PROCESSED PET FOOD- WHY YOU SHOULD AVOID IT

October 10, 2005

Processed Pet Food - Why you should avoid it

" Let medicine be your food and food your medicine

has been the catch cry of dedicated healers down the ages " .

On that basis it is hard to believe that dedicated animal healers –

veterinary surgeons - will recommend commercial pet food. I find this

hard to believe because as a practicing veterinary surgeon, I

constantly see the enormous difference in health between pets raised

on commercial pet food compared to those raised on a biologically

appropriate raw food diet. I see the enormous change for good in the

health of pets switched from cooked to a raw whole food diet. Despite

that very obvious connection between commercial pet food and the poor

health of the animals consuming it, commercial pet food has become

the accepted way to feed pets throughout the civilized world! There

are of course reasons. Much of it has to do with the way vets are

trained in small animal nutrition.

An alarming fact of life is that vets receive very little worthwhile

training in nutrition. No training in the use of raw whole foods and

a biased approach to our understanding of commercially produced pet

foods. It is relevant to ask what do many veterinarians really know

about pet foods? Unfortunately the answer translates as - not very

much. Regrettably, a lack of knowledge concerning nutrition has

become the basis for recommending processed pet food!

Most people and that includes vets who are interested in their own

health, will acknowledge raw whole foods as basic in the formulation

of their own healthy diet. Why then do we insist on feeding our pets

processed pet foods? Sadly we have been hoodwinked into accepting the

hype regarding commercial processed food. We are prepared to believe

the highly improbable theory that two species of animal, the dog and

the cat, will do better on a diet for which their bodies are totally

unsuited rather than their evolutionary diet!

" Unfortunately, many of the people who realize that commercially

produced dog food does not produce worthwhile results, devise and

cook up something which is in essence not very different from the

processed food they were worried about. As a consequence, the results

in terms of the health of their dog is not a whole lot better "

Processed pet foods do not produce the lifetime of health promised by

the pet food companies. They do not produce the lifetime of health

seen when a properly formulated raw whole food diet is employed. Most

degenerative disease processes in pet animals are the direct result

of a lifetime being fed cooked and/or processed foods. This includes

those so called " super premium " foods that have their own set of

unique nutritional problems.

The super premium processed foods have most of the drawbacks commonly

associated with " ordinary " pet foods, chief among which is the fact

they are based on cooked grain. However, they have an additional

problem. In their attempt to remedy another common problem associated

with dry foods - a lack of essential fatty acids, both omega 3's and

omega 6's - they contain a very high level of cooked polyunsaturated

fats. This makes the coats of the creatures that consume these

products look good in the short term, but in the long term, the

inclusion of high levels of heat damaged essential fatty acids will

produce an enormous range of degenerative diseases including many of

the auto immune diseases.

A lot of people use the expression " natural diet " when referring to

the evolutionary diet of pet animals. Forget the word natural. When

we approach this way of feeding from a scientific standpoint we speak

about feeding our domestic pets a biologically appropriate diet. It

is important to realize that processed foods are biologically

inappropriate. That is why they cause problems. They are not up to

the standard the `manufacturer' of our pets requires for optimal

performance. I believe that when we vets recommend any form of cooked

and processed food we fail our clients and their pets in a major way.

The sad truth is that prepared pet foods help provide patients for

vets

Prior to the mid 1960's, most Australians fed their pets on home

produced food. On the down side, the worst we did was to produce a

few simple and very obvious nutritional excesses or deficiency

problems. Mostly calcium deficiencies, with the odd vitamin B1

deficiency, vitamin A excess and the very occasional vitamin E

deficiency. These were simple uncomplicated nutritional problems that

are (and were) easily remedied. As our pets moved onto a steady diet

of processed foods, we swapped these limited number of easily

remedied straightforward nutritional problems for the vast array of

complex and insidious degenerative diseases which now afflict our

pets and fill our textbooks and waiting rooms. Problems with

difficult medical and surgical solutions. Problems that are not

usually associated with their true cause, the biologically

inappropriate foods that spawned them.

The question we must ask, has the swap been worth it? For pet owners,

has the convenience of feeding their pets with pet foods been worth

the increase in degenerative disease? As vets, has our relinquishing

of the right to be the experts on nutrition been worth the tremendous

increase in the suffering of our patients? We must educate ourselves

about the enormous dangers inherent in cooked and processed foods. We

must realize that they cannot and do not promote health.

