The other night I stumbled on an illuminating study conducted by Dr. Anne Hielm-Bjorkman (from the vet school in Helsinki, Finland), who also happens to be the leading researcher on the effects of raw diets for dogs. Her ground-breaking work has spanned over two decades. In any case, the study I'm referring concerned homocysteine, a marker of inflammation and chronic disease in the body, and how different levels of it affected the dogs she examined, (four groups of dogs for six months). Group 1 were former raw fed-dogs that were switched to kibble for the second half of the study, (the...
You don't need a nutritionist to tell you that fresh food is the healthiest way to eat. We already know that. Think about it: when you make a salad, do you use canned and dehydrated veggies? Do you prefer canned corned beef or a piping hot brisket out of the oven? Would you rather make your kid a roast beef sandwich or one with processed luncheon meats? The choice is obvious, because as we all know, Fresher is better. And the same line of reasoning applies to your cat or dog. How fresh is that "high quality" kibble with "natural" ingredients...
Lots of dog owners scratch their heads about feeding their dogs veggies and fruits and I get it. After all, dogs are canines and canines are carnivores...but not totally. In fact, according to a Scandinavian study analyzing the composition of wolf scat (conducted between 1992-2005), up to 12% of their diet was composed of berries and vegetation (higher in summer). The question remains: Why do canines need to consume berries and vegetation? According to another study, (MECH & BOITANI 2003), The consumption of these foods is supposed to be effective as a purgative and to wipe the intestine from parasites...
