Nutrition is more important than DNA. DNA loads the gun, but environment and lifestyle pulls the trigger. In other words, what your dog eats, drinks and medication and vaccines they have consumed has the capacity to turn genes on and off, which is called epigenetics. Specifically, epigenetics is the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way genes work. Unlike genetic changes, epigenetic changes are reversible and do not change your DNA sequence, but they can change how your body reads a DNA sequence.
According to the Morris Animal Foundation, "Epigenetics affect how, when and whether genes are read by cells. By altering the physical structure of a DNA strand, for instance, genes can be turned on (expressed) or off (ignored by the cell). This means that the food they eat, the water they drink, the vaccines and medication they are given, opportunities to exercise and exposure to toxins can either create health or destroy it. Nutrition is the biggest lever of health that you can pull. Arguably, nutrition is more important than DNA.
So, if you feed your dog a nutrient dense/protein-rich/species appropriate diet and do not feed kibble, vaccinate and medicate carefully, let them run around often and give your dog access to fresh air regularly you can literally turn on genes for optimal health. However, if you feed kibble, vaccinate and medicate often, limit exercise and mobility and use a bunch of toxic chemicals in your home, you turn on genes for sickness.
Big Kibble, like Mars Inc., Nestle Purina and Hill's as well as Big Pet Pharma like Zoetis, are master marketers and will try to sell you products that you don't need, like prescription kibble, or any kibble for that matter, or at-home DNA testing.For example, Basepaws is a petcare genetics company that builds early detection health risk tests based on genetic and microbiome data. Basepaws claims to be committed to companion animal health research, and it has the world's first at-home genetic testing platform for cats. The company was acquired by Zoetis, Big Pet Pharma in 2022 and has since expanded genetic testing services to dogs as well.
Zoetis and Basepaws have claimed to harness "the power of science to help you know your pet better-inside and out-and provide you with the resources you need to make informed decisions for their health and well-being. By ordering a kit, obtaining a 5-10 second swab of saliva and sending it back to the company, they will analyze your dog's sample and will provide you with "expansive health insights with over 280 genetic health markers, detailed breed breakdown, and physical traits overview." This could be helpful, but nutrition is more important than DNA.
Nutrition is more important than DNA because everything that your dog consumes, food, water, sunlight, medicines and or vaccines tells their bodies to either turn on certain genes, good or bad, or turn off certain genes, good or bad. Obviously, we want the good genes to be turned on and the bad genes to be turned off. In order to do this, providing your dog with an optimal diet is crucial because nutrition is more important than DNA.
All kibble, prescription kibble, canned food and prescription food are not what your dog's body needs to turn on those good genes on and turn off the bad ones. Kibble is highly processed, high in advanced glycation end products, excessively high in carbohydrates and full of fillers, preservatives, palatants, refined seed oils, dyes and glyphosate. It is literally a killer combination that is linked with metabolic disease.
Big Pet Pharma companies like Zoetis and Big Kibble companies like Mars Inc. and Nestle Purina are in the business of making money. They do not care about helping your dog live a long and happy life. They care about profit. As of May 7, 2024, Zoetis was worth approximately $75.72 billion dollars. Although the ability to obtain DNA information at home is relatively new, the ability to analyze the genome of the dog has been around for a while.
According to the Purina Institute, "In 1999, Purina partnered with Cornell University to develop the Canine Reference Family DNA Distribution Center, a common platform for worldwide genetic data exchange. This canine reference family DNA helped researchers place hundreds of markers near specific genes and chromosomes, improving studies of how diseases – such as familial cancers – develop in both dogs and people. Purina also supports DNA sequencing research, which contributed to the completion of the international, multi-institutional collaboration leading to the first whole canine genome sequence. With more accurate knowledge of the canine genome, scientists can better compare DNA among dogs and other species to understand how genetic changes can affect health"
These companies understand disease works, like cancer.
They also know that "DNA contains the chemical codes that provide the instructions for every cell function. By tracking which genes are turned on or off under different conditions, researchers can identify how gene expression changes between healthy and unhealthy dogs and cats and then evaluate the impact of nutrients on gene activity."
They also understand that certain genes are turned on and off with nutrition.
"Purina was one of the first pet food companies to apply omics to better understand the connections between nutrition and genetics. This molecular-level focus continually reveals new mechanisms by which nutrients can improve pet health."
They use omics, which are fancy technologies that are used to measure and characterize biomolecules in cells or tissues designed to study genes (genomics), RNA's (transcriptomics), proteins (proteomics), and metabolites (metabolomics).
This technology helps them understand what nutrients improve health.
So if these companies already understand that certain genes are turned on and off with nutrition and lifestyle, then why are they selling you products like Apoquel or Librela with deadly side-effects?
Zoetis and companies like it do not care about the health of your animal. They care about making profit, even if it is at the expense of your dog's health, which it is.
Nutrition is more important than DNA. If you want to get off of the merry-go-round of disease, learning about your dog's DNA is great, but optimizing their health is even better.
