A Pet's View / June 2005
What's for Dinner?
The mouth watering chunks of beef,
chicken and cheese that people imagine go into
pet food are testament to pet owners’ heartfelt
belief that their animals deserve the best.
Unfortunately, it is a belief with little basis in
reality. The actual ingredients used in pet foods
are generally by products of the food industry
and bear little resemblance to the meats, cheeses
and grains that people recognize.
The whole chicken pictured on the pet food
label is not the chicken a mother would serve to
her family. According tho the Association of
American Feed Control Officials, pet food can
contain poultry by-products with viscera, heads
and feet.
The “rice” listed in ingredients is often
polished rice sections discarded after milling. It
is a product that serves as inexpensive filler for
pet food.
Companies are permitted to use 4-D meats
in the preparation of pet food, meat from animals
that arrive at the slaughterhouse dead,
diseased, dying or disabled. “Pet grade” ingredients
means foodstuffs that have been rejected
for human consumption. The food may not
be exported or sold, but it can be used in the
manufacture of pet food.
Commonly used pet food preservatives
include propylene glycol, a chemical used in
antifreeze and a solvent in brake fluids, propyl
gallate which causes liver damage and the toxic
chemicals, BH A or BHT, which can damage
kidneys. Common pet food flavor enhancers
like sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite and ethoxyquin
are recognized carcinogens.
Though pet owners look for - and believe
they find -ingredient lists that indicate a food
is filled with high quality protein, if assessed
by weight, many foods are actually grain based.
Food is not the main protein source. But, basically,
food that has been processed with high
heat, milled, blended, extruded, dried, dyed,
pelleted, sanitized and preserved for an endless
shelf has lost most of its nutritional value.
Dry food has the very least nutritional
value.
Fresh meat and vegetables have the most
food value followed closely by fresh frozen and
freeze dried food. Freeze dried food is much
like that used by astronauts, light, portable and
nutritionally dense. Pets benefit from a balanced
bowl just the way people benefit from a
balanced diet.
Nutrition is as important for animals as it is
for people. And, with pets whose lives are never
long enough anyway, nutrition can be the one
factor that owners can positively affect to help
their animals live longer, healthier lives. PL
Copyright © 2005-2006 A Woman's View. All rights reserved.
Femme Fair 2006
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