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Columbia Gorge Veterinary
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Columbia Gorge Veterinary
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One of the most important decisions we make for your pets health care is simply the food we choose to feed them. Many of us have been conditioned by cute TV commercials and fancy product packaging to believe that all pet foods are essentially the same so we might as well get what's on sale and save a few dollars. The reality is that there is a tremendous difference in quality between true premium foods and the typical grocery store varieties. It is of utmost importance for us to realize that the food we choose to pour into our pets bowl is critical to their good health and vitality. Remember that they are totally dependent on us to make the right nutritional decisions for them.
To make an informed decision on our pets nutrition we must consider some basic information on this important subject. Keep in mind that nutrition is a very broad and often confusing and even controversial subject. But since this is something that we have real choices about and can do something about its worth giving some thought.
The first thing to consider is that virtually all pet foods are processed food products. This means that basic food ingredients are cracked, ground, blended, cooked, extruded, flavored, preserved and packaged, (Not necessarily in that order.) Then the finished product is stored (warehouse), shipped, stored again (retailer), and eventually sold to the consumer (where it is stored again until fed to our pets). As with all processed foods, the nutritional content starts declining the moment the whole grains are cracked and ground, and the meat is ground and cooked. Oxygen is the primary culprit in food degradation. Freshness of food is essential for high quality nutrition. The best solution would be for us to buy a variety of organic whole kernel grains, grind them yourself, add fresh whole meat in the right proportion and then cook this at home. This is not very practical for most of us. We rely on pet food manufactures to do the job for us. Unfortunately most manufactures
do not use the most optimal basic ingredients to start with. Certainly not ingredients that would be our first choices if we were doing it ourselves at home (and especially feeding it to our own family members), Most pet foods, including some of the premium brands, use by-products as part of their ingredients list. By-products is a rather innocent sounding word that often means already used or discarded remains of human food processing. A more accurate way of viewing by-products is the unusable leftovers or dregs of human food manufacturing, that you don't really want to know what it actually consists of. Freshness and quality have very little to do with preprocessed ingredients and by-products. Look carefully at the ingredient list on the label of the food you buy to make sure that by-products and previously processed ingredients are not part of the list.
Preserving processed foods to prevent the damaging effects of oxygen exposure and free oxygen radicals (unstable ions) formation is essential. Most manufactures use chemical preservatives to slow rancidity and oxidation. Though chemicals are effective preservatives it is questionable how healthy they are for our pets to ingest. We recommend to buy foods that are naturally preserved with vitamin C and, or vitamin E (tocopherols). Not only do they help minimize oxidation damage, but provide valuable vitamin nutrition themselves.
Basic laboratory analysis of protein, fat and carbohydrate content of foods tell only part of the story of how nutritionally valuable the food is to your pet. Poor quality protein by-products such as feathers, tendon, and connective tissue will show as high protein content on lab assays. This obviously is not providing protein your pet can digest or utilize. Protein must be digestible and absorbable and composed of the proper balance of amino acids (protein building blocks) in order for good nutrition to be possible. Eggs and fresh whole meat are the most complete and balanced single sources of protein for our bodies. Plant proteins are also excellent, but need to be combined with one another to provide a complete and balanced essential amino acid profile. For example soybeans (legumes) and corn (grains) combined together, provide all the essential amino acids needed.
Fats are especially prone to oxidation damage, particularly the essential fatty acids. These essential fatty acids are only attainable through dietary sources and are not made or synthesized in our bodies. Freshness and wholesomeness of foods and proper processing and packaging are all critical to avoid the destruction of these delicate nutrients.
Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) are especially important to good health of the skin and immune system. Dietary deficiency of EFAs in pets is thought to be widespread. The root of this problem being their degradation in the processing and storage of pet foods. Pets with skin allergy problems often benefit tremendously from a supplement of high quality EFAs added daily to the kibble or canned food. We recommend "Derm Caps" brand by DVM as a high quality supplement to add to your pets food.
Carbohydrates are present in foods in two basic forms: Simple carbohydrates (refined sugar and flour) and complex carbohydrates (whole grains, vegetables, and fruits). Simple carbohydrates are stripped of nutritional components leaving basic sugar or starch (flour): good source of basic energy, but empty calories and/or nutritionally depleted. Complex carbohydrates are present in whole grains and vegetables and contain a broad array of vitamins, minerals, trace minerals, and fiber. All these nutrients are absolutely critical to good health and vitality.
The techniques used in processing and packaging have a tremendous effect on the nutritional content of the final product. It does not do much good to start with fresh and wholesome ingredients, just to wreck them nutritionally with poor quality (and usually lower) cost processing and packaging techniques. As with high quality ingredients, superior processing and packaging techniques do cost more. It is false economy to have one and not the other. Grinding fresh whole grains and legumes just prior to processing is far better than using preprocessed flours and by-products. Maximum nutrition is retained in natures perfect packaging: the whole grain kernel (an actual alive food). Wheat looses up to 40% of some nutrients within if hours of milling.
Extrusion (cooking method) techniques that minimize heat damage to ingredients, is the best processing method. High heat cooking irreversibly alters proteins and fats and degrades many minerals and vitamins, resulting in a severely damaged product nutritionally. Close monitoring of temperatures and cook times during extrusion minimizes heat damage. Kibble is preferred over canned food also for this reason, due to the high heat required for the canning process.
Enrobing is the adding of fragile, heat sensitive ingredients after the extrusion, cooling, and drying processes are completed. This is the time when life enhancing nutrients can be added to the processed product. These include enzymes that aid in digestion, probiotic bacteria (beneficial bacteria for the gastrointestinal system such as acidophilus, bifidus, etc), essential fatty acids and certain vitamins. Of course, enrobing is not possible in canned food products.
Nutritious foods are perishable. Perishability can be slowed down by freezing, canning, chemicalizing (or embalming), or special oxygen free and light barrier packaging. The latter is the most practical and prefer technique. Packaging in bags where oxygen is flushed out with inert nitrogen gas and that are light and air impermeable is ideal. Multiple small bags vs large bags is also preferable; so that we are not introducing oxygen to the entire product every time we feed our pets.
CONCLUSION
Our bodies, our organs, and the foundational millions of cells that make it all possible depend on complete and balanced nutrition for optimal functioning. Our pets are totally dependent on our judgment of what complete and balanced nutrition actually consists of. Complete and balanced nutrition is far more detailed and complex than protein, fats, carbohydrate and ash content claims (guaranteed analysis) on product packages. Ingredients that are fresh, whole, and in proper proportions is the essential prerequisite. Processing and packaging methods that preserve the nutritional integrity of quality ingredients is crucial to a truly complete, balanced, and natural product.
If even one trace mineral, vitamin, or other essential nutrient is missing in the diet, something will inevitably go wrong and this is called disease. Good nutrition is linked directly to good health.
OUR RECOMMENDATION
Keep your pet on a premium quality kibble diet. Not all premium quality brands are made the same. Some use by-products, some use chemical preservatives, and processing and packaging techniques are highly variable. The manufacturer that takes the most holistic and health oriented approach is Wysong. This is why we carry and recommend Wysong over the other premium brands. We believe that the best nutrition is what you want your pet to have, we recommend Wysong to fill that need.
