"OFFICIALLY APPROVED" DOES NOT MAKE THE BEST PET FOOD

To assure safety and wholesomeness of pet foods, state and federal regulatory agencies proscribe or permit ingredients. Additionally, ingredients must be described on labels by precise nomenclature dictated by alphabet agencies such as AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials) and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). Each state has their own agencies as well.

The problem is, those who sit on official committees deciding what can or cannot be approved may have commercial links or other biases. They can push through ingredients that should not be in foods, and prevent the approval of those which either rub prejudices the wrong way or which may create unwelcome competition to their own interests.

Nutritionists who are consulted by regulators to help make decisions about ingredient approval are steeped in the reductionistic point of view. Since they believe nutrition boils down to percentages - % protein, % fat, % fiber, etc. - almost anything can be an approved ingredient provided these numbers are known and there is no overt toxicity.

The end result of this unholy marriage between commercial interests, prejudice, scientific naivete, and regulatory dictatorship is the official AAFCO publication listing all the approved ingredients and precisely how feed labels must be constructed to assure the best pet food.

Here are ex­amples of what has been officially approved... not kidding:

• dehydrated garbage
• polyethylene roughage
• hydrolyzed poultry feathers
• hydrolyzed hair
• hydrolyzed leather meal
• some 36 chemical preservatives
• peanut skins and hulls
• corn cob fractions
• ground corn cob
• ground clam shells
• poultry, cow and pig feces and litter
• hundreds of chemicals
• a host of antibiotic and chemotherapeutic pharmaceuticals
• a variety of synthetic flavorings
• adjuvants

On the other hand, if a manufacturer wants to be innovative and pack as much natural nutrition into products as possible, important ingredients are not approved. For example, even though it has been proven that the amino acid, L-carnitine, may be deficient in processed pet foods, it has been forbidden. Proteoglycans such as glucosamine and chondroitin and other ingredients such as col­lagen, all of which have been proven to help prevent and alleviate arthritic conditions, have also been black listed. Special natural foods that are particu­larly nutrient dense, such as pollen, composted sea vegetation, sea salt, omega-3 fatty acids, various biologically active phytonutrients (dozens of these have been discovered and their proven effectiveness has created a class of beneficial ingredients known as nutraceuticals) and even some organic ingredients cannot be used because they are not "approved."

There is no question of safety here - as regulators pretend - for these foods have been consumed for eons by animals and humans without ill effect.

Animal food regulatory absurdity becomes apparent when the very ingredients banned for pet foods are sitting on shelves in grocery and health food stores fully approved for human consumption.

"Approved" ingredient regulations cannot be trusted. Banning nutri­tious natural ingredients and approving dehydrated garbage, feces, and non-nutrient chemicals makes it clear that the agenda of regulation is something different than encour­aging optimal nutrition or creating the best pet food.

If you want what is best for yourself and your pet, then you better rely on your own common sense.

Video: Simon's Cat - "Fly Guy"

A hilarious short cartoon by British animator Simon Tofield, creator of the animated series "Simon's Cat." In this cartoon Simon's cat is chasing a fly, and wreaking total havoc in doing so...

Thought for the day: "Preservation of health is a duty. Few people seem to be conscious of such a thing as physical morality." – Hippocrates

Word for the day: omega-6 - adjective: A class of fatty acids (arachidonic acid, linoleic acid, etc.) essential to health but found in excess in the modern Western diet. Omega-6 fatty acids are predominant in grains and grain-fed meats, vegetable oils, and cereals. They are hydrogenated and produce toxic trans-fats in oleomargarines and in processed foods. Excessive Omega-6 fatty acids have been linked to cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, depression, and a host of other inflammatory disease conditions.