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Holistic Nutrition For Dogs Explained
Holistic, in nutrition of the dog is a term used by many but understood by few. The ingredients in pet food have the ability to warm or cool the body. Foods can also create dry or damp conditions as well as acid or alkaline body fluids. Holistic nutrition is about balancing all these aspects in relation to your dogs health and wellbeing
The human approach and the relationship with dogs health
We eat salads in the summer which cool the body. Cucumber and Spinach for example, cools and moistens the body while lettuce cools and dries. In the winter we eat more warming foods such as stews and soups. Chicken is both warming and drying in the body and lamb warms and moistens. Brown rice is acidifying in the body whereas millet is alkaline forming. The alkaline /acid relationship in the body is known as the pH level. Cancers have a very difficult time growing in slightly alkaline body fluids. Recurring ear problems in dogs are usually a result of the dog food creating warm, damp conditions in the dog's ear canal - a hotbed for bacterial overgrowth!
Why we use specific combinations of ingredients in dog food?
Particular ingredients in dog food like protein, fat, salt and sugar, we can create conditions which are not conducive to good health. Too much protein in a dog's diet is converted by the body to nitrogen waste. Too much fat and of the wrong kind creates very damp conditions in the body. Salt is bad for health generally and can cause high blood pressure. Sugar is is very warming in the body and should not be added to dog food. Even natural sugar in corn is fructose rather than glucose and may cause fatty deposits in your dogs liver.