Do dogs subsist better on standard pet foods or on special pet foods reduced in carbohydrate? Pet nutritionists are split. Some argue that the quality of pet food calories do not matter--as long as the dog does not overeat and does get enough exercise, he can stay in good health. Others argue that calorie quality does matter: dogs should eat foods their ancestors evolved to eat.
Why Low Carb Dog Food Appears to be Superior to Carb-Filled Dog Food
According to reliable statistics, around a quarter of the canine population in the United States is obese. Dogs who are overweight are at higher risk for an array of unpleasant conditions, including type II diabetes, heart disease, and metabolic disorders.
Experts insist that domestic dog obesity stems from the fact that today’s dogs get less exercise than their ancestors did. Fat dogs eat too much and don’t get enough fiber in their diets. But this conventional answer completely misdiagnoses the problem.
To Design a Perfect Diet for Dogs, Evolution Should be the Guide
Dogs evolved from wolves. All dogs, in fact, belong to a single species, canis familiaris. They evolved directly from a species of gray wolf called canis lupus. Evolutionary geneticists disagree about exactly when dogs were domesticated from wolves. Some say as little as 13,000 years ago. Others say humans domesticated wolves 125,000 years ago.
Regardless, dogs and wolves are closely related. To feed a dog correctly, therefore, one needs to know what wolves eat. Consider this quote about wolves, from a website called www.thewildones.org: “these carnivores eat anything ranging from field mice to huge caribou. As predators, gray wolves help to maintain balance in the food web. ”
Dogs are even classified in the order Carnivora. Carnivores, by definition, eat meat.
Might Dogs be Omnivores, Capable of Eating Meat and Veggies?
Dogs can survive on a diet that consists of meat and vegetable products. They certainly do in America. But dogs certainly did not evolve to consume massive amounts of refined carbohydrates and sugars, such as can be found in most commercial dog foods.
Common ingredients in these commercial brands include, for instance:
- cornmeal
- yellow corn
- brewer’s rice
- whole grain corn
Alternate Explanation for Dog Obesity
Wild dog populations don’t develop obesity rates of 25%, and they don’t typically get diabetes. Carbohydrates cannot be good for dogs -- at least not in the quantity eaten today. Excess sugar/carb consumption has been shown to cause obesity as well as many other chronic diseases.
Low carb dog foods work because biological carnivores cannot thrive on foods like corn meal and rice. These animals clearly evolved to eat mostly carnivorous diets--diets very low in sugar and refined starches. The carbohydrate hypothesis also neatly explains why dogs get diabetes and other diseases of civilzations--the carbs/sugar drive both obesity and disease in canines.
Sources:
newscientist.com. *"Dogs evolved from handful of wolves" (accessed April 24, 2010).
dogfoodadvisor.com. *"Are Dogs Carnivores... or Omnivores?" (accessed April 24, 2010).
Adam Kosloff - Adam Kosloff is a Yale University educated writer who is fascinated by counterintuitive theories about nature, life and the universe that ...
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