Refined seed oils are AGEing your dog. They are a silent killer that cause major disease. Examples of these vegetable, nut and seed oils include canola, corn, cottonseed, soy, sunflower, safflower, rapeseed and rice bran and they are found everywhere from fast food restaurants to Michelin-starred restaurants and found in everything from chips, cookies, popcorn, meal replacement shakes, infant formula and your dog's kibble.
Refined seed oils are a result of the Industrial Revolution in 1850, where the ability to mass produce goods shifted the way food was processed, manufactured and then consumed. Keeping costs low and profits high became the priority, even it was at the expense of health, which it is. When it came to the production of food after the Industrial Revolution, industrial oils aka refined vegetable, nut and seed oils, are cheap and used to etend the shelf-life of whatever products they are used in. These refined seed oils are AGEing your dog.
These refined seed oils are AGEing your dog because the extremely high and repeated temperatures used to prepare these foods actually cause the oils to deteriorate. As the oils deteriorate, they become health hazards because they lead to increasing the formation and accumulation of Advanced Glycation End (AGEs) products when consumed. According to this study AGEs are glycotoxins formed by non-enzymatic reaction of reducing sugars with free amino acids of proteins, lipids or DNA" and "the AGEs in diet are believes to contribute significantly to total body pool of AGEs." The more refined seed oils, the more AGES and the more these refined seed oils are AGEing your dog.
High consumption of AGEs is linked to major metabolic dysfunction and oxidative stress that accumulate in body tissue and cause stress, inflammation and in turn increase the risk of developing disease like cancer, heart disease and diabetes, which are the most common causes of death in adults in the United States. There is no doubt that the same is true for our dogs. Refined seed oils are AGEing your dog.
Here just a few brands and blends that contain refined seed oils:
- Rachael Ray Nutrish Peak, Canned Chicken & Lamb Grain Free: sunflower oil
- Abound, Canned Lamb, Brown Rice & Gravy: sunflower oil
- Nature's Recipe, Canned Original Chicken & Broth: canola oil
These refined seed oils are AGEing your dog. Dr. David Turner, Ph.D, is an AGE expert and member of the Massey Cancer Center research team at Virginia Commonwealth University, Vice Chair of Research & Innovation of the Cancer Prevention and Control research program and founder of the Anti-A.G.E Foundation, a non-profit organization that increases awareness about the severity of the consumption of processed foods and their negative health implications. He estimates that "dog food is about 100 times higher in AGEs than human food" and believes high AGE consumption may "reduce our canine companions quality of life and overall lifespan."
We at Bobzilla believe that refined seed oils in dog food is not acceptable. We believe that dogs deserve so much better and the only way to do that is to increase awareness about optimal nutrition choices, which does not include kibble. So, we funded Dr. Turner's research on AGEs who is quantifying the amount of AGEs found in popular dog food and scientifically validating that the high consumption of AGEs leads to disease. He is constructing a database of AGE levels in many popular food brands, which will be made publicly available shortly. To learn more about his work, click here and visit the Anti-A.G.E foundation.
If you need some recommendations on what to feed your dog, raw or home-cooked is the way to go.
