Optimize Your Dog's Nutrition for a Healthier Life
Have you ever pondered what your beloved four-legged companion consumes each day? Just like humans, dogs require proper nutrition to maintain their health. This concept is known as species-appropriate nutrition.
Certain species are incredibly sensitive to their diet, and dogs fall into that category. Even though they may not immediately perish from consuming the wrong food, their health will undoubtedly deteriorate over time. Let's explore the consequences of feeding your dog commercially processed dry food and investigate healthier alternatives.
Issues with Dry Food
Commercially processed dry food is essentially fast food for pets and comes with a range of problems:
Low-Quality Ingredients: Surprisingly, regulations often allow the inclusion of sick animal material and meat ingredients from animals that died other than by slaughter, all without proper disclosure. The FDA claims that processed pet food, including that made from animals that died in ways other than slaughter, undergoes high-heat processing to kill harmful bacteria.
Overly Processed Ingredients: The high-heat processing involved in dry food production leads to the loss of flavor, and many nutrients are lost, necessitating the addition of synthetic nutrients and flavor enhancers. This process can create carcinogens, posing long-term health risks.
High Starch Content: Most dry foods primarily consist of high carbohydrate levels like corn, wheat, rice, or potatoes. Even grain-free options often contain starchy carbohydrates like legumes, peas, and lentils. This high carbohydrate content can lead to metabolic stress and obesity in pets.
Low Moisture: Dry food is a dry product that can leave your dog in a constant state of dehydration. Dehydration symptoms in dogs include reduced energy, panting, dry eyes, nose, and gums, kidney failure, and loss of skin elasticity. Water is essential for vital bodily functions, such as regulating body temperature, activating energy in cells, transporting nutrients to cells, and eliminating waste and toxins. The liver needs water to process protein (so dry food with more than 20-22% protein is not recommended; it can even be harmful as it strains the internal organs) and transport waste products to the kidneys, where water is filtered out and reabsorbed by the body. Tap water can never replace the water in food; read more about this in the blog post "The Vital Importance of Water."
Increased Bacterial Risk: Dry dog food is susceptible to bacterial contamination and mycotoxins. Storage mites can also multiply rapidly in dry food, leading to issues like itchy, inflamed skin, hair loss, and ear infections in pets.
Quick Rancidity: As soon as you open a bag of dry food, the fats in the food begin to rancidify. Prolonged consumption of rancid fat in dry food can lead to vitamin deficiencies and cause health problems such as malnutrition, hair loss, diarrhea, kidney and liver diseases, reproductive problems, cancer, and, in the worst cases, death.
Added Colors and Chemicals: Many food colorings, often referred to as the "rainbow of risks" by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, have been banned due to their negative effects on lab animals. Some approved food colorings can cause serious health problems, including cancer and hypersensitivity reactions.
A Small Change
One would like to believe that the pet food industry has evolved the last years and that our pet foods today contain good-quality ingredients, that the most expensive foods are of top quality, and that veterinary diets truly have everything and more. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much change over the years. Today's commercial pet foods still contain the same by-products as they did 30 years ago. And not only that, the industry has become even more ingenious, and the big, well-known brands are owned by companies that own many other companies as well. It has been discovered that waste from one industry can be turned into profit in another. Much waste ends up in our dog food.
AAFCO or the American Association of Food Control Officers, is an industry organization that sets the standard for each animal species. But this is not a regulatory authority that ensures that the content of the food is good for our dogs. They are merely an organization that industry players voluntarily join. Among their advisors and committee members, we find representatives from companies like Hill's, Nestlé, and Cargill Animal Nutrition. In other words, the organization is not impartial.
Choose a Healthier Alternative
So, what should you give your dog instead? The optimal diet for dogs includes fresh, whole foods made from food-grade ingredients. Ideally, these ingredients should come from pasture-raised, free-range, and organic sources if possible.
A balanced diet for your dog should consist of healthy fats, high moisture content (around 70%), and a well-balanced blend of protein, carbohydrates, and other nutrients. One way to achieve such a balanced diet is by providing raw food.
A raw diet for dogs simply consists of fresh foods, including meat and cooked vegetables. This diet preserves the natural enzymes and vitamins present in raw food, which are destroyed at high temperatures. It's what dogs and their wild ancestors have been eating for centuries.
The Benefits of a Raw Diet
Transitioning to a minimally processed diet with whole foods can lead to several significant benefits for your dog's health:
A leaner, more muscular body, reducing the risk of obesity-related diseases.
Improved skin and coat quality, with allergies potentially disappearing.
Fresher breath and less odor. Better dental health.
Higher energy levels and overall vitality.
Improved digestion.
A longer and healthier life.
In the end, it's about choosing what keeps your dog happy and healthy while staying within your budget. Transitioning to a raw diet doesn't have to be all or nothing - even small amounts of raw food in your pet's diet can enhance their overall health.
Give your dog the gift of vibrant health and happiness with a diet that aligns with their natural needs.
//Mirabelle Wesden
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