Evolution, genetics, and dog food
I saw this on a blog today and thought it interesting enough to share. It seems the whole "Your dog's ancestors are wolves, so feed her like a wolf" movement is moving into the mainstream thanks to heavy advertising by one or two dog food companies that I won't name.
I know there is a common sense appeal to the emotion behind that statement. Personally, I'm skeptical because I have always had trouble believing that tens of thousands of years of evolution have done nothing to our dogs' digestive systems, and I have seen feeding studies that show excellent digestion of starches.
Now here's some more evidence. Please bear in mind that almost all the dog food analysis type sites online are run by people with no more background in nutrition than myself or the average pet owner:
All I have access to is the abstract, but Patricia McConnell's blog discusses it a bit and I believe she's read the whole study.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature11837...
The title is revealing: "The genomic signature of dog domestication reveals adaptation to a starch-rich diet."
From the abstract, the general gist is that several genes directly involved with the digestion of starches show mutations compared to wolves. The conclusion is "that novel adaptations allowing the early ancestors of modern dogs to thrive on a diet rich in starch, relative to the carnivorous diet of wolves, constituted a crucial step in the early domestication of dogs."
I know food conversations come up a lot and I thought this might be useful to some people.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on
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Looks like an interesting paper. I've always felt the same way as you about dog's digestive systems. We've changed pretty much every element of the physical appearance of dogs, how have we kept digestion EXACTLY the same? I'll see if one of my friends can get the whole article through the college database, and I'll post the entire thing if I can get to it. I just feed what works for my dog. One time I was looking in the fridge at our local pet store for knuckle bones and the clerks thought I fed raw bc that's what was in the fridge. They asked to take a picture of Franklin bc he is the perfect example of how great pets look on a raw diet....I told them I fed kibble and they tried to talk me into the benefits of raw. I asked why they think I should change diets when they just told me my dog was basically a perfect specimen....it was a very funny/awkward conversation lol. Each dog adapts differently to various diets, mine do great on kibble so no reason to change.
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Melissa, that's pretty funny! I just think people get so caught up in what they are selling that they don't always here the lack of logic in their own arguments.
I remember in one conversation someone here was saying they were switching to grain free because grains are not part of the natural diet of wolves, and the kibble they were switching to used potato as the starch. I asked if the wild Poodles of the Serengeti ate a lot of potatoes. In hindsight it probably sounded snotty but I truly just meant for it to be a funny way to get people to think about their choices in a logical way.
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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
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I think of years ago when I was much younger...don't have a clue what was in their food other than my uncle who was a vet recommended certain kinds. People didn't discuss what nutritional value it had...my dogs back then lived to good old ages. Now I would like to be able to see what I was feeding them...was it meat or more starch than we have now. I also believe that just like people...starches are okay if you take into consideration how much and often the dog gets exercise...sorry if I'm a bit off the subject!
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You are right Jane! Most dogs get not nearly enough exercise and way too much food.
My personal rule is that I avoid sugar (molasses is ok in a treat), artificial colors and preservatives and look for named meat sources as the major protein source. Of course some dogs have health issues that demand special diets. But most foods you will find in the big pet stores are pretty good these days.
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At our vet we can get TOTW and canidea but they also carry Science diet and another that has corn in it. I know that for some animals it may be needed and don't mind carbs BUT when corn is the main ingredient and they are just as expensive as the better foods....I really wonder about this. Our local fleet farm store carries a wide variety from good to cheap and so does the Pet store...I agree with the sugar, artificial colors and the preservatives BUT they probably sell tons of "cute" colored kibble....does the dog care????? Don't think so but think of all the money spent to make our furbabies and their owners happy.
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Permalink Reply by Snickmom on
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Why would the dog food companies pour tons of money into research to make food that will make their customers happy enough to buy their product, if the product is not healthy for the dog? I realize that some customers need to keep the cost down, so that may make some foods less than ideal, but as Jane said; my dogs have been living long healthy lives on the medium priced kibble I, and my parents, fed our dogs. So why should I want to change to raw now?
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Permalink Reply by John Wolff on
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"Why would the dog food companies pour tons of money into research to make food that will make their customers happy enough to buy their product, if the product is not healthy for the dog?"
Probably for the same reason tobacco companies manipulate the nicotine content of cigarettes to make them more addictive, or Wall Street puts heavy pressure on Health Insurance corporations to keep their "Medical Loss Ratio" (the proportion of their gross income actually spent on medical care) low.
I'm not suggesting that low-cost dog food is necessarily bad. I am suggesting that there is no a priori reason to trust vendors. Caveat emptor. That said, a lot of El Cheapo stuff is good-enough.
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That's why you look for the AAFCO label.
Honestly I would never feed Beneful, for instance. Truth be told, though, that while it may not provide optimal ingredients, if you feed it chances are your dog will never develop nutrient-related health problems. At $1 a pound you can get better foods for the same price, but your dog won't get the doggie equivalent of scurvy or a goiter if you feed it.
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Permalink Reply by Geri & Sidney on
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Funny that Beneful came up. My lab/dane mix Chester has eaten it all his life. He'll be 17 this summer and has never been ill. Yet I wouldn't dream of feeding it to Sidney. I thought about switching Chester to something better, but reconsidered after thinking about it. He's done so well on it and likes it, so I'm not going to make him switch in his old age. Funny, huh?
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Dog food companies actually want your dogs to live longer because then you buy more food; people are more inclined to pick a new food when they get a new puppy. The big companies such as Iam's and Purina do a lot of research. We feed a medium priced kibble too. I have found that some of the premium ones put in things that sound good to the people but don't do much for the pets; some of the premium cat food I buy add flax seed but cats don't really absorb the fatty acids from flax.
Now cats, they are a different story and lots of the commercial diets are truly bad for cats and you see lots of diabetes as a result. Things are improving as more research is being done. I think that not as many feeding studies were historically done for cats. For a long time, cats were mostly let out and supplemented their diets with their own food that they caught. It's only recently that so many cats are kept in and all of their diet comes from what we give them, and it turns out they need way more fat and protein and way fewer carbs than many diets provide. Cheap canned food is actually better for cats than some of the more expensive kibbles, but it's not so convenient if you are not always home.....
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I would be afraid if I fed raw I would not give them a balanced meal plus I just don't have the time to do this.
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Permalink Reply by Cathie on
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That article caught my attention too and it makes a lot of sense. Definitely makes me question the raw/grain free food movement. Dogs are garbage scavengers and have been for thousands of years. On the working farm, dogs ate human food leftovers and probably anything they found on the barn floor. When I was growing up we fed our dog table scraps and canned dog food (before mass availability of kibble). They lived a long time and I don't ever remember them seeing a vet except for a rabies shot (required by law.)
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