Geniuses of the Week
Geniuses of the Week
No our dogs are not starving...
This week we continue our segment “Geniuses of the Week” where we highlight some very special comments.
Updates:
Lamb Curry Pup Pot Meals are in stock. Lamb is a great alternative protein for allergy-prone pups.
This new mooncake recipe is free for everyone, so go check it out…Happy Mid-Autumn festival!
Fall recipes are coming, so stay tuned on Instagram for cozy season soups, stews and more.
“Sweet potato bad…kibble good”
One of the more insidious lies people like to spew is that a certain food or ingredient causes disease. Comments like these cause damage by spreading more unfounded fear around real food. Someone will likely see this, and go “better safe than sorry” and continue to feed kibble.
First of all, just because sweet potatoes and potatoes share a similar name doesn’t mean that they are closely related. Potatoes are part of the nightshade family and are related to tomatoes, eggplants and peppers. Sweet potatoes, on the other hand, are part of the morning glory family. They are completely different types of plants.
Dilated Cardio Myopathy (DCM) is one of those diseases that is often used to scare people away from foods and into the arms of kibble makers. In fact, Hill’s, the maker of Science Diet, is currently engaged in a class action lawsuit about about misleading the public on DCM. The suit claims that Hill’s worked with veterinarians and researchers at Tufts University to manipulate the FDA into releasing a statement warning that grain-free foods were linked with DCM. Since this statement was released, the literature has refuted this claim.
DCM is still poorly understood. (Perhaps this is why it’s used to scare people.) There appears to be a genetic component as several breeds have higher incidence including Newfoundlands, Doberman Pinschers and Irish Wolfhounds. Dietary factors can contribute, specifically, taurine deficiency (taurine is an amino acid, but not considered essential) has been associated with DCM in cats and dogs. Some other foods have been linked with DCM including highly processed ingredients like pea protein isolate. It’s likely due to the fact these protein sources are low in taurine. See this literature review for more information.
Sweet potatoes are a great part of any diet, either human or canine. They contain complex carbohydrates and lots of soluble fiber. Furthermore, sweet potatoes tend to be lower in pesticides than regular potatoes.
“Poor, starving Cedric and Edith”
These days you tend to see more overweight dogs than fit ones, so that’s become the norm. The combination of refined-carbohydrate heavy kibble and overfeeding has led to some seriously chonky pups out there.
Fat dogs are cute, but if they could tell us how they were feeling, it would probably be “not good.”
See our previous post on why leaner is better:
Dogs are also professional manipulators that excel at looking so sad and starving that even the strongest-willed parents cave and feed them more.
Cedric and Edith are so good at the starving act that this ex-follower couldn’t stand to watch them any more. When do they get their Oscar award?
“Oats are dangerous!”
Oats have been vilified by nutrition influencers in recent years, but “absorbing vitamins from the body” is a pretty crazy claim.
As we covered in our previous post on carbohydrates, instant oats are probably not great for you and definitely not on an empty stomach. However, rolled or steel cut oats, when consumed with protein and fat, is a great addition to both human and canine diets. Why?
Oats are high in soluble fiber, and like we mentioned last time, these fibers help to feed the beneficial bacteria in the gut and improve organ health in addition to digestive health.
Complex carbohydrates in oats coupled with the fiber help to release glucose into the blood more slowly.
Oats are nutrient dense with essential micronutrients like manganese, phosphorous and B vitamins.
There is some concern about pesticides and harvesting practices in oats. Our research indicates that most samples are far under the amounts deemed safe by regulators, but if you’re particularly concerned, go for organic.
That’s it for this week!
All the best,
Joelle and The Precious Creatures Team