Diet; food and drink considered in terms of its qualities, composition and its effects on health. A particular selection of food, especially as designed or prescribed to improve a person's physical condition or to prevent or treat a disease.
The term diet is often referred to as weight loss terminology but it is in fact describing what we eat. The words accompanying the term diet itself are the more descriptive terms. Weight loss, weight gain, low carb, low salt, good and bad. The world is filled with idealistic diets these days for people and for dogs. As I sat and watched 'Chopped' last night, a commercial came on for Beneful. The advertisement showed a bag filled with amazing vegetable shaped nutrition flying out of the bag and a very happy dog; no doubt from eating Beneful, right? WRONG. With just a small amount of research you can find a lot of 'real' information about the product.
I have to say that it amazes me that so few people are really concerned about what goes into their dog. I admit that when I was young I didn't give it a whole lot of thought, nor did I give what I ate much consideration. That and being told from a vet that food was food, that there was no difference between generic or any other food. Of course this was a very long time ago so that was probably a correct assumption being that Purina was the most available food so a generic brand was probably as good.
I am now hugely concerned with diet, both for us and our dogs. What you put into a body really plays the most important part of health. Dogs are carnivores, they should eat a diet that consists mostly of good quality meat. So when I share a chicken sausage in the morning with my dogs I feel good about it. No it's not raw and it has more flavor than most dogs need but they sure love it.
As food enters the body it goes through many stages; pulling nutrition out of the food to fuel your dog's daily activity and sustaining life. If what you put in their body has little nutrition then your dog will be of course lacking fuel to function and be pooping a lot. I know I talk about food a lot on here but I would like for people to know. The more people who learn about how bad many of the dog foods out there are, the more will tell their friends.
As a society we have been brainwashed into believing that companies who make dog food are producing a product that is best for our dogs. WRONG. Many of us have been told by Veterinarians to feed only dog food, never snacks and heavy forbid never people food. (You know how I feel about the term "people food") Many of the very low grade foods, foods? What? I feel weird even calling some of these products food, it's more like waste product. Anyway many of these so called foods are just filler with the most minimum amount of dried, over processed protein source available. This is added of course because the food has to have some sort of protein but is there anything that our dog's bodies can actual use it in? Not much if anything can be pulled from these products in the form of nutrients.
Our dogs are getting sicker, living shorter lives and suffering. What has happened? The big guys have taken over, the money makers who pump out products and don't care about results or quality. I am saying right here and right now, do not buy any packaged dry dog food that you can purchase at a big box store, grocery store or discount store. Of course if you only shop at a health food store then that is different. Most of these big stores only carry the big guy products. You will find Iams, Purina, Pedigree etc. etc.
I feel good when I eat good food. That does not mean that it has to be fancy gourmet food, it is often very simple food. Maybe an apple and piece of cheese, a few pieces of turkey or a salad. Real food, real nutrition that my body can use and distribute as needed. To think that our dog's bodies need less quality food than us is absurd. They are typically more active than us, needing for really great nutrition. Their lives here on this earth are much shorter than ours, don't they deserve to be fed the best while they are here? Shouldn't we do our best for our dogs?
The best for dogs does not mean the best cuts of meat. What it means is the highest nutritional value. You can buy the tough cheap cuts of meat which contain the same nutrition as the expensive cuts that we like because they are tender. If I drop meat on the floor while cooking, it immediately goes into the 'dog' meal area. Do they care that it got a crumb or dirt on it? Are you kidding me? They are happy as a clam to pick up a crust from a sandwich out of the sand at the beach and eat it.
Beneful - rating on Dog Food Advisor
Dog Food Scoop - Top worst food list
As we all go through life we can listen, learn and share what we learn or we can simply push the auto pilot button and continue on not learning anything. I love to learn new things about dogs. Whether it is about a new dog food product that is available, a new disease or affliction that I have never heard about or a new product that makes living with dogs even greater I love it all. No one knows everything; although some people like to think that they know most everything but you can learn a new tidbit everyday. Keep an open mind and listen, take what you hear and process it. Do not just cast it off as a 'they don't know anything' remark.
Mistakes are often useful, trial and error teach us a lot. But you don't have to make mistakes to do your best. Sometimes just an effort to do better for your dog is all it takes.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Love to hear from you.