Would you eat McDonalds chicken nuggets everyday? Or feed it to your children every day? The answer is probably not. Why? Because we know they aren’t healthy, but it tastes good and is affordable. We also know that just because something tastes good and is affordable, doesn't mean it is healthy or will optimize our health.
Take a look at the chicken nugget ingredient list below taken directly from McDonald's.com.
Boneless skinless chicken breast meat, water, vegetable oil shortening, wheat flour, yellow corn flour, modified corn starch, rice starch, salt, baking powder, seasoning [wheat starch, yeast extract, salt, natural flavour (vegetable source)], spices, canola oil, sodium aluminum phosphate, dextrose, wheat starch, corn starch. Cooked in vegetable oil (high oleic low linoleic canola oil and/or canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, citric acid, dimethylpolysiloxane)
Anything highlighted in red is no bueno and quite simply bad for health. Vegetable oils like vegetable oil shortening, canola oil, soybean oil are highly inflammatory.
High consumption of the ingredients highlighted above are linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and even cancer in humans.
But what does this have to do with dogs?
Well, take a look at the ingredient list from a common kibble brand, Royal Canin that is often vet recommended, tastes good and affordable, just like Mickey D's.
Brewers rice, oat groats, chicken by-product meal, brown rice, wheat gluten, chicken fat, pork meal, natural flavors, dried plain beet pulp, fish oil, vegetable oil, sodium silico aluminate, calcium carbonate, powdered cellulose, salt, egg product, potassium chloride, sodium tripolyphosphate, vitamins [DL-alpha tocopheral acetate (source of vitamin E), niacin supplement, L-ascorbly-2-polyphosphate [source of vitamin C], D-calcium pantothenate, biotin, pyridoxine hydrochloride ;vitamin B6], riboflavin supplement, thiamine mononitrate [vitamin b1], vitamin A acetate, folic acid, vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, hydrolyzed yeast (source of betaglucans), L-lysine, choline chloride, taurine, glucosamine hydrochloride, marigold extract (tagetes erecta L.), trace minerals zinc, proteinate, zinc oxide, manganese proteinate, ferrous sulfate, manganouse oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite, copper proteinate), Yucca schidigera extract, magnesium oxide, L-carnitine, chondroitin, sulfate, carotene, rosemary extract, preserved with mixed tocopherols and critic acid.
This is an INSANE ingredient list. It also took about 5 minutes to type and I type quickly, which means these ingredients are difficult to pronounce/spell and are far from natural or healthy. Just like McNuggets, the ingredients highlighted in red are NO BUENO. It's basically the entire ingredient list, aside from the vitamins that have been re-added to the food.
Here is why these ingredients are not healthy:
- Brewers Rice is the first ingredient, which means that it makes up most of the food. High carb for dogs is difficult to digest and will create inflammation, which will lead to sickness in the long term.
- Poultry by-products are the left-overs from poultry carcasses. Our animals deserve better than left-overs.
- Natural flavors are actually not natural at all. They are made in a lab and identified as "natural flavors," without having to actually disclose what they are made of.
- Last point: Vitamins and minerals that are added back to food, suggests a clear nutrient deficit in the highly-processed food to begin with.
Dogs have 42 teeth designed to cut meat and bone, just like wolves. Further, if the food was so nutritious, why are vitamins re-added? Dogs are genetically designed to survive and eat prey (not donuts, or pizza or brewer’s rice or corn gluten meal or soybean meal). Eaten in high quantities, like daily, will shorten your companions’ lifespan. No question.
The food we consume and the food we give to our animal companions shouldn’t have any ingredient that has to be highlighted in red. It is not only the ingredients that are used, but the way the food is prepared that will either optimize health or destroy it.
Since dogs have evolved from wolves about 14,000 years ago, have been domesticated, yet their digestive system remains the same. They survived by eating prey, fresh fruit and vegetables. And they thrive by doing the same now.
It is no coincidence that chronic disease and sickness is increasing in our pets. Diabetes, obesity, autoimmune diseases are all widely accepted as common issues, which in reality they are not. There is absolutely a correlation between what we feed our pets, their overall healthy and longevity.
Learn more about what to feed your dog by clicking here. Learn more about the disease epidemic that faces our dogs by clicking here.