COOKING IS NOT ALL BAD

Feeding yourself and your dogs and cats in this modern age is about compromise. Yes we should have the natural ideal always in view, but foods less than that can still contribute to health.

Consider the unnatural process of heating foods. Foods are high heat extruded, baked, and canned for several reasons:

1. It sterilizes foods so they do not contain dangerous pathogens.
2. It helps to dry food so that there is not enough moisture for bacteria, mold, and insects to grow.
3. It gelatinizes starches in grains, pulses, and tubers so they are digestible.
4. It inactivates enzymes that can cause lipids to become rancid.
5. It inactivates antinutrtional factors in plant materials that can interfere with digestion.
6. It permits shaping and packaging.

To accomplish these objectives requires aggressive high heat, not a gentle warming. If a canned pet food is not subjected to high heat for a specific period of time, and then sealed, the high moisture in the can creates a perfect medium for microbial growth and even the formation of deadly toxins, such as botulism. That is why you should never eat or feed food from a can that is swollen. The swelling is from the gases produced by the bacterial growth.

If even the packaged best pet food is not sufficiently cooked and dried with high enough heat, it too will support the growth of dangerous pathogens. Moreover, the incompletely cooked starches will ferment in the digestive tract of the pet and cause digestive disturbances. So too will the other benefits listed above be lost.

Yes, a totally raw diet is ideal, the very best pet food. But when that is not possible, varying and rotating the diet with health-first designed processed foods and supplements is an excellent second best.

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Thought for the day: Love is the underlying purpose of our journey on Earth. Pets reminds us of that.

Phrase for the day: 'food allergy/food sensitivity' - an adverse reaction to a particular food. Allergy is a true antigen-antibody reaction, whereas sensitivity may manifest in other ways. It is really not possible to determine by laboratory testing with accuracy what foods will cause such reactions. Once foods are mixed together and processed they really do not resemble what is used in a laboratory to test. Thus, one cannot simply read a label and know what the reaction of your pet will be. The only true test is to feed and watch for results. The best way to avoid allergy and food sensitivity is to not feed the same food meal after meal.