Clubs Offering:
A walk down the pet food aisle shows high-end (and high-priced) kibbles boasting “grain-free” formulas. We’re made to feel guilty if we feed our dogs the dreaded grain. But what’s the big deal?
Grain may have gotten a really bad name from the 2007 pet-food contamination tragedy in which wheat gluten imported from China had been contaminated with industrial chemicals used to falsely boost protein-level readings and caused kidney damage when ingested. Thousands of pets got ill and many died. Of course it wasn’t the grain itself that was the culprit, but that’s what many people remember.
Combine that incident with the human gluten-free food trend, and it’s only natural that health-conscious pet owners would consider the same for their dogs. It’s not that wheat gluten is evil. Some people have the auto-immune disorder Celiac Disease, some have non-celiac gluten sensitivity, and some may have a wheat allergy. The rest of us are just fine with it and can eat it or be exposed to it with no adverse effects. We don’t know what percentage of dogs may have a similar condition, but chances are it’s not all of them.
What about the claim that grains cause food allergies? Grains don’t cause allergies. They can, however, be the target of allergies, and some foods are more allergenic than others. Those foods are specific ones, such as wheat, not general categories, such as grains.
The top five allergy-provoking ingredients for dogs are (in order):
Some dogs can have an allergy to storage mites. Several studies have found that dry dog food that has been opened and stored in non-sealed containers for six weeks often (but not always) grows storage mites. The studies did not differentiate between grain-free foods and those containing grain. One study concluded that these mites can be prevented by storing food in cool, dry environments, in sealed containers, and for not more than a month. They also concluded that while dogs can be allergic to storage mites, more are allergic to household dust mites.
Some people are concerned about the use of genetically modified grains. They believe their use can lead to “leaky gut syndrome” in which small fissures develop in the gut lining, allowing bacteria, toxins, incompletely digested proteins, and fats to leak into the bloodstream, triggering an autoimmune response resulting in food sensitivities, fatigue, skin rashes, gas, and bloating. But there is no actual evidence of this occurring—at this point, just speculation. Nonetheless, if GMOs concern you, look for foods with less popular grains, which are less likely to be genetically modified. These include barley, oats, millet, quinoa, teff, buckwheat, and amaranth.
There’s also the perception that dogs should be eating a diet similar to their wild ancestors’. When was the last time you saw a wolf nibbling the kernels off a corncob? However, dogs are actually different from wolves in this regard; in fact, scientists believe that one of the physiological changes that helped dogs evolve alongside humans was the ability to digest starch. Dogs have differences in 10 key genes compared to wolves that enable them to better utilize grains than wolves can.
Furthermore, grain-free foods don’t mean plant-free foods. Grains are seeds, like wheat, rice, oats, corn, barley, millet, oatmeal, and quinoa. Grain-free diets use other plant sources such as potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, tapioca, peas, butternut squash, parsnips, carrots, spinach greens, and various fruits. These are also not foods wolves are known to eat. In fact, some of these ingredients provide less nutrition than grains.
This idea probably came about from the Atkins low-carb diet popular with humans. But grain-free does not mean carbohydrate-free. Grain-free foods contain about the same amount of carbohydrates as foods containing grains. In actuality, wheat gluten contains more than 80 percent protein, is 99 percent digestible, and has an amino acid profile similar to meat proteins. Corn, when prepared properly, is actually an excellent source of highly digestible carbohydrate, essential fatty acids, and fiber, and can be an especially crucial ingredient in diets for dogs with medical conditions requiring reduced fat or protein.
Amino Acids Utilized by Dogs and Cats
“Non essential” (not required in the diet)
“Essential” (is only obtained via the diet)
Herbivores conveniently have amino acids produced to a great extent by billions of microorganisms along their multi-stomached and lengthy gastrointestinal tracts. Our furry friends, with their relatively short and simple gastrointestinal tracts, are unable to capitalize on microbe amino acid synthesis and require preformed (i.e., they cant make it themselves) amino acids (in the form of larger protein molecules) to be present in sufficient diversity in ingested food.
Note that cats have a few special needs that dogs to not have, such as a dietary source of a beta amino acid called taurine (to read more about this see “Cats Are Different”).
Fats required are easy to acquire from both plant and animal origins and are easily mixed into the diet. Everyone agrees that linoleic and (for cats) arachidonic fatty acids are necessary. (Linolenic is synthesized from linoleic both by dogs and cats). High quality fats are readily available, can be stabilized with vitamin E and vitamin C, and are fairly consistent in cost. There, that takes care of the fat in the diet. Nothing complicated to this.
Vitamins and minerals are inexpensive, well documented as to types and amounts, and can be added conveniently to any food product. No problem here.
Carbohydrates are useful to dogs and cats for readily burnable fuel for all kinds of muscular and metabolic activities. Cheap and easily produced sources of carbohydrates are such items as rice, corn, wheat, barley and soy. Hmmmmmmm … sounds like what some pet food manufacturers are commonly using as their first choice for a diet’s foundation. Some even claim these plant products to be an excellent sources of protein!
In their book on nutrition Case, Carey and Hirakawa list seventeen plant products including ground rice, corn, wheat, oats, barley, alfalfa and others as sources of carbohydrates. In fact, one of the benefits of carbohydrates, so say the experts, is that they are protein sparing. That is, the animal will utilize inexpensive carbohydrate sources for energy if available to the animal before the animal will utilize more expensive (a human concept!) protein.
