| Every day, people by the millions pour food from a | | | | glucose) and to extend shelf-life by sterilization. Dry |
| package into their pet's bowl. Day in and day out, | | | | foods are extruded at hundreds of degrees and |
| meal after meal, pets get the same fare. This | | | | hundreds of pounds of pressure. Canned foods are |
| strange phenomenon is widely practiced by loving pet | | | | retorted. Commercial pet foods also contain a mix of |
| owners who believe they are doing the right thing. | | | | ingredients including meats, fats, starches (a variety |
| Why? Certainly because it is convenient, but also | | | | of label dressing "natural" ingredient buzzwords) and |
| because the labels state that such foods are | | | | vitamin/mineral "fortifiers." Although the ingredient |
| "complete and balanced," "100% complete," or that | | | | label is evocative and beguiling, what is in the final |
| they have passed various analytical and feeding test | | | | product is another matter. Essential fatty acids are |
| standards. Furthermore, manufacturers, and even | | | | oxidized and isomerized. Cytotoxic, mutagenic and |
| veterinarians, counsel pet owners about not feeding | | | | carcinogenic cholesterol oxidation products (COP) are |
| other foods, such as table scraps, because of the | | | | formed, including C-7 derivatives, 5,6-epoxides, triols, |
| danger of unbalancing these modern processed | | | | 25-OHs and 3,5-dienes - the real culprits in human |
| nutritional marvels. The power of the message is so | | | | atherogenesis, incidently. The cooked meats form |
| great that pet owners en masse do every day to | | | | heterocyclic amines, proteins are degraded and amino |
| their pets what they would never do to themselves | | | | acids destroyed or racemized. Carbohydrates are |
| or their children - force-feed the same processed | | | | glycated, acrylamides are formed, vitamins |
| food at every meal. Think about it. Our world is | | | | destroyed, oxidized and racemized and minerals are |
| complex beyond comprehension. It is not only largely | | | | complexed into unavailable matrices. The end result is |
| unknown, it is unknowable in the "complete" sense. In | | | | a potpourri of imbalance, unavailability and toxicity - |
| order for nutritionists and manufacturers to produce | | | | not "100% completeness." Yes, pets can survive for |
| a "100% complete and balanced" pet food, they | | | | a time on such fare, but that is simply a testament |
| must first know 100% about nutrition. However, | | | | to their physiological capacity to adapt. They seek |
| nutrition is not a completed science. It is, in fact, an | | | | equilibrium at higher and higher levels of toxicity until |
| aggregate science, which is based upon other | | | | adaptive reserve is exhausted. Chronic degenerative |
| sciences, such as chemistry, physics, and biology. But | | | | diseases and immune failure is the end result. The |
| since no scientist would argue that everything is | | | | point is, don't believe the claim on any commercially |
| known in chemistry, or physics, or biology, how can | | | | prepared pet (or human) food that it is "100% |
| nutritionists claim to know everything there is to | | | | complete and balanced." It is a spurious unsupported |
| know about nutrition, which is based upon these | | | | boast, intended to build consumer trust and |
| sciences? This is the logical absurdity of the "100% | | | | dependence on commercial products - not create |
| complete and balanced" diet claim. It is the reason a | | | | optimal health. Unfortunately, most people think |
| similar venture to feed babies a "100% complete" | | | | animal feeding is a mystery. It is not. Animal nutrition |
| formula turned out to be a health disaster. In that | | | | is not a special nutritional science to which common |
| instance, after sufficient disease and death resulted | | | | sense human nutrition principles cannot be applied. |
| from attempting to retire the human breast to a | | | | Use the same reasoning in feeding your pets that |
| mere appendage of adornment, government stepped | | | | you use for feeding your family. Nutrition is also not |
| in and controlled the commercial hype. Now doctors, | | | | about some special ingredient, the absence of some |
| nurses and purveyors of baby formulas cannot say | | | | boogeyman ingredient, or claims such as "natural," |
| these products are complete or that they are equal | | | | "organic," or the like. If you feed processed foods, |
