Veterinarians know far more about nutrition than most doctors. Pets generally don't have health insurance, and it's much cheaper to prevent disease in your pet through good nutrition than it is to treat it with drugs and surgery down the road. Veterinarians both understand good nutrition (see related ebook on nutrition) and preach it to their customers. Veterinarians also understand the direct correlation between the foods a pet eats and the chronic diseases they will exhibit. For example, vets know very well that if you feed your dog leftovers of human food or cheap dog foods loaded with unnecessary fillers, you will probably end up giving your dog chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
Now there is an interesting indication. If leftover human food will kill your dog, what's it doing to you and your family? We'll look at that a little bit later, but here's a hint: pet food is actually more nutritionally balanced than human food. And there is a very good reason why, which will be discussed in detail shortly.
If you feed your pets lots of white rice for example, you will end up giving them diabetes. In fact, if you're asking a veterinarian who has been practicing for twenty or thirty years, they will tell you that they have recently seen a skyrocketing increase in the number of cases of diabetes in dogs. That's due to changes in the nutritional makeup of cheaper dog food products today that are using a lot of white rice as a filler (because white rice is cheap and makes the dog foods more profitable). But just as in human beings, white rice causes diabetes and obesity because it's a refined carbohydrate offering little more than "empty calories."
The Power of Seven
When you look at pets, there is a direct relationship between foods and disease that is quite apparent. Part of the reason this is so apparent is because pets age much more quickly than human beings. Of course, we're all familiar with the phrase "dog years" and the idea that dogs age approximately seven times faster than human beings. This allows you to notice the relationship between nutrition and health seven times more quickly in your dogs than you might notice it in yourself or in your family.
In other words, if you start feeding your dog or cat foods and food ingredients that promote disease and cause nutritional deficiencies (i.e. most human food [and cheap pet foods]), your dog or cat will start to show symptoms of those deficiencies seven times more quickly than a human being would.
So one of the reasons that human beings don't catch on to the links between nutrition and disease is because it happens so slowly. It can sometimes take years or even decades for a disease to show up that has been caused by a dietary habit. Yet, in animals, you can quickly see this appearing far more quickly.
Two Dogs from Separate Sides of the Track
Now it would be highly unethical to do this, so I'm not suggesting that you do. This is for a mental experiment only. If you were to take two dogs that were genetically very similar (from the same litter, for example), and you brought them into your house from the time they were very young then fed one dog all the processed foods that human beings tend to eat, while feeding the other dog outstanding nutrition from the more expensive dog food formulas [such as Flint River Ranch premium health pet foods], you would see a tremendous difference in the health and lifespan of these two dogs.
The dog fed human food, which would include refined grains, white flour, added sugars, chemical food additives and other toxic ingredients, would have a much lower quality of life than the healthy dog. It would also have a shorter life span and sky-high health care costs associated with the treatment of the chronic diseases it would undoubtedly experience.
The healthy dog, on the other hand, would live longer and would be more vibrant, more emotionally stable, have greater lean body mass and lower body fat. It would have a healthier cardiovascular system, healthier teeth and would express a much higher degree of health than the other dog. It would also probably die someday from so-called natural causes, without all the medical costs associated with the unhealthy dog. So once again, I don't recommend doing this (because it would be unethical), but if you were to take two dogs and feed them radically different diets as an experiment, it would be apparent to anyone that nutrition is a powerful influencer of health in mammals.
You could also do this experiment with guinea pigs or rats or mice. But once again, I think even that would be unethical, because mice are mammals too and it is downright evil to torture a mouse by feeding it typical human foods. Now some people might find that statement shocking. But I think the really shocking thing is that as a society, we are feeding each other and our children the exact same foods that would be considered inhumane if you fed them to a pet, or even to a mouse.
This article is an excerpt from the book The 7 Laws of Nutrition by Mike Adams.
If you're looking for additional information on Flint River Ranch pet foods and products, we'd like to recommend:
Flint River Ranch Top 10 - The Top 10 reasons you should make the switch to Flint River Ranch Premium Pet Foods
Feed The Best for Less - Why Flint River Ranch is cheaper to use than competing pet foods
Pet Food Brand Comparison - Learn how Flint River Ranch foods stack up against competing pet food brands
Shop A+ Flint River Ranch - Purchase Flint River Ranch premium pet foods, treats, and products online at the best prices
