Let Food Be Thy Medicine

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”

So I’m sitting in Portland for a veterinary leadership training conference, actively listening and participating (blogging) when the topic of new-age raw diets comes up.  I think this is an excellent subject to discuss in a public forum.  Because there’s not a lot that makes me more hypertensive in an exam room than when an owner tells me that they feed Fido a raw meat diet.  As the veterinarian, this is my opportunity to set the record straight.  It is my job to build a partnership with the owner, to encourage proactive two-way communication and mutuality, to engender familiarity/trust and relationship, and to strengthen the vet-client bond which subsequently strengthens the human-animal bond.  Fido does not drive to the store, get distracted and overwhelmed by all of the pet food choices and marketing strategies, purchase his kibble with his credit card, drive home and open the bag, and dish out his controlled portion size with his opposable thumbs.  No, Fido is dependent on his owner and his owner is dependent (hopefully) on correct information from his veterinarian.  So, as you can probably guess, I am NOT in favor of raw-meat diets.  The wealth of misinformation on the internet is a crying shame.  Each individual is free to choose any diet that tickles his or her fancy, but from a medical standpoint, I will present a few facts comparing raw diets and commercially prepared ones to help “level the playing field”.

The three top reasons for NOT feeding a raw meat diet include the infectious disease risks, nutrient imbalances, and public health risks.  Something like 67% of all raw meat contains salmonella not to mention other bacteria such as clostridium, campylobacter, etc.  Would you eat raw chicken or beef?  And then…what goes in must come out.  And who picks up (or should pick up) from the grass what comes out?  You got it, zoonotic disease risks.  Please infect me.  There is a terribly unfortunate paper I recently read about a puppy whose owner was feeding a raw meat diet because that’s what their “breeder” (who went to vet school??) told them was best for the pup’s coat and skin.  Low and behold, the puppy licks his rear-end, licks the owner’s toddler’s face, and the toddler died in the hospital from Salmonella.  Could there have been confounding factors in this single scenario?  Absolutely.  But the take-home message is to ask yourself…is it really worth the risk?  There are other forms of raw-meat diets under the label “BARF” which stands for Bones And Raw Food.  As if raw-meat isn’t enough to worry about.  There are serious physical dangers to feeding your pet this type of a diet…tooth fractures due to the severely restricted mineral imbalances, intestinal perforations, intestinal obstructions, etc. etc.  There is this common myth that home-made diets are superior to manufactured processed diets.  Myth. The trade-off centers on once again, the common nutritional errors.  Home-made or raw diets contain excess protein, are high in fat, they’re deficient in calories/calcium/vitamins/micro-minerals, contain abnormal calcium to phosphorous ratios, and are highly prone to owner-user error with improper supplementations/substitutions/etc.  Another fallacy I hear routinely is that chicken meat is superior to chicken byproduct or chicken meal.  Using chicken as an example.  Ingredients are listed on the back of the bag in order of weight from greatest to least.  However, “by-weight” includes the moisture content of that element.  Once the moisture content is removed, the true protein content changes dramatically.  For instance, “fresh meat” contains 10-20% protein and 70% moisture while “meal” contains 45-60% protein and 10% moisture.  Also, CORN is NOT bad!  Once the hull has been removed, corn is an excellent source of protein and amino acids.  Corn gluten is low in what we call ASH which is critical in formulating diets where mineral content must be manipulated (such as kidney disease, liver disease, diabetes, etc.).  But what about food allergies?  90% of food allergies are due to a protein allergy (in the canine/feline world).  1.5% of allergies are contributed to corn which is the same as all other grains/etc. Plus, most corn allergies are not acquired allergies but are genetically predisposed allergies.  And one last final myth to debunk centers around canned foods being higher in calories and fat.  False.  Wet food contains 80% moisture on average and 70-90 cal/100g of food.  Dry food contains 10% moisture on average and 350-450 cal/100g of food.  Dry food actually contains five times the calories as compared to the same volume of wet food.  But animals in the wild don’t eat grains?  Predators in the wild kill and immediately consume the viscera.  Pumba who just got eaten by Scar or the hyenas did not consume a raw meat diet.  Pumba just ate from the grasslands.  And what do you think is in Pumba’s small and large intestines that just got consumed by Scar?  So the next time you go to the store to purchase pet food, don’t be fooled by the pretty packages and propaganda.  Or go ahead and be fooled.  You have the ability to choose whatever food you find most appealing for your pet.  Fido doesn’t get to.  Ok, I'm off my soap-box.  Now back to paying attention in class...