An article I came across yesterday says natural pet food is not always best. I find two things odd about this article right off the bat:
1. No author is listed. Makes you wonder if the person writing it had an agenda.
2. Only one source—a veterinarian—is quoted. This is very poor journalism. One source doesn’t make a story.
Now let’s look at the content itself:
1. ”A natural dog food may provide antioxidants through fruits and vegetables, but it may be deficient in other nutrients the dog needs.” Of course any food, even one labeled natural, may be deficient. It’s hardly a basis for a major warning or a story. And since the precaution applies to all dog foods, why single out natural ones?
2. Similarly, the rest of the article makes statements that, like the above, would apply to any type of pet food, not just natural ones. For instance, “Cats and dogs should not eat onions or garlic. ” If any pet food company is going to use ingredients known to be toxic to pets, they won’t be in business very long.
The only statement that makes any sense to me is, “Consumers should be wary of any pet food company that claims to have organic or holistic food because they don’t exist by the association’s definition.” It’s true that no definitions exist in the pet-food world. However, “natural” pet food is defined, as pointed out in the article: ”The [Association of American Feed Control Officials] defines natural products as those that don’t contain any chemically synthesized ingredients except vitamins or minerals.”
Overall, there is very little information in the pet-food article that could not apply to any type of food, natural or not. And there is really nothing that ties in with the “Natural Pet Food Is Not Always Best” headline.
I’ll take natural brands over supermarket brands any day. Here are the ingredients of Holistic Select’s Radiant Adult Health Chicken and Rice formula, which I am currently feeding my dog: Chicken Meal, Ground Brown Rice, Ground White Rice, Oatmeal, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Natural Mixed Tocopherols), Pork Meal, Dried Beet Pulp, Anchovy & Sardine Meal, Flaxseed, Dried Egg Product, Menhaden Fish Oil, Tomato Pomace, Carrots, Peas, Sun-Cured Alfalfa, Potassium Chloride, Organic Quinoa, Blueberries, Apples, Cranberries, Dried Kelp, Yucca Schidigera Extract, DL-Methionine, Vitamins [Beta-Carotene, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Niacin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Biotin], Minerals [Polysaccharide Complexes of Zinc, Iron, Manganese and Copper, Cobalt Carbonate, Potassium Iodate, Sodium Selenite], Choline Chloride, Lecithin, Rosemary Extract, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Inulin, Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, Enterococcus faecium, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus licheniformis, Aspergillus oryzae and Aspergillus niger Fermentation Products, Mixed Tocopherols (a natural preservative).
All of the above items are identifiable. Food items, vitamins, minerals, probiotics. The only item I had to look up is pyridoxine hydrochloride, which is another name for vitamin B6.
Chicken meal is defined is a combination of clean meat and skin, with or without bone (which is good for dogs), and not containing feathers, heads, feet and entrails.
Now look at the ingredients for a conventional dog food, which I am not going to name in case they decide to sue me:
Chicken, water sufficient for processing, meat by-products, liver, rice, guar gum, potassium chloride, added color, natural and artificial flavors, choline chloride, calcium carbonate, zinc sulfate, calcium phosphate, Vitamin E supplement, ferrous sulfate, niacin, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, Vitamin B-12 supplement, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin A supplement, folic acid, biotin, Vitamin D-3 supplement, potassium iodide, sodium selenite.
It has lots of vitamins and minerals, which is good; I’ve seen ingredient lists that were a lot worse. But it also has by-products, which can include parts such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, heads, intestines and chicken feathers. These are not all necessarily bad—organ meats, for instance, are a good source of nutrients for canines—but many people don’t like serving heads and feet to their pets. There are also artificial color and artificial flavorings in the above item.
Also, water is listed as the second ingredient. There are two potential problems with this: One, you don’t know what type of water they are using. If an ingredient list doesn’t say “filtered water” or “distilled water” or something along those lines, they are most likely not using purified water. If you don’t want to ingest non-purified water, why would you want your dog to drink it? Two, the higher-quality brands of food use real broth (e.g., chicken broth) instead of water.
Whether a food has byproducts or meal, there is no way to know just from reading the label whether the ingredients came from healthy animals. The only way to know that is to look at the company’s Website and read what it says about their quality control. If it doesn’t say anything (a bad sign), call and ask.
Holistic Select, my current pick, says on its Website that it requires its suppliers to use the “HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) program, adhering to even more stringent food safety criteria than required for pet food.” So the standards are higher than those of AAFCO.
