Filtering Out the Filler in Your Pet's Food

People can learn a lot about good nutrition by feeding pets a high-quality diet - and what we learn can help us and them stay healthy and fit. This may sound like a daunting task, but it's really not. Practicing healthy eating is easy and fun, for you and Spot!

We've all heard the diet gurus' warnings about empty carbohydrates packing on pounds. Carrying excess weight isn't just unattractive; it's also unhealthy, as it can lead to a variety of conditions ranging from joint pain and ligament rupture to diabetes and heart disease. That goes double for our pets.

Restricting pets' carbohydrate intake is easy if we remember that dogs and cats are carnivores, not carb-ivores. When choosing a kibble brand, take care to select one that's high in protein and free of the high-carb fillers corn and rice.

Corn is a carb that happens to be a staple filler of many brands of pet food. Think about it: all over the world, for centuries, corn has been fed to pigs to fatten them up, and it's worked. To keep pets slim and trim, avoid corn in their diets. This will also prevent flatulence, as many pets - like many people! - have trouble digesting those sweet, yellow kernels.

Another staple of many pet food brands is rice, but this grain too can pack on pounds, and should be avoided. Plus, if you're serious about preventing cancer in your pet, you'll avoid gluten as much as possible. Besides rice, another source of gluten is, of course, wheat, which in addition to being the basis of pasta is also used as pet-food filler. Rice and wheat should both be avoided if your dog has epilepsy, as grains can trigger seizures.

Wheat and corn are both common allergens that cause itchy skin irritation in pets who are allergic to it. Many pets are also allergic to soy, so that too is an ingredient to avoid; it's commonly used in "vegetarian" pet foods as a meat-free protein substitute.

Now that you've trained yourself to filter out empty-carb fillers in your pet's diet, consider raising your own food standards. Try substituting rice and pasta with the gluten-free, protein-rich grain quinoa at your mealtime, and your diet will be as healthy as your dog's!