The proof concerning these products is found in the long term results

of feeding them and the degenerative diseases they produce. The

reason these diseases occur is very simple. These processed pet foods

are BIOLOGICALLY INAPPROPRIATE. Those two words are the heart of the

matter.

In What Way are These Foods Biologically Inappropriate?

The philosophy behind the production of even the so called " best " of

these awful products is flawed. It is based on the requirements of

the manufacturer, not the needs of the consumer. That is, cost and

availability of basic ingredients combined with what is currently

known and legally determined as the minimum nutrient requirements for

a pet animal. To the recipes formulated using these principles is

added whatever the manufacturer deems necessary to ensure the animal

eats it (flavor enhancers), and whatever chemicals will prevent it

from autolysing or becoming rancid, together with colored dyes to

attract the purchaser. The result is a cooked " complete and balanced

at every meal " product which does not promote long term health, and

although " legally complete, " is not biologically complete - there is

a vast difference.

Processed pet foods contain barely adequate levels of the known

vitamins. As a result, pet foods do not cater for stressful periods

when vitamin needs increase or the individual needs of certain

animals whose requirements are higher than average. Pet foods are

full of indigestible and inappropriate grain based fibers that are

used as cheap fillers. These fibers bind and make unavailable

essential nutrients. They have an almost complete absence of

biologically appropriate fiber. Note that the fiber - sourced and

used by modern pet food manufacturers who have only just discovered

the importance of fiber - is not biologically appropriate in the way

that raw fiber produced from a wide range of in-season whole fruit

and vegetables is.

Many contain biologically inappropriate antioxidants, enormous levels

of refined sugars and masses of salt together with other chemicals

used as colorings and flavorings. This chemical cocktail is a lethal

brew which is a major factor in producing the epidemic of

degenerative disease leading to the early death and suffering we see

in pet animals fed such rubbish, including cancer, arthritis and a

range of allergies and auto immune diseases.

Cooking renders these products biologically inappropriate in a

fundamental way. It is now widely recognized that cooked food has had

much of its nutritional value lost. Cooked foods are devoid of

enzymes and biologically active essential fatty acids due to heat

denaturation. Once denatured, enzymes are no longer biologically

active. They are simply cooked proteins. Denatured essential fatty

acids which should be the backbone of health become slow poisons,

doing irreparable damage. In fact all processed pet foods are disease

producing simply because all of them lack biologically appropriate

essential fatty acids. They are either not added in the first place,

or have been denatured by heat during processing.

Cooking causes complexes to form between proteins and starches,

between vitamins and trace minerals, and between minerals and

minerals. By this method carcinogens and anti-immunogens are formed

and many minerals, essential amino acids and vitamins are lost to the

animal by becoming indigestible.

Processed and cooked foods are biologically inappropriate because

they lack nutrients which are only present in fresh whole raw foods.

These are the nutrients the body requires for healthy longevity. They

include biologically appropriate antioxidants - substances present in

the species diet until the present era. They include the

phytochemicals which to date number in excess of 100, 000 isolated,

with many more being discovered daily. Unfortunately typical

processed pet foods do not contain these health promoting

degeneration reducing factors. Such factors are present only in raw

whole foods.

It takes many years for the loss of such nutrients to be noticed.

Even then, the degenerative diseases which develop are generally

assumed to be part of the " normal " aging process, and are rarely if

ever linked to these foods which caused them.

The vast majority of these products are based on cooked grains. This

makes them biologically inappropriate. At no time in their

evolutionary history (except in the last 50 to 150 years) have cats

and dogs been subjected to cooked grain in any amount, and certainly

not as the basis of their diet. Our pets in Australia have only

suffered eating this way for a relatively short period of time. About

thirty years. However, in that relatively short period of time we

have seen a population of pet animals exchange a few simple

deficiency diseases for a whole range of complex degenerative

diseases largely unknown prior to that time.

Biologically inappropriate pet foods attempt to be balanced at every

meal rather than producing a situation where the diet is balanced

over time. This, approach where added vitamins and minerals are mixed

with a combination of chemicals, starches, proteins and rendered fats

and then mixed and subjected to heat, makes many nutrients

unavailable. It also produces toxic and carcinogenic chemicals.

October 10, 2005

Nothing here suggests what we *should* be feeding our pets.

dippitydodahff <MRSCM4871 wrote:Processed Pet Food - Why you should

avoid it