| to or superior to breast-feeding. Good for the | | | | use discernment since just about anyone can create |
| regulators. (Although they should have been | | | | a commercial pet food. The pet food industry has |
| proactive and prevented the disaster before it ever | | | | hundreds of brands. Business profiteers and the |
| took root, not have merely stepped in after enough | | | | occasional movie star are the most common forces |
| deaths accrued.) Even with that lesson as a dire | | | | behind the labels. All one needs is a little money and |
| warning, pet food regulators turn a blind eye. Instead | | | | they can go to any number of toll manufacturers and |
| of preventing pet food producers from claiming a | | | | have them slightly modify a shelf formula. Then all |
| processed food concoction is 100% complete, they in | | | | that is needed is to dress it all up with a fancy |
| effect promote the death and disease-dealing | | | | package, a clever brochure, and some advertising. |
| specious claim by setting bogus standards that | | | | Voila! Another brand is added to the 20-billion-dollar |
| supposedly justify and authenticate the claim. They | | | | pet food industry heyday. Nutrition is a serious health |
| legitimize sloppy science in order to win consumer | | | | business, not a mere opportunity to turn dollars. |
| confidence. All a manufacturer has to do is guarantee | | | | Check the credentials of the decision maker at the |
| that their percentage of protein, fat and the like | | | | head of the company you are entrusting your pet's |
| meets National Research Council standards. In the | | | | health to and examine closely its operating philosophy. |
| alternative, manufacturers can do feeding trials on | | | | Health competence and principle should come before |
| caged laboratory animals for a few weeks, measure | | | | pretty packaging and beguiling hoopla. The public is |
| cursory blood parameters, and monitor growth and | | | | not well served by exclusively feeding products from |
| weight - as if survival after a few weeks on a food | | | | companies without any real commitment to |
| has anything to do with achieving optimal health and | | | | health… or knowledge of how to even |
| long life! Down the primrose path millions of trusting | | | | achieve it. For the past 25 years, I have been a |
| pet owners go while at the same time unknowingly | | | | lonely voice in the wilderness trying to get people to |
| condemning their pets to terrible degenerative | | | | understand the deadly health consequences of |
| diseases. Pet food regulators then spend the majority | | | | feeding processed pet foods exclusively. People want |
| of their time harassing pet food companies with | | | | convenience in a bag and the industry wants the |
| picayune requirements about terminology on | | | | flow of billions of dollars to continue uninterrupted. In |
| packaging and where certain words must be placed | | | | the meantime, the scientific literature offers |
| on labels. In this regard manufacturers must contend | | | | compelling proof that millions of animals have been |
| with the USDA (United States Department of | | | | maimed and killed as a result of feeding thoroughly |
| Agriculture), FDA (Food and Drug Administration), | | | | tested "100% complete" foods… with the full |
| AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control | | | | imprimatur of government regulation. (Exactly the |
| Officials), and 50 State feed regulatory agencies. All | | | | same thing that abounds in the FDA-pharmaceutical |
| for naught. It's like the entire police force busying | | | | industry.) Examples of pet food disasters include |
| themselves ticketing people for jaywalking while | | | | dilated cardiomyopathy from taurine deficiency, |
| turning a blind eye to the murder and rape going on | | | | potassium imbalances, fatty acid and carnitine |
| in the alleys. Claiming that anything is 100% is like | | | | deficiencies and numerous other problems that would |
| claiming perfection, total knowledge, and absolute | | | | be expected on a steady diet of dead, devitalized, |
| truth. Has pet nutrition really advanced that far? Does | | | | carbohydrate-based processed foods. Moreover, the |
| a chemist make such a claim? A physicist? Doctor? | | | | whole panoply of human chronic degenerative |
| Professor? Did Einstein, Bohr, Pasteur, Aristotle, Plato, | | | | diseases such as cancer, obesity, arthritis, |
| or any of the greatest minds in human history make | | | | autoimmunities, dental deterioration and organ failure |
