Most pet owners are unaware of the harmful process that kibble goes through before it reaches the mouths of their pets. All dog kibble undergoes a heating and cooling process which strips the food of any vitamins and minerals. In order for kibble producers to meet AAFCO requirements, vitamins and minerals are then added back into the kibble after the heating and cooling process. Without adding the vitamins and minerals back into the kibble, the food would not provide enough nutrients for your pet to survive.
This process of adding vitamins and minerals back into kibble is problematic for a couple of reasons. The vitamins and minerals added into the kibble come in what is called as a “premix” form. Premixes are often bought from producers overseas in countries like India and China, where the production standards are very low. There is no way of knowing, even by checking the ingredients of high end dog kibble, where the premix came from. Premixes that are not carefully regulated could potentially contaminate dog kibble sold here in the United States, causing many pets to become very ill. The second issue with premixes is that many of them are created with synthetic vitamins and minerals. This causes a different reaction in your dog’s liver during the digestion process. The synthetic vitamins and minerals are identified by your dog’s body as a foreign substance and this can cause toxicity in the body.
Research has shown that the best alternative for providing your dog with vitamins and minerals would be through whole foods. Only through whole foods, will your dog receive all of the necessary ingredients from each food in order to process the beneficial vitamins and nutrients they provide. For example, “there are over 10, 000 ingredients in an orange. If you give your dog a supplement with ascorbic acid as the only Vitamin C source, you are eliminating the other 9, 999 ingredients necessary to process the ascorbic acid properly,” states Dogs Naturally Magazine in their recent article entitled “Why Kibble (And Other Fake Foods) Could Be Harming Your Dog” published in May 2012.
Next time you are shopping for dog food, compare the labels between the leading kibble brand and a quality whole food brand of dog food. The difference is clear: no harmful premixes.
Written by: Holly Sharpe, TLC House & Pet Sitting Service, LLC
Information Provided by: “Why Kibble (And Other Fake Foods) Could Be Harming Your Dog”
by Dogs Naturally on May 16, 2012www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com
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