You may have also noticed that corn is often the first ingredient listed in regular pet food, but it is not the first one listed in higher-quality pet chow (and in many cases, it is not used at all). Many dogs and cats have difficulty digesting corn and/or have allergies to it. Nutritionally, it doesn’t have much value.
I also feed my dog raw food. She gets the kibble in the morning, and the raw in the evening. Right now I’m feeding her unprocessed raw food because it’s a lot cheaper than buying packaged raw food (although the packaged food has nutritious veggies mixed in). We get raw chicken necks and backs from an organic farmer (Pollo Real) at the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market; our dog goes nuts when she sees them! She gets raw chopped beef too.
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Great post with a lot of good pointers when looking for healthy pet food. I would buy them organic foods but I usually just buy my cat food from the vet, its a little more expensive but at least I know my babies aren’t deficient. Check out my facebook community sometime http://www.facebook.com/pages/Holistic-Health-Community/301632006518701
Why is their no author listed for your article, if you are so suspicious of this other source? Why are you “Holistic” people so skeptical of a people who spend years studying, like the veterinarian quoted in this article, yet you will buy any B*llsh*t health product from a “health” food store if product says its “natural” or “organic” or “holistic” and you have no idea what really went into the product or who oversaw its production. Why are you so skeptical of people who use the scientific method, yet you will listen to con man who says something is “natural”, etc.? What’s up with that? Be skeptical of everyone equally. Has anyone seen what animals eat in the wild? They eat heads, byproducts if you will. My dog and cats aren’t really into rice or vegetables. All this organic stuff for pets is the biggest bunch of marketing BS ever. Boy are you guys getting taken. Show me a study that says your pet will live longer on this “organic” pet food. You are just paying a premium to well intentioned people (or cynical con men) who know nothing real about pet health. Also, again, is the writer of this article a vet, a health expert, who is it? What is their expertise? At least the article you mentioned, quoted on vet? How many vets did you consult with? Zero as far as I can tell. Which make your article even weaker than the one you are castigating.
To address your points:
1. I did not think there was a need to list an author for every post because everything is written by us at Cutting Edge, which I think is pretty clear due to our logo being on the page. I (Regina Klapper, for the record) am the co-owner of that company and I write the posts.
2. Organic is not BS. I am always baffled when people think it’s just fine to ingest pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, chemical additives, and all the other crap that goes into highly processed foods, and that they ridicule those of us who choose to avoid those things—while they are continually stuffing the worst garbage imaginable into their mouths. If I won’t put these things into my body, I won’t put them into my pet’s body.
3. I know “natural” does not necessarily mean better, which is why I read labels. To say I have “no idea” what goes into a product could not be further from the truth. I do know what goes into every product I use because I read labels and I look up ingredients if I don’t know what they are. I often look on a company’s Website to read about their products’ ingredients and methods, and I do my own research if I am doubtful about anything. I make my decisions based on what I find. I don’t automatically listen to anyone, whether or not they are holistic, and I am indeed “skeptical of everyone equally.” There are plenty of so-called “natural” products I won’t buy because I don’t like the ingredients.
4. As far as byproducts go, I did say these are not necessarily bad for dogs. But since dog food that contains byproducts almost always contains other things that I don’t want to feed my dog, I don’t buy them.
5. “Years of study” is not the issue. The issue is that there are many modes of healing that doctors and vets are not aware of because they are not taught those methods in school. There is obviously a great divide between conventional medicine and alternative medicine; they are two very different ways of addressing health (much too large a subject to go into here). And most non-conventional practitioners also spend years studying, whether it’s naturopathic medical school, chiropractic school, acupuncture school, or…yes, even medical school! Because, believe it or not, there are many people with MDs and DVMs who practice alternative medicine.
6. I doubt there are any studies that show pets live longer on an organic diet, as such a study would probably be difficult to conduct. I have searched for studies on that topic and haven’t found any yet. But there is certainly a tremendous amount of scientific information about specific ingredients (e.g., different types of chemicals, hormones in food) and what they do to the body, including having a carcinogenic effect. There is enough evidence out there to convince me that these things should be avoided. And some of this stuff is just common sense to me. I’m not going to let my dog eat chemicals just because there are no studies that say it’s bad.
7. I don’t consider myself a health expert, but I am well informed. I read a lot of health publications, health books, medical journals, and research studies as part of my job, which still doesn’t make me an expert. But this blog is really an opinion blog as far as the posts go. The blog has an article database, but a post is not the same as an article. In a post, one has license to be opinionated, and I structured this blog so that the posts are my opinions on various topics—although I do base those opinions on outside information and they are not just pulled out of a hat. I don’t interview people for the posts, which is why I did not quote a vet.