GlutenFreeMall.com Examines Gluten and Toxins in Pet Foods: Are They Poisoning Your Pet

(PRWeb) April 12, 2007 -- GlutenFreeMall.com examines gluten and toxins in pet foods: are they poisoning your pet?

Tainted Wheat Gluten Suspected in Pet Deaths
Recent news indicates that wheat gluten tainted with melamine, a chemical found in Asian fertilizers, and forbidden in American pet foods, has been implicated in the sickness of as many as 8,800 pets, including the deaths of up to 2,797 animals, mostly cats.

Wheat Gluten is Not Part of Your Pet's Natural Diet
These stories invite a deeper consideration about the role that non-tainted wheat gluten may play in chronic illness and degenerative diseases in our beloved cats and dogs.

The simple truth is that cats and dogs are, by nature, primarily meat eaters. Dogs are historically scavengers, whose natural diets, according to a recent study by biologists Ray and Lorna Coppinger, consisted of "bones, pieces of carcass, rotten greens and fruit, fish guts, discarded seeds and grains, animal guts and heads, some discarded human food and wastes". In the wild, a dog's diet included only the smallest amounts of grains, while cats are almost totally carnivorous, and subsist in the wild on a diet made up almost exclusively of small rodents. The natural diets of both cats and dogs provide large amounts of animal protein and fats, water and little in the way of carbohydrates.

Dogs and Cats Should Avoid Grains and Carbohydrates
Most veterinary textbooks agree that both cats and dogs need almost no carbohydrates, yet the so called "recommended" diet of dry pet foods, which is a major component of most pets' diets, contradicts both their natural diets and the veterinary literature. Many of these dry pet foods are high in carbohydrates, low in animal protein and fats, and contain almost no water -- this fact is largely ignored by major pet food producers

Many pet owners who feed canned, moist food to their cats and dogs do so believing that they are providing much-needed meat and moisture to their animals. This is largely true, but what is also true, as came to light in the recent spate of illnesses and deaths from tainted wet formula pet foods, is that wheat gluten is a significant ingredient in such foods.

The problem is that the digestive systems of dogs and cats have not evolved to digest plant proteins like gluten -- they are designed to digest animal protein, and gluten is not the same -- and feeding these animals foods that contain gluten can result in many of the same problems that afflict their human counterparts who are sensitive to gluten.

Toxic Effects of Wheat Gluten and Other Proteins in Pets -- and Humans
According to veterinarian John B. Symes ("Dogtor J"), gluten and other proteins that are added to dog and cat foods are causing many of the same diseases that they cause in their human counterparts. Dogs and cats that have suffered and died from consuming tainted pet food belie the fact that even untainted gluten can cause many of these same problems and more. In human celiacs and gluten-sensitive individuals, untainted gluten can induce both chronic and acute kidney failure. This form of kidney failure is typically called an IgA nephropathy, in which antibodies and immune complexes formed against gluten are deposited in the kidneys, which leads to damage and ultimately failure. Again, this can be chronic leading to persistent blood (microscopic) and protein in the urine or it can be acute.

Dr. Symes claims that it is a startling but well-established fact that the lectins of gluten (wheat, barley, rye) dairy products (e.g. casein, lactalbumin) soy, and corn are all capable of inducing serious health issues in those humans who are sensitive to them. He takes this belief even further and states that such foods are actually not healthy for anyone -- neither pets nor humans and they just happen to be more harmful to some individuals than others. According to him anyone who consumes or feeds these foods to their pets on a daily basis will encounter resulting health problems -- it is only of matter of time.

All one needs to do, according to Dr. Symes, is to study celiac disease to see how all of this works and appreciate the health implications that accompany this extremely common condition. That a similar condition does occur in dogs and cats has become painfully obvious during the past seven years that he has been studying the issue. Dr. Symes states: "The Irish Setter is a breed known to suffer from gluten intolerance, but it is clear that gluten is affecting many other breeds of dogs and cats. And why wouldn't it? It is affecting humans and we have had millennia to adapt to eating wheat. Our pets have only been eating wheat-based pet foods for about 20 years now."

The average American dog lives 12 years -- 13 for cats, when their wild counterparts, eating a natural diet, can live to be nearly 30 and 40 years respectively. For the cause, we need look no further than what we put in their bowls. A European study shows that pets fed with table scraps lived an average of three years longer than those fed commercial diets alone. Why? The answer, at least in part, is that highly processed foods cannot possibly contain all of the essential nutrients found in fresh meats, fruits and vegetables.

Dr. Symes' Top 10 Gluten-Free Foods for Pets--All are gluten-free and low carb:

1) IVD/Royal Canin - L.I.D.s
2) Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice
3) NaturalLife Lambaderm
4) Canidae and Felidae - Dog and cat foods
5) Dick Van Patten Natural Balance Duck and Potato, Venison and Brown Rice, and Sweet Potato and Fish Formulas
6) Solid Gold Barking at the Moon
7) Natura California Naturals
8) Canine Caviar Lamb & Pearl Millet and Chicken & Pearl Millet formulas
9) Eagle Pack Holistic Select® Duck Meal & Oatmeal and Lamb Meal & Rice Formulas
10) Eukanuba Response KO and FP

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