Let's Talk Dog Food - 'Dog Food 101' - Part 3

[ian allen]

In Part 2 of my 'Dog Food 101,' I discussed some meat/protein sources,
now I'd like to go over some information on carbohydrates.
The first thing I would like to say is that dogs, being carnivores, do
not require grains and cereals in their diets. Secondly, they are not
well processed by their bodies which means nutritionally, they are of
little value. If you recall, in Part 1, I said that dogs "have short
digestive tracts and their bodies lack certain enzymes which make it
difficult, if not impossible for their bodies to process grains and
vegetables unless they are 'predigested' by processing; cooking,
mincing, grinding, breakdown by enzymes, or fermentation through
bacteria.'
Keeping this in mind, let's take a look at some of the carbs; cereals
and grains, that are in our pet's food.
One of the most prevalent is corn in a variety of forms. Most are 'by-
products' left over after processing what can be used for human
consumption and are usually to add bulk or fiber and are seldom of
much if any nutritional value. They are basically just cheap fillers.
Another thing to keep in mind is that corn is one of the highest
reported food allergens in dogs....

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