Very intersting read on pet food related to IBD

[thedell19]

I was researching pet food because our 7 month old pup is now in the hospital with kidney infection. It is believe to have been the dog food that we were feeding him (a "natural" dog food that is free of gluten, corn and soy)- we thought we were safe and so did thousands of other pet owners. I wont get into all the evidence on how we know it is the pet food-

But while researching I ran across a rather interesting article... this is a clip of it
"Cereal grains are the primary ingredients in most commercial pet foods. Many people select one pet food and feed it to their dogs and cats for a prolonged period of time. Therefore, companion dogs and cats eat a primarily carbohydrate diet with little variety. Today, the diets of cats and dogs are a far cry from the primarily protein diets with a lot of variety that their ancestors ate. The problems associated with a commercial diet are seen every day at veterinary establishments. Chronic digestive problems, such as chronic vomiting, diarrhea, and inflammatory bowel disease are among the most frequent illnesses treated. These are often the result of an allergy or intolerance to pet food ingredients. The market for “limited antigen” or “novel protein” diets is now a multi-million dollar business. These diets were formulated to address the increasing intolerance to commercial foods that animals have developed. The newest twist is the truly “hypoallergenic” food that has had all its proteins artificially chopped into pieces smaller than can be recognized and reacted to by the immune system. "

If vets make the connection between food intolerance/allergies to chronic digestive disease then why cant people DRs see this? I also like the part about how we should be feeding our pets their ancestors foods... sound familiary to any discusions we have had?

So please if you have a pet- make sure you are feeding them a high high quality pet food.

Andrew

[tex]

Andrew,

I'm not sure if you were a member here when we first discussed this issue, but Polly eliminated some major health issues that her dog was having, by discontinuing the use of "high quality" dog food, and replacing it with a paleo diet, (the same diet that dogs' ancestors ate).

Yep, we're in the same boat as domesticated animals that were originally carnivores, but are now fed high carb diets. Here is an outline of the evolution of human diets. Notice that we suddenly started running into trouble about 8 to 10 thousand years ago, with the advent of the development of agriculture - particularly, the introduction of grain into our diets, and the reduction in meat consumption.

Timeline of dietary shifts in the human line of evolution


* 65 to 50 million years ago (Mya): Ancient primates, mostly insectivores.
* 50 to 30 Mya: Shift to mostly frugivorous/herbivorous.
* 30 to 10 Mya: Maintenance of mostly frugivorous pattern.
* 7 to 5 Mya: Last common ancestor branches to gorillas, chimps, humans.
* 4.5 Mya: First known hominid (proto-human).
* 3.7 Mya: First fully bipedal hominid (Australopithecus).
* 2 Mya: First true human (Homo habilis), first tools, increased meat-eating.
* 1.7 Mya: Evolution of Homo erectus, considerable increase in meat consumption and widely omnivorous diet, continues till dawn of agriculture.
* 500,000 to 200,000 y.a.: Archaic Homo sapiens.
* 150,000 y.a.: Neanderthals evolve.
* 140,000 to 110,000 y.a.: First anatomically modern humans, possible increase in fire use for cooking (insufficient evidence).
* 40,000 B.C.: First behaviorally modern humans.
* 40,000 to 10,000 B.C.: Late Paleolithic, latest period of universal hunting/gathering subsistence, seafood use becomes evident in certain areas.
* 20,000 B.C. to 9,000 B.C.: Mesolithic transition period.
* Approx. 10-8,000 B.C.: Neolithic period, beginnings of agriculture, precipitous drop in meat consumption, great increase in grain consumption, decline in health as indicated by signs in skeletal remains.

This information is from:

http://www.beyondveg.com/nicholson-w/hb ... ew1a.shtml

Thanks for posting that information.

Tex

[starfire]

It makes perfect sense to me. After all, in the wild they would be eating raw meat.

Love, Shirley