10/29/2022
This is something most of my clients already know! Because they have seen with their own eyes how their pets with chronic skin or GI issues became healthier with more energy just by switching to fresh food. Even half fresh can make a huge difference for your pet's health and happiness!
MOST VETS TODAY DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SCIENCE AND ACADEMIA...
People today confuse the art of science with academia but they're two very different things.
Science is the process of discovery. It has simple enough rules and absolutely anyone can do it. In essence, it allows us to see what causes what or, if someone has already looked at the issue, to verify if what they say is happening applies in your population (this is testing their hypothesis).
Eg: someone says this herb solves this issue. You find 10 people with the issue, give them the herb and see what happens. If it does, you accept their hypothesis. If it doesn't, you question it. Didn't work in my population. That's science 101.
Academia is a different beast. This is where scientists take their findings and get them published for the world to see. We know today it's riddled with issues and fraud, so much so that at least 50% of the studies published in our top journals are utterly false (imagine what it's like in the lower ones...), but for now it might help if you look at academia as premiership football.
The Premiership is the pinnacle of football complete with footballing brilliance, terrible amounts of diving and copious amounts of crooked cash ensuring those with the most win, but the vast majority of football happens outside of it, in your back garden, in the local park, at school. It's all football. Anyone can play, anytime.
The problem we have today is that our vets, scientists by trade, believe that if it's not the premiership then it's not football.
A vet came on to my page last week, chastising me for sharing the newspaper article that quoted the CEO of Brisbane Guide Dogs saying when they changed to raw their veterinary bills fell by 82%, most of which coming from savings in recurring skin, ear and gut conditions https://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/charity-putting-animal-health-first/news-story/7a35ca26cabb7fe00ca07c5d9dfbe20f.
The vet said that the information was anecdotal.
OK, fair enough (though when a CEO of a massive charity says in a main paper that she got these results when shifting 200 dogs from dry to raw I have to admit, that makes me think...it was in fact enough to make this scientist swop a few of his worst dogs over to raw and hey presto...a fanatic is born...!)
I said I saw the data.
She said that's just your opinion.
Well no, it's my word, and it's not good enough here for this vet which again, in the game of science, is absolutely fair enough.
I said chronic skin conditions are #1 reason dogs visit the vet today and studies show that dry food not only inflames dogs but aggravate skin conditions (studies below, don't want to bog down the piece).
Whether the vet read the studies presented to her or not, she said I have no way of verifying what you, Brisbane Guide Dogs or these studies are saying!!!
Can you believe that?
What this vet is saying is that despite being trained in football she can't actually play football as she'd never play in the premiership.
This vet clearly has a multitude of sick dogs coming into her clinic daily, many with chronic skin conditions. All she has to do is to take 10 of these poor creatures, change them to a simple turkey or lamb raw dog food (ideally with a fish oil tablet and some probiotics) and SEE what happens. Act like a scientist!
This isn't a publishable study. It's better. It's real science that you see with your own eyes and do with your own hands. When you replicate what someone said would happen, you have verified their hypothesis, the fog clears a little and you are a step closer to accepting it.
Sadly the vast majority of vets cannot seem to bring themselves to do this.
Despite a scientific background, the idea never even crosses their mind. They already KNOW dry food is the answer...which is incredible as this highly trained scientist, this slave to the literature, has never read a SINGLE STUDY that suggests dry food either decreases inflammation in dogs or improves skin conditions (over real food) as that study does not exist.
Their stance is not taken in science, it is taken in dogma and huge amounts of cognitive dissonance is deployed daily to keep that belief in place.
We are contacted nearly daily by pet owners asking for the studies to show to their vet who has just said to them raw is inflammatory or they must feed dry food for a skin condition etc, that the pet owner must PROVE raw is better but I explain to them that no amount of studies is going to make this vet shift. We have had these inflammation / skin studies for 7 years (10 years for pancreatitis, 20 years for kidney disease and cancer, see my website for articles on each of these diseases complete with studies https://dogsfirst.ie/). In these instances, all studies point the finger at dry food (as always, feel free to link to a study below that shows complete dry food outcompeted complete fresh / raw for ANY malady...).