| such claims? No. Has the science of pet nutrition | | | | are at epidemic levels in the pet population… |
| advanced to the point where everything is known | | | | as should be expected on such a diet. "Thousands of |
| about the physiology, digestion and biochemistry of | | | | pet cats die each year with dilated |
| animals, or that everything is known about their | | | | cardiomyopathy… observed in… cats |
| food? Certainly not. The fact of the matter is that | | | | fed commercial cat food…" (Science, Volume |
| the "100% complete" claim is actually "100% | | | | 237, pages 764-8) Not only is feeding the same |
| complete" guesswork. At best, one could say that | | | | processed food day in and day out a formula for |
| such a claim is the firm possibility of a definite maybe. | | | | disease, it is a cruelty to pets. It is one thing to take |
| Each time regulatory agencies convene to decide | | | | them from their interesting and active wild setting |
| how much of which nutrients comprise "100% | | | | and confine them, but to not even offer them |
| completeness," debate always ensues and standards | | | | interesting natural meal variety is really quite |
| usually change. This not only proves that what they | | | | inexcusable. The answer, like everything else good in |
| claimed before was not "100% complete," but this | | | | life, is a little attention and common sense. |
| should also make us highly suspicious about what | | | | Knowledge is the best beginning point. Further reading |
| they now claim to be "100% complete." Moreover, | | | | and resources of scientific references: Wysong, R. L. |
| consider that in order to determine the minimum | | | | (2002). The Truth About Pet Foods. Midland, MI: |
| requirement for a certain nutrient - say protein - all | | | | Inquiry Press. Science, Volume 237, pages 764-8 |
| other nutrients used in the feeding trials must be | | | | Journal of the American Veterinary Medical |
| adequate and standardized. Otherwise, if vitamin E, | | | | Association, Volume 199, pages 731-4 Journal of the |
| for example, is in excess or is deficient in the basal | | | | American Veterinary Medical Association, Volume 201, |
| diet, how would one know if the results of the study | | | | pages 267-74 Feline Practice, Volume 20, Number 1, |
| were because of the effects of protein or due to | | | | page 30 Journal of the American Veterinary Medical |
| something amiss with the level of vitamin E? If the | | | | Association, Volume 202, pages 744-51 Journal of the |
| minimum requirements for all 26+ essential nutrients | | | | American Veterinary Medical Association, Volume 191, |
| were all set and absolutely etched in stone, that | | | | pages 1563-8 Journal of Nutrition, Volume 129, pages |
| would be one thing. But they aren't. They are | | | | 1909-14 Journal of Nutrition, Volume 126, pages 984-8 |
| constantly changing. This means each time any | | | | Journal of the American Veterinary Medical |
| nutrient requirement is changed, all test results for all | | | | Association, Volume 203, pages 1395-1400 Journal of |
| other nutrients using the wrong minimum for this | | | | the American Veterinary Medical Association, Volume |
| nutrient would then be invalid. Most nutritionists simply | | | | 198, pages 647-50 Veterinary Clinics of North |
| ignore this conundrum, feeling like cowboys trying to | | | | America Small Animal Practice, Volume 19, pages |
| lasso an octopus - there are just too many loose | | | | 527-37 Veterinary Forum, Volume 9, pages 34-5 |
| ends. But they continue to perpetuate the "100% | | | | Veterinary Forum, Volume 9, pages 26-8 American |
| complete" myth, and excuse themselves by saying | | | | Journal of Veterinary Research, Volume 62, pages |
| they make adjustments when necessary. An apology | | | | 1616-23 Petfood Industry, May/June 1998, pages |
| of "I'm sorry," when the false premise of "100% | | | | 4-14 Journal of Animal Science, Volume 75, pages |
| completeness" is still retained, deserves no | | | | 2980-5 Veterinary Business, Volume 2, page 1 |
| forgiveness. Also consider that virtually all so-called | | | | Waltham International Focus, Volume 3, Number 1, |
| complete pet foods are vigorously heat processed to | | | | page 9 For further reading, or for more information |
| gelatinize the unnatural starch components (making | | | | about, Dr Wysong and the Wysong Corporation |
| them "digestible" - meaning more easily converted to | | | | please visit or write to . |