So, lets add some plant material to our ideal food for the carbohydrate benefits and not confuse anybody by implying (or worse, stating) that the corn, rice or wheat is primarily a protein product. (The same authors list nineteen pet food ingredients used as protein sources. . . and ground corn, wheat, rice, oats, barley and alfalfa are NOT on that list.)
That takes care of the carbohydrates in our diet; we know we will use some inexpensive grains, however our diet will NOT use grain as the foundation or primary ingredient. And just so you know, dogs and cats do very well on diets with minimal carbohydrates and a preponderance of fats and high quality protein. Dogs and cats differ from humans in this respect. Remember, all aspects of human nutrition do not necessarily correspond to canine and feline nutrition.
Having stated that proteins can readily be used as a source of energy for dogs and cats, that carbohydrates are of much less importance than in human diet andmetabolism, we should place a major responsibility on the protein content of our ideal diet. Since we know that ten amino acids are required from dietary sources, it only makes sense that we pick a protein source that has a full spectrum of amino acids.
We know for sure we are not going to pick corn as a protein source since it contains only four of the ten essential amino acids and contains no taurine, plus nutrition experts didnt even include corn on the list of protein sources in pet foods. Corn was on the carbohydrate list!
Canine and Feline Nutrition lists substances that provide protein, including beef, chicken, eggs, fish, lamb and meat by-products. (Just so you know… the meat by-products in pet foods as defined by the Association of American Feed Control Officials do NOT contain hair, hide, hooves or feathers, but actually refer to organ meats like liver, kidney, stomach, heart, blood, spleen, etc.) Meat by-products are a great source of protein for a meat eating animal.
Therefore, for our diet to contain a wide spectrum of amino acids, we will choose to have it contain the best source of protein for mammals — eggs, or more precisely the egg whites. This substance has a wide amino acid profile and is highly digestible. In fact, egg white is considered a standard against which other protein sources are measured. Other really good choices would be meat, poultry or fish.
So for dogs (and cats) our custom diet will contain vitamins and minerals, some grain for readily available energy, a proper amount and ratio of fat sources, and as a foundation, a high quality MEAT source.
Pet food manufacturers know very well how to make a great diet just like the one we put together. The problem is that it would be expensive to produce, especially if eggs and beef and fish were in it. And to be competitive with other pet food producers, the price of the food dictates what the foundation (primary ingredients) of the diet will be.
ENTER CORN … its cheap, takes up lots of room in the bag of food and in the pets stomach so it will “fill ‘em up”, its a good carbohydrate source so the pet will have some energy, it has a few amino acids in it so the corn will contribute to the protein totals on the guaranteed analysis list, and theres a cheap and steady supply of corn. So the pet food manufacturer makes a corn diet, adds some “meat and bone meal” (which has been cooked at least twice before it gets in the bag and may contain too much calcium) to “complete the amino acid profile” and adds a few other calculated substances so that COMPLETE AND BALANCED can be stamped prominently on the pet food label.
The natural world was set up in such a way that, in reference to dog and cat food, cheap ingredients based on plant products and resulting in cheap pet foods always turn out to be a poor choice when attempting to nourish a meat eater. Conversely, expensive substances such as eggs, meat, poultry and fish are far better choices when designing a good diet for meat eaters. NOTE: “Expensive” and “costs” are human terms and have no relationship to what Nature set up regarding what constitutes an ideal diet for a meat eater.
Throughout each of the nutrition texts referred to in this article, the authors repeatedly stress the importance of high quality, nutrient dense, and highly digestible pet food products. Yes, these products will cost the consumer more than the generic brands. We animal caretakers have an obligation to our animals to strongly favor good quality products and to stop choosing pet foods based upon price.
Dogs (and cats) are livelier and healthier when meat, poultry, lamb and fish are the foundation of their diets. In other words, we should choose to feed our pets meat and denounce the senseless practice of feeding them as if they were herbivores simply because that would be cheaper to do.
According to Canine and Feline Nutrition, page 174:
By “high-quality” they are referring to meat, poultry and fish products that are derived mainly from muscle and organ tissue rather than “meat and bone meals”. Some types of animal-derived meals are not considered to be high quality because of the processing they undergo.
A few individuals express concern regarding feeding dogs and cats “high protein” diets. Blame is laid on “high protein” levels for a spectrum of disorders ranging from epilepsy to hyperactivity to kidney damage. Attempts to find a level of protein at which a diet becomes “high” in it are often met with a range of values; nutrition experts do not all agree what level constitutes a “high” level of protein in a dog (or cat’s) diet.
The data showing that excess protein causes renal damage are imaginative extrapolations of results derived from test animals that have renal deficits pre-existing and who are then fed levels of protein that induce uremic poisoning. Early studies that pronounced protein as harmful to dog kidneys were based on studies done on RATS! They werent even done on dogs, and that research drove the pet food industry for years.
As it turns out, there are major differences in how the rat kidney (is a rat a meat eater, anyway?) metabolizes protein contrasted to how the canine kidney handles protein. I invite anyone to produce even one scientific experiment on dogs or cats that proves normal kidneys are harmed by feeding good quality, balanced rations that contain high levels of protein.
The more one peers into this pet food universe, the more one is impressed as to how much we have yet to learn. And much of what one learns is self-taught. Nutrition and pets — very interesting topics and worthy of our sincere investigation.
What are the symptoms of gluten sensitivity?
Symptoms of gluten sensitivity include gastrointestinal distress, diarrhea, vomiting, and a “foggy mind.”
Like humans, dogs can suffer from celiac disease. Dogs with gluten intolerance can’t eat wheat flour in any form without feeling sick. The severity of symptoms depends on the dog’s level of gluten sensitivity.