Revealed – The Problem With Commercial Dog Food Ingredients

As a dog lover, are you questioning the health implications of commercial dog food ingredient? While processed foods are convenient, people are often alarmed by the number of non-food items in the processed foods, for both dogs and humans, which dominate our supermarket shelves. There are three key areas which seem to concern a lot of dog owners.

Just like human processed foods, commercial dog foods are laden with non-food items which you certainly wouldn’t find in a dog’s ‘natural’ diet. Just like humans, dogs thrive best on a diet of healthy, natural ingredients, and also like humans, their digestive system has not evolved to deal with all theses additives, preservatives and flavour enhancers. In humans, a build up of these toxins can cause digestive problems, lethargy and a general feeling of being unwell. The problem is that people often don’t realise the severity of their symptoms until the underlying causes are removed through a ‘detox’, at which point they report feeling ‘lighter’ and ‘full of energy’.

It’s also common for much of the ‘meat’ content of commercial food to be meat ‘derivatives’ or ‘by products’. This is not what we as humans would consider ‘meat’, yet for dog food manufacturers it’s a perfect way to use up anything left that’s considered unfit for human consumption, including diseased tissues.

And finally, even the way foods are processed can destroy a lot of the nutritional value. Heating to high temperatures can damage proteins, fats and vitamins. If the food ingredients aren’t of a high nutritional value to start with, processing degrades their nutritional value even further. This is true of all processed foods incidentally, not only dog food.!

The ancestors of our beloved dogs were certainly not exposed to the same types of processed pet foods that we have available today, and more and more people are switching to a ‘natural’ diet for their dogs. By preparing meals themselves, rich in natural ingredients, they not only know exactly what their dogs are getting, they are avoiding those potentially harmful additives and poor-quality ingredients.

Commercial pet foods do vary in quality. If you prefer to use a commercial dog food, and the majority of people still do, take a moment to look at the ingredients list and ask yourself if you really know what’s in it. If you don’t recognise the ingredients, and if you would not eat them yourself, do you really want to feed them to your dog?

If you would like to try making your own all natural dog food, click here for an excellent resource packed with recipes.