IF you are going to show them studies you must first say - OK, I'll happily play the academia game with you but here's the deal - we'll go study for study. I'll present to you the science that convinced me raw may be good for INSERT ISSUE and you show me the science that convinced you dry is better for that condition. We'll see who wins. Fair enough?!
Say that first before running off to find studies because if they won't play by the rules then you're wasting your time. You're never going to win. They're playing a completely different game.
***
When it comes to inflammation and skin conditions as a whole dry food has MANY issues, including:
🕵️♀️ ultra-processed, antigenic protein, shown to be many times more antigenic to the body than fresh and thus inflammatory
🕵️♀️ studies show contains MRP's which are highly inflammatory
🕵️♀️ studies show dry food has terrible omega 3:6 ratios (too much omega 6 as largely plant ingredients and not enough omega 3 from animal fat)) making it inflammatory
🕵️♀️ studies show 1 in 4 "complete" foods contain zero EPA DHA omega 3's
🕵️♀️ Studies show dry food alters the gut biome, decreasing species richness, likely an effect of the chemical preservatives used to sterilise the product but these na**lm the gut flora also, driving inflammation
🕵️♀️ Studies show dry food is insanely high in glyphosate which is highly inflammatory
🕵️♀️ Studies show dry is full of inflammatory chemicals
🕵️♀️ Studies detect the presence of mycotoxins in the majority of dry foods which are highly inflammatory
🕵️♀️ Presence of storage mites in bags open longer than 2wks which aggravates allergies
🕵️♀️ No bioactive compounds which might mitigate some of the inflammation if they were present
🕵️♀️ No vit C which immune systems do not appreciate (especially when inflamed and needing vitamin C)
🕵️♀️ Studies show 2/3 of "complete" dry foods and 94% of "complete" canned foods sold in the UK do not meet the MINIMUM standards set out by the industry....nutritional deficiencies are...you guessed it, inflammatory.
On and on and on. I have numerous studies for all the above, but most important / telling are the studies that ACTUALLY COMPARES dry to raw-fed dogs (isn't strange that a vet never needed a single study that proves dry is better than fresh food before recommending dry?!! Which is good as it doesn't exist...how very scientific of them...) shows FEEDING DRY FOOD IS HIGHLY INFLAMMATORY:
🧠 At rest, dry fed dogs have 10 times the level of homocysteine in their blood than raw-fed dogs. This drops by a factor of 5 when moved to raw.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311321747_Investigation_of_Homocysteine_Levels_in_Healthy_Dogs?fbclid=IwAR0JyIcvbw_rxgW_494eink_XKDnO__cBhlQ3QUbPe4MJYjCpQcx_irs-NI
🧠 Another study compared dry and raw feeding and found that dry feeding significantly inflames your dog.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.211642
🧠 As a result of all the inflammation, dry-fed dogs have more gene expression for histamine in their skin layers.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29680397/
🧠 Dry-fed dogs have aberations of the skin flora (linked to atopic dermatitis in humans).
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362198863_Fresh_Food_Consumption_Increases_Microbiome_Diversity_and_Promotes_Changes_in_Bacteria_Composition_on_the_Skin_of_Pet_Dogs_Compared_to_Dry_Foods
🧠 Colossal survey reveals pups born to dry-fed dogs have more Canine Atopic Dermatitis.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0225675
🧠 All this should come as no surprise as ultraprocessed food does the same in humans.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36014818/
For more studies to show vets, check out Dog Risk. From the University of Helsinki, they are still pretty much the only group of scientists coming up with the dry v fresh-fed dog comparative works...which goes some way to explaining why vets are not coming out better trained in this discipline.
https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/dogrisk-health-nutrition-epidemiology-and-disease-detection-dogs/research/research-dogrisk
LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING?! CHECK OUT MY BOOK...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Feeding-Dogs-Science-Behind-Versus/dp/1916234003/
