How A Dog’s Diet Can Help Prevent Cancer And Disease

Credit: Rodney Habib/TedX

Dogs are clearly humanity's best friend, our lives are so intertwined with dogs, many people are now choosing to have dogs instead of children. This is a relationship that has evolved over thousands of years, dogs are now so close to us that they are widely regarded as members of the family. Sadly within the last 100 years we have manipulated a dogs diet to benefit our convenience.

This has had drastic consequences on their health with rising diabetes, cancer, mouth disease and other degenerative disease causing an epidemic of illness and suffering for our pets on global proportions. We are now starting to connect the dots between diet and illness, in one of the biggest studies on pet nutrition conducted by the Helsinki Vet School found that by simply replacing 20% of a dogs dry food diet with fresh food will decrease their risk of cancer by up to 90%.

This seems absolute common sense, but it isn’t common sense we apply to the pet world, when ever I visit my GP they always tell me to eat more fresh food, eat more vegetables and fruit. There is a reason and that is because fresh food in a balanced diet promotes health, yet we are constantly told in the pet industry processed food is the “best” food for our dogs.

Is this because the dry pet food industry is worth 50 billion pounds? Is it because it is actually the best food for our dogs? Science is beginning to say no it isn’t. With the fresh dog food industry on the rise and booming we are beginning to arm ourselves with information that will keep our dogs healthier.

Distrust is growing for dry food brands and not without good reason, with numerous cases of undeclared ingredients found in pet food [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] , mycotoxins [7, 8, 9], harmful bacteria [10], euthanasia drugs [11, 12], and other contaminants [13], resulting in significant health concerns and even death.

Even if food isn't contaminated, dry food can include a myriad of drawbacks. Dietary moisture is essential for excretory health in dogs, cats, and ferrets. Dry food is evidently very low in dietary moisture, which can bring increased urinary oxalate and calcium excretion rates [14, 15] and higher instances of idiopathic decrease urinary tract sicknesses in cats [16], puppies, and ferrets [17]. A large amount of dry puppy ingredients available on the market are excessive in carbohydrates, which has also been associated with an increased risk of urinary stones [18] and obesity [19] in cats and dogs.

The manufacturing of commercial puppy food can involve excessive heat remedies including sterilisation, extrusion, cooking, and baking. It is properly documented that excessive cooking process and extruding may have a negative impact at the available nutrition of meals, as can extended periods of storage [20, 21, 22]. An extruded pet food food plan will include substantially less available amino acids including lysine, glycine, taurine, arginine, cysteine, methionine, and creatine in evaluation to an uncooked puppy food eating regimen [23, 24, 25].

One of the most common outcomes, the maillard response, is a chemical response that happens among amino acids and lowering sugars while during high heat, rendering those amino acids unavailable for metabolism. This reaction occurs in pet food processing, placing commercial diets vulnerable to not meeting minimum necessities for many of those amino acids [26, 27], and vulnerable to containing excessive stages of superior maillard response end products (MRPs) and superior glycation end products (AGEs) [28].

So what is the right diet for puppies and dogs? A fresh, varied and balanced diet that meets their nutritional needs along with exercise will ensure your dog remains in optimum health, along with the added bonus of potentially saving you long term vet bills down the road. Feeding a range of meats white, red, and game that provide the best source of proteins, feeding a rainbow of colours in vegetables of fruits that provide bio available nutrients and anti oxidants as well as promoting health for the microbiome and gut which in turn supports a good immune system.

The wide variety of owners choosing to feed raw continues to grow – without or with the aid of their veterinarian. Many of those pet proprietors document that they've a low amount of trust in their vets recommendations, especially in regards to nutrition, but also general recommendations [29]. By bridging the divide between veterinary professionals and fresh dog food advocates, we are able to deal with this mistrust for the positive impact of our pets.

A divide additionally exists within the veterinary community itself. There are folks who take a stance of strict opposition to raw meals and fresh food diets [30], but there are also people who actively suggest raw diets to their clients and record visible positive benefits [31]. Many veterinary experts acknowledge that they do no longer have adequate education on fresh nutrition for dogs or raw diets [32, 33], or sense that recommending a raw food regimen may be a liability if the owner does now not take the proper sanitation precautions or make sure the are feeding a balanced meal plan, consequently – and understandably – many vets do not recommend fresh diets to their clients and dogs.

Would you like to know more on this subject, have something to add or would like to know more? Please email us and speak to our qualified nutritionist - sales@aurorapets.co.uk

We hope you liked this blog on giving our dogs longer lives!

Lots of love the Aurora Pets team x