Feature Photo: This ingredients lable was sent to me by a client after my recommending a concentrated cranberry supplement (from the pharmacy Dept of a local grocery store) for one of his dogs. He, like many of us, has made a “hobby” out of shopping for his dogs. We LOVE to indulge our beloved furry friends! Below are portions of my reply, and the education I offered him:
“When looking at the 5 selections you found online for a cranberry supplement, I see that they contain an average of 400mg or so per serving, and serving sizes can be tricky. This is not adequate when looking into utilizing cranberry for medicinal benefit. As well, costs range from $15-$25 vs $5-$6 at the pharmacy of your local grocery store. I consider these as “treats” vs beneficial supplements. What’s worse, is the incipient ingredients actually detract from good health. Simply throwing in a few quality ingredients doesn’t then qualify them as “dietary supplements.” The pricing is really not commensurate for the limited amount of the targeted ingredient. These are overpriced treats w a little cranberry in them.”
Once you start the trend of these increasingly popular “targeted ingredient treats” ie; turmeric curcumin treats, Co-Q-10 treats, cranberry treats…etc, (and I have another client that likely feeds his dog 10-15 of these products simultaneously ) you’re loading your dogs up with all of the inappropriate and potentially harmful incipient ingredients. Most of the incipients have to go through the kidneys to clean the rest of the body, at a great cost to the kidney (and liver when applicable) over time.
To understand and move forward,I offer an analysis of this lable:
• OAT FLOUR is the first ingredient, so that’s basically the bulk of this product. The first rule of feeding dogs is NO GRAINS in any part of the diet.
• 3rd ingredient is brown rice syrup (sugar). Remembering the rules of lable analysis, the first (3) ingredients are the “critical ingredients” and should be your target ingredients. Sugar is inappropriate anywhere in the ingredients list and way too excessive as a 3rd ingredient.
• But then reading on w see cellulose, glycerine and sorbic acid…
So if you see oat, wheat, rice, oatmeal, barley, brown rice, rice syrup etc… avoid the product. I may forgive 1 of these ingredients in an otherwise stellar line-up w no other problematic ingredients and fed sparingly. However I never “forgive” wheat, or soy, or corn, or any sugars. These are 100% unacceptable, along with some other unforgivable ingredients.
The sweet potato, carrot, flax, sunflower seed, rosemary etc are all great. So, you know what I’m going to say here;
“Just feed your dogs sweet potato… that still looks like a sweet potato. Feed them carrots, that still look like carrots… and so on. “
With the supplement only containing 400mg cranberry per every TWO SOFT CHEWS, and the bulk of the product potentially harmful when fed to dogs, we want to avoid this product and new trend. We’re missing satisfying the underlying health-need while feeding risky ingredients. “Feeding pure” is our goal instead.
Consider for example the 100% cranberry supplement I recommended from the pharmacy Dept of a local grocery (see picture below). This cranberry supplement contains 4200mg of cranberry- and nothing else.… no incipient ingredients at all.
*Above photo: this type of cranberry supplement is readily available at local pharmacies, pharmacy Dept of grocery, local health food stores, and on your favorite shopping aps. This is an example of “feeding pure” as you’ll read below.*
It’s a tricky trap these “supplements” for sure. It’s so appealing to folks. And so many folks nowadays really like to “shop for dogs” as a hobby…searching for hours online for products that appear helpful, and perusing aisles of pet supply stores.
I get it! I like to shop for my dog too. It’s a highlight for me each month to make my rounds to my local grocers and select meats for the month. This month I’m so delighted that in addition to my staples, my shopping basket included organic grass fed free range bison, organic grass fed free range lamb, a whole frozen rabbit and ox tails. What great “finds!”
I purchase whole foods even when buying things in capsules, cans or otherwise. I also try to find JUST that ingredient I’m looking for, or minimal ingredients.
An example of a “processed whole food” when trying to “feed pure” is that cranberry gel tab w nothing in it but cranberry.
Another example is buying canned pumpkin purée (w no junk added- just puréed pumpkin) vs buying a whole pumpkin and cleaning out/ prepping the flesh! I’d aldo buy pumpkin purée w just ginger added, or pumpkin purée w cinnamon, pumpkin purée w ground pumpkin seed, pumpkin purée with flax seed… etc.
Here’s my exceptions to single or limited ingredient product purchases:
• High quality probiotics w as many strains as possible and all in 1 serving
• Multiple greens concentrated into a ”Super Green-Food” & typically ground into a fine green powder. I get perhaps 20-50 different powerful plants in 1 serving, too impractical to add in whole-raw-food form. This doesn’t negate feeding whole greens in the diet in its whole-food or “pure” form. It’s still important as roughage to clean the digestive tract along w feeding specific organs in the body.
• multi-berry “Super Antioxidant-Food” that also typically comes super-concentrated and in powder form. It’s an easier way to get dogs to eat berries, as fruits are not very palatable for dogs (w a few exceptions).
As a guideline; since canned pumpkin purée is closest to pumpkin flesh than powder, and when pumpkin is a medicinal-need it’s more of a stand-alone ingredient I prefer then buying canned purée as it’s closer to pumpkin flesh than powder. Also as I’m guided to “feed pure,” canned purée eliminates several more steps of potentially harmful processing, eliminates preservatives added (w canned purée the canning is the preservative) and avoids other harmful incipient products being added. Think “as pure as possible.” It’s always your safer and more bio-available option.
I hope this clears the fog from these clever companies that put a few good ingredients (& in low quantity) into an otherwise potentially harmful and very cheap product (like oat flour). Then they maximize their profits w high prices & w powerful marketing to loving pet owners. They are really taking advantage of consumers knowing that dog, cat, lizard, bird, horse (etc)- lovers will spend $ in excess, spending in excess…even in a recession… & even make shopping for pets a hobby.
Dogs have short lives already, we want to help them enjoy it for the time they have. Being sick for 1/2 of their lives is unfair and unnecessary.
So love your dog by becoming educated, feed him well, and feed “pure!”
