Organic Nutrition, Healthy Nutrition

By
Alicia McWatters, PhD, CNC

MORE THAN EVER, dog owners are educating themselves to try to keep their dogs, as well as themselves, as healthy as possible. However, with all of the environmental industrial pollution, chemical additives in foods, and pesticides and insecticides sprayed on foods, this can seem like a difficult pursuit at times.

We do have a choice in what we feed our dogs and we can provide them with the optimum nutrition they require to support their health, happiness, and longevity.

The first step in keeping your dogs disease-free and healthy is to be as informed as possible about the foods you serve them. Are they healthful? Or are they harmful?

Try to avoid those foods that contain artificial colors, flavors, chemical preservatives, refined sugar, such as sucrose and corn syrup and other nonnutritive ingredients. While these additives are not healthy for any of our dogs, some individuals may be more sensitive to food chemicals, dyes, and refined sugar and this can manifest itself in behavioral problems, irritability, allergies, weight problems, repeated infections and so forth.

YOUR DOG’S IMMUNE SYSTEM

There are not always "cures" for diseases and viruses, and even many types of bacteria are becoming resistant to the commonly used antibiotics. Why do some dogs succumb to illness and others do not? Well, every dog has different strengths and weaknesses and possesses an individual biochemical and genetic make-up. This means that each dog has different nutritional requirements and may require more or less of a particular nutrient.

The constitution of a dog’s immune system plays a major role in its ability to resist illness and disease. A healthy diet and environment contributes largely to the relative strength or weakness of our dogs' immune systems. Those dogs that possess a strong immune system rarely, if ever, become ill.

ORGANIC FOODS

The food we choose to feed our dogs is a very personal choice based on what we have been taught by our veterinarians, breeders, other dog owners and dog-related publications. Some of this information may be useful and valid, while some of it may not. By educating ourselves: reading labels and understanding how what we feed has either a positive or negative effect on our dogs, we can more readily provide them with the best diet possible.

I choose to feed organically grown produce and antibiotic and hormone free meats whenever possible and my husband and I grow some of our own foods on our farm. Naturally produced, organically grown foods can provide our dogs with healthy nutrition. I try to limit the amount of conventionally grown produce I serve my dogs since they are generally sprayed with a number of herbicides, pesticides, and insecticides. Also, conventional produce, grown in nutrient depleted soils, has been shown to have a lower vitamin/mineral content. Subsequently, they have less value to offer the consumers of those foods.

For your information, over 400 pesticides are currently licensed for use on America’s foods and over 2.5 billion pounds are dumped on crop lands, forests, lawns, and fields annually. There can be anywhere from four to 25 different pesticides used on conventionally grown produce with tolerances set for only individual pesticides, without consideration of the combined effect of multiple pesticides in the conventionally grown foods we consume. Additionally, most individual pesticides have not been fully tested for their health effects because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must weigh cost/benefits of the use of a particular pesticide and often lean toward the economic benefits of pesticides already in use without taking into account safer alternatives. Also, many pesticides were registered before current laws were in place that require testing. The EPA is presently in the process of re-registering many older pesticides and requiring more test data. Even when evidence has proven that a pesticide is hazardous to health it can remain in use for many years before it is removed from the market, while the EPA conducts a review of the pesticide. Many scientists are concerned about the long-term health effects of these chemicals, and feel that they may be responsible for the rise in immune deficiency disorders, nervous system, reproductive and hormonal problems, many cancers and other life-threatening diseases. The toxic pesticides, chemical fertilizers, growth-stimulating chemicals which are used to rapidly, abundantly, and flawlessly grow fruits and vegetables may be potentially harmful to our dog’s health.

While organic products may cost a bit more, we feel they are well worth the extra cost. However, with the growing awareness of the value of organically grown produce we should soon find a decrease in the price as more and more people are purchasing these foods for themselves and their pets. If you are unable to buy organic produce, spray the conventionally grown produce with apple cider vinegar, 3% hydrogen peroxide, or grapefruit extract to remove external pesticide residue, wait 5 minutes and rinse; particularly with apples, grapes, strawberries, and greens. Organic agriculture can provide our family and our pets with the best nutrition, while also keeping our environment clean. By supporting the organic farmers by purchasing their products, not only do we create better health for ourselves, and our dogs, but we also contribute to the future health and prosperity of all of the inhabitants of our planet Earth.

FRESH, WHOLE, ORGANIC: Get Involved in Your Dog’s Diet

I am often asked the question, "What is the proper food for dogs?" Well, dogs in the wild, which are primarily carnivorous, find their own foods to nourish and sustain life and these foods are the living material produced by our planet Earth. Dogs are biologically adapted to fresh raw foods, such as raw muscle and organ meat, bone and the intestinal content of prey animals. In nature, food predates the eater, not the other way around. In the wild, there are no microwaves, ovens, extruders, or grain mills, etc. All life was sustained eating natural foods from natural sources. Nothing more, nothing less.

Following this logic, I feed my dogs a diet as close to nature as possible, made-up of all natural ingredients. This diet consists of a variety of organically grown fruits and vegetables, but the majority of their diet is raw meat and bones. In addition, I include a few natural supplements. While we cannot mimic what our dogs would eat in the wild, this type of diet closely resembles the composition of the natural foods, which would be found in their native habitat. The substances in fresh foods exist in an astounding complex balance that can’t be reproduced in a highly processed synthetic food product. Therefore, it is my belief that serving fresh or minimally processed foods is the best way to ensure that our dogs are receiving the many nutrients that they require for optimum health.

Natural real foods are the ones that are inextricably linked to the life they support. There is an abundance of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids, essential fatty acids, and many other chemicals in a natural food, such as raw chicken, turkey, an apple, a carrot, or a mustard green leaf. Cooking, refining, or heating to high temperatures changes the chemical and nutrient form of the food and it no longer contains the same value as it did in its original form. Vitamins and minerals are fractionated and many nutrients are completely denatured. Foods that have been heated between 105-118 degrees F and above are enzyme-free. Enzymes aid in the process of digestion and perform many other important tasks that keep your dog’s body healthy and disease-free. The risks involved with the long-term feeding of a poor diet will sooner or later result in decreased resistance to disease, digestive and degenerative disorders, and thus a shortened life-span.

Research in animal and human nutrition reveals that it is the subtle effects of imbalances, excesses, and deficiencies that matter in terms of long-term health. It is not within the scientific scope of nutritional science to declare the subtleties of these factors. There are more than forty essential nutrients known and more than fifty yet to be investigated in fresh foods. Science does not have 100% knowledge of anything, much less nutrition, so there are no universally accepted requirements for specific nutrients for animals or humans. Nutrition is NOT an exact science. However, if we provide our dogs with a variety of fresh foods, we can rest assured they are receiving a diet, which will fulfill their dietary needs.

I often compare the diseases found in humans with the diseases found in animals such as dogs because in this context there is little difference between them. Humans and dogs all succumb to the same or similar degenerative diseases and illnesses from an unhealthy diet. They can similarly achieve vibrant health through nutritional and dietary methods.

It is fortuitous, that with time, increasing awareness abounds as to the importance of fresh raw or minimally cooked foods in our dogs’ diets. Many dog owners are feeding their dogs more carefully and reading/defining the labels on food products to avoid potentially harmful chemical preservatives and additives. Research data is finally making it into mainstream literature, which indicates the profound health benefits of fresh foods. The informed consumer now holds the key to providing their pets and themselves the BEST nutrition available.