Grain-Free? Don’t Panic

Red wine is excellent for your heart health. Red wine can cause stroke and heart failure.

Coffee can lower your risk for developing Type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s Disease. Coffee can cause anxiety and heart problems.

In the same way that we are fed contradicting information regarding the things we humans consume, pet owners have recently been bombarded with some misleading news regarding grain-free diets and heart problems in dogs.

News spread like wildfire across social media, after Lisa Freeman, a well-regarded veterinary nutritionist with connections to veterinary food companies, warned pet owners to avoid “boutique, grain-free or exotic diets.” Her article was picked up by the New York Times, which ran this piece a few weeks ago.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/24/health/grain-free-dog-food-heart-disease.html

The FDA issued an alert to pet owners about “reports of canine cardiomyopathy in dogs eating certain pet foods containing peas, lentils, other legume seeds, or potatoes as main ingredients.” Click here to read the FDA’s release.

https://www.fda.gov/animalveterinary/newsevents/cvmupdates/ucm613305.htm

In this age of short attention spans, many blog posts and news stories went right to the juiciest part and led with “Grain-free diets cause heart disease.” But there’s so much more to the issue.

Our favorite Pet Food Guru, Rodney Habib with Dr. Karen Becker, posted this lengthy but highly informative (and entertaining) video on the grain-free subject. If you have a few minutes, we recommend watching it. He shares a lot of background information, and you’ll become a taurine expert.

https://www.facebook.com/rodneyhabib/videos/10156617345557028/?hc_location=ufi

As animal lovers ourselves, we don’t believe that switching foods is needed at this time. We feel that feeding a diet low in carbohydrates with a high animal-based protein is ideal.

Adding fresh ingredients and brand rotation, as we’ve told many of our customers, is the best course. We caution against feeding anything in excess. Go with a minimally-processed, meat-based, low carb diet, and supplementing with natural sources of taurine. Try supplementing your dog’s regular food with mussels, goat’s milk, capelins, or sardines.

If you’d like to try a pea and potato-free food, we carry brands that offer such options including Nature’s Logic, Canine Caviar, and Earthborn Holistic Venture. We will continue to follow this and will share with you any new information and research.