FOOD QUALITY: A Complex Matter
When it comes to food quality
matters! The old saying comes to
mind...."You are what you eat!"
It is more true today than ever.
Unfortunately today food quality is too often measured by factors that
don't tell the true story. As in our own
lives, Pet Parents often judge a pet food by its palatability. In terms of
quality taste has become the primary factor in deciding what to feed ourselves
and our pets. With many Americans the
fast food syndrome is in full effect, so too in the pet food world. We decide on foods that replace nutrition
with the magic combination of fat, salt and sugar....foods that make us feel
too full yet increase craving and appetite leaving us with a feeling of
"not being fed". We thus
create a barrage of health troubles and over all poor health. As a Pet Parent we hate to see our pets
unhappy....even more we should be concerned with the health that brings real
happiness, not a quick sugar fix!
Yes, it is important that a pet
readily eat the food you present, "Waste not want not!" But processed foods that are enhanced with
undisclosed flavors encourage over eating and are of questionable value, if not
toxic. In the days of misleading
labeling laws one should pay particular attention to more than the calorie
count. Fats, carbohydrates and proteins
are not interchangeable and one does not equal the quality of another! One example would be protein of one animal
versus another, they do not act the same in feeding a body. Another example would be the farming of the
same animal used for protein... old layer hens fed arsenic for parasites and
cement for shells may have the same protein numbers as the clean farmed,
hormone free, free range but not the
same health value or quality of protein.
Numbers can be very misleading in the abstract. If a label reads like a high school science
experiment one can safely say it is not food; leave it on the shelf! Ingredients should be whole foods based as
nature intended! Parts of ingredients
are not advisable, by products of any kind should be shunned. Many ingredients are from industrial waste,
particularly the sugar industry and are not digested well by anyone. For instance, Beet Pulp is the left-overs
from the chemical extrusion of sugar from GMO beets to produce the white sugar
common in super markets today. Many corn
solids and glutens are from the left-overs of creating the high fructose corn
syrup used by the candy companies (who incidentally own many of the major label
commercial brands of pet food sold in chain stores). Not only full of sugars, genetically modified
and indigestible, these inferior ingredients do damage to the body and degrade
health like any over processed, nutrient devoid filler. Animal By products, specific to a species or
not, are to be avoided at all times.
These are parts of the animal not fit for human consumption. Generic terms like "animal fat" has
a broad and rather disturbing meaning, and chicken "by products"
means the inedible parts like feathers and beaks.
Poor quality ingredients have no
place in health. Consumers should get what
they pay for in human or pet food, meaning healthy meats and clean whole foods. Huge industrial agriculture dumping
grounds? Not my pet! Nor myself.
Consumers fair much better dollar
for dollar, pound for pound by supporting the smaller family farmed, family
owned pet food companies who support humane farming and sustainable
agriculture; who invest in clean eco systems and put their money in the quality
of their foods instead of heavy advertising.
In short, local economies responding to local needs and caring about the
place where they live. We all pay a
price for toxic farming....eating toxic food heals no one. Cats and dogs are carnivores no matter what
advertising campaigns may say and they eat meat. Over fibrous carbohydrate / sugar based
fillers (corn, glutens, beet pulps, cellulose ie. saw dust) have no place in
pet food. The cleaner the food the
healthier the animal! I have found the
words of Mahatma Gandhi to ring truer today than ever...."There is no
disease accept malnutrition." It is
the QUALITY of what we eat that matters most.
Our local economies, health of the soils that produce our foods, and therefore
the health of us all are huge issues of quality in life. The vast definitions that this term
encompasses cannot be ignored without paying the highest price of all. Bring home true quality in food... and your
pets, and even your family will thank you.
A community's wealth is in its health.
Quality of life = quality of food!
