November 13th 2022
By: Cheryl Millman
Recently I had the privilege of listening to a group of Holistic Veterinarians on topics including Homeopathy, Acupuncture, Massage, Emotional Health, and of course, Food and Nutrition for our pets. The topic that stole the show for me by far was food and nutrition.
Chelsea Kent from Parsley Pet is a guru regarding food and nutrition, self-studied with a mountain of wisdom that draws Veterinarians to consult with her. Her talk started with a discussion about AFCO (American Feed Control Officials) pertaining to dog food.
This is an organization with government officials trying to establish food regulations for our pets, which Canada has just joined. Lobbyists also attend because there is a chasm between the truth and what is written on pet food labels. Another organization called Food Regulation Fact Alliance is working to put truth into what food labels state. Allow me to give you a couple of examples that Chelsea provided.
Corn . . .
When corn hits the dog food processing plant, there can be 72 byproducts! The growth of the corn and extraction process (to produce ethanol) include the use of antibiotics, sulphur dioxide, urea, and 16 chemicals.
The EDA deems the end product as biodiesel! So, corn is not just corn, though this is all that is required on the label.
Fat . . .
Most fats used in pet foods include vegetable oil and fish oil. Used restaurant grease is an acceptable form of these fats.
These oils are very high in minerals and toxicities with heavy metal contamination. No wonder our pets are suffering from heavy metal poisoning!
Glyphosate. . .
A new word to my vocabulary, as the first time I heard it was from these Holistic vets. Glyphosate is taking the industry by storm with research, as many believe it to be a leading cause of the increase in cancer, premature illness and death in our pets.
Glyphosate is a herbicide with similar ingredients as Round-Up, used on crops for weed prevention and crop growth, particularly lentils, chickpeas, soy, legumes and oatmeal. The only way for these ingredients to be glyphosate free is if they are organic. The common household also utilizes this chemical in the form of grass fertilizer.
Glyphosate numbers in tested dogs are more than 32 times that in humans! Surveys of these pet owners show that glyphosate in dogs fed a raw food diet is next to zero, suggesting this outrageous contamination in our pets is from processed food.
The question begs asking … Is glyphosate a leading cause of drastically increased numbers of dogs with cancer?
So your kibble label says your food contains corn, oatmeal and fish oil??? YIKES!!!