09/11/2023
DID YOU KNOW???
Gut health is essential to overall health.
About 90% of your dog’s immune system lives in his gut … so diverse gut bacteria strengthens gut health and your dog’s ability to resist disease and illness.
That's why it's best to look after our pups from the inside out!
In order to do this we need to provide them with a healthy balanced diet.
A lot of people think dogs don’t need vegetables. They believe an all-meat diet or just kibble alone is enough to give their dogs all the nutrients they need.
So there’s a lot of confusion around the question “should dogs eat vegetables?”
The answer is YES!
While dogs are carnivores, their diet is much more varied than a cat’s diet. On the continuum, they fall between omnivores (plant and meat-eaters like pigs) and carnivores. In fact, dogs, wolves and other wild canids have eaten vegetables for thousands of years.
Here’s how:
🥦Wild canines eat the gut contents of their prey, which usually contains vegetation
🥕They also scavenge vegetation, which includes herbs, vegetables and fruit (like berries)
Vegetables provide your dog with many vitamins, including:
🥦B vitamins. Help with energy, enzyme and nervous system function, immune response and metabolism. Vegetables have many of the B vitamins but are low in B12 and B1, so your dog needs foods like liver and eggs.
🥕Vitamin C and co-factors. Dogs make their own vitamin C but they need the co-factors to help their body use it. Your dog may also need a vitamin C boost as he ages or if he’s stressed.
🥦Vitamin A. Enhances immunity, protects eye health, prevents skin disorders and helps grow strong teeth and bones.
🥕Vitamin E. This antioxidant helps prevent cancer and other diseases. It also promotes healthy skin and hair.
🥦Vitamin K. Plays a role in bone formation and repair and helps improve liver function.
Phytonutrients play a key role as one of the most important kinds of nutrients you can give your pup. But...phytonutrients are only found in fruits and vegetables. So if your dog only eats meat, he’s missing out BIG TIME.
In the late 1900s, scientists studied diets rich in vegetables. They discovered vegetables could protect people from cancers, heart disease, diabetes and more. Today, they know those health benefits come from substances called phytonutrients. These powerful little nutrients can:
🥦Kill cancer cells
🥕Reduce inflammation
🥦Promote gut health
🥕Support a healthy liver
Antioxidants also play a major role in keeping your pup healthy and happy and vegetables are full of antioxidants like lutein and beta-carotene. They help protect your dog against unstable molecules called free radicals. Free radicals are a major cause of aging and disease. They’re damaged molecules that build up like rust in the body and harm your dog’s cells and organs.
Antioxidants help stabilize free radicals and prevent them from growing out of control. And vegetation is the only source of antioxidants.
The there's enzymes, and they are special proteins that help digest food and run metabolic processes. Vegetables like spinach are especially rich in enzymes.
Some enzymes survive the acid in your dog’s stomach and pass into the intestine. These surviving enzymes are anti-aging, anti-degeneration and pro-health.
Fiber.....vegetables are high in fiber, which passes through the dog’s intestines mainly undigested. Once it reaches the colon, the bacteria living there ferment the fiber to create short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). The SCFAs are then used for energy, to build immune cells and protect the mucous lining in the gut.
And it isn’t just SCFAs that makes fiber so great for your dog. Fiber has many other health benefits as well:
🥦Studies show that increased consumption of fiber can reduce cancer risk.
🥕Fiber has antioxidative properties.
🥦It feeds friendly bacteria and promotes gut health.
🥕Fiber clears toxins from the body.
🥦It can add a feeling of fullness for perpetually-hungry dogs.
There's many more fantastic reasons to include vegetables in your pups diet so if you would like to make the change today and feel you don't have time prepare meals for your pup or you'd like further info you're more than welcome to get in touch at [email protected] 😃
