food and keepign it both convenient and healthy is when buying fish, buy extra for the cats, then integrate the prep for their food with yours. When I'm cooking milkfish for soup, I boil all the fish, and before they cook through I take out the cats' food, then drop in the spices/vegetables for mine. When I'm pan grilling tuna or salmon, I just sear theirs first (mostly to kill off bacteria, it's not like I get my fish from a sushi-grade market) in as little butter as possible, let it cool then cook my steaks; by the time we eat their steaks would be cool. When I do fish cakes, I boil extra fish, then after pulling them apart and separating the bones and heads, feed the cats before I mix in the spices and bread crumbs (fish heads and tails go to the stray cats outside). If you plan to make a huge batch just boil fish all the way through then store in a Lock n Lock (or similar container) in the fridge.
I try to avoid this with poultry and even red meat though since they tend to have too much fat and/or spices to go along with the cooking process; steaks that I don't season with anything mroe than salt and pepper are just too expensive. Ocassionally however I have to give in; my cats like my bacon-wrapped pork and beef meatloaf too much that even if I lock them away so I can do my prep, by the time the smell wafts out of the kitchen they all start going nuts, more than if I was cooking meat sauce, ribs, or just about anything that isn't fish. Worse is it doesn't stop with my washing the dishes (not like showing them an empty pan makes them understand it's all gone) so I really just have to share the dumb bacon before the neighbors think I'm going all Michael Vick with some bobcats. At the very worst, that was fat and some black pepper in the ground meat; but at least it's real meat without preservatives (I prefer fresh, uncured bacon for this dish anyway, so no sugar).
Basically, if you want really healthy food for your cats, you either spend a lot of cash, or you just eat more fish, and I don't mean "Chicken of the Sea" sandwich spread. This actually makes me wonder whether sushi chefs' cats are healthier.
