Chris Bessent, Author at The Simple Food Project

May 21, 2021April 12, 2024

Do Cats Need Carbohydrates?

Cats have little to no dietary need for carbohydrates, but based on a veterinarian’s 30+ years of experience feeding real, whole DIY raw balanced diets, a small percentage of fruits and vegetables belong in a cat’s diet. The key is to include the right kinds of carbs in species-appropriate amounts.

Cats Process Carbs Differently

For many animals, humans included, carbohydrates are a quick source of energy. But cats are special. Just ask them. As predators at the top of the food chain, they’ve evolved to use protein as their primary energy source–this means the bulk of their diet should come from animal tissue.

Cats have unique nutritional requirements. After all, they’re obligate carnivores, and their bodies can’t produce certain vitamins the way herbivores and omnivores can. Cats of all sizes need foods with a higher concentration of protein, taurine, arginine, niacin, vitamin A, and vitamin D.

Cats also lack the liver enzymes to metabolize carbohydrates in the quantities that humans and other animals can, so we need to be selective about the quantity and quality of the carbohydrates we include in our felines’ bowls.

Fortunately, both science and nature can guide us in this endeavor.

Carbohydrates and Cats’ Wild Cousins

You might be thinking, but lions and tigers don’t eat leaves and berries, so why should Mewlius Caesar? When cats, big or small (equally ferocious), eat their prey, they don’t let anything go to waste. Bones, organs, and digesta are all consumed, which means when a cat eats his prey, he’s also taking advantage of that animal’s last meal– predigested plant matter full of phytonutrients with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

Take a Cue From Nature On Which Carbs Are Best For Cats

Not all carbs are created equal. Some carbohydrates are high on the glycemic index (GI), which means they cause blood sugar to rise rapidly. Sugary foods are often culprits, but other foods are sneakier–white rice has almost as dramatic an effect as white sugar… not something you want anywhere near your cat’s bowl.

On the other hand, low GI carbs come from certain fruits and vegetables –especially brightly colored ones. They digest much more slowly, stabilize blood sugar, and provide a steady stream of energy over time. But what everyone should be writing home about is that these foods are often powerhouses of essential nutrients. Unsurprisingly, they’re exactly the carbs cats would be eating in nature.

In the wild, your Apawllo would hunt and feast on small rodents, birds, and the more skilled hunters, young rabbits, and hares. These prey animals would have bellies full of fruits, seeds, berries, and leafy greens, and those are just the nutrient-rich ingredients domestic cats should consume. It’s not hard to see why the starchy fillers found in low-quality cat food– grains, corn, soy, and potatoes– give other carbs a bad name. Unlike the vitamin-packed, functional foods found in the digesta of a cat’s prey, the more common and starchier options are almost void of usable nutrients and much higher on the glycemic index.

Superfoods For Cats

Your cat needs energy to maintain her busy schedule– she has to keep an eye on those squirrels in the yard, practice her contortions so she can fit into any box that comes her way, attack your feet from under the bed, and if she doesn’t patrol the house at 3:00 a.m., at full speed, then who will? It’s a strenuous life, but making sure her bowl contains the obligatory high-quality meat proteins and, of course, species-appropriate amounts of low-glycemic plant ingredients will keep her in tip-top shape for years to come.

How?

Through the power of age-fighting antioxidants. These mighty nutrients protect cells from damage by neutralizing harmful free radicals. Oxidative damage caused by free radicals can lead to cognitive decline, diseases like cancer, and many other chronic conditions that can cause cats to slow down long before their time.

Fortunately, antioxidants can prevent much of this damage, and antioxidants aren’t hard to find. Antioxidants are both produced by the body (which declines with age) and found in superfoods – the same select few low-GI carbohydrates your cat should be eating anyway.

Berries like blueberries and cranberries
Spinach, kelp, and other leafy greens
Nuts and seeds
Pumpkin and squash
Broccoli and other cruciferous greens

Learn more about the power of antioxidants and how you can make a radical change in how (you) and your pet age.

Fitting Carbs Into a Balanced Feline Diet

Left to their own devices, cats will naturally eat the right proportions of nutrients. Specifically, most of their diet will consist of protein and animal fats, with a very small portion coming from nutrient- and antioxidant-rich carbohydrates, the kind of plant matter they might find in the digesta of their prey.

Following nature’s model, we can ensure cats are getting exactly what they need for healthy aging by providing:

#1 A Diet High in Moisture

Cats would get most of their water from their prey. Throughout the day, wild and feral cats might catch six to ten prey animals like mice or birds, and each time they eat their prey, they rehydrate from moisture found in the animal’s tissue. This is why cats have a low thirst drive. (You can put that little nugget in your back pocket for later.)

Because your four-legger isn’t inclined to drink as regularly, it’s essential that you provide your cat with moisture-rich wet, raw, or freeze-dried meals. Cats often can’t or won’t get the hydration they need by drinking, and this can cause chronic dehydration that severely affects a cat’s health, wellbeing, and life span.

#2 Dietary Animal Proteins

Herbivores and omnivores derive cellular energy (at least partially) from carbohydrates– translation, what makes you and I go. Cats derive energy from protein, animal protein specifically. That’s because animal protein provides all the amino acids cats need to grow and thrive. Those butt-wriggling sneak attacks? Brought to you by the protein in your cat’s dish.

Plant-based proteins like corn and soy lack in some of the amino acids critical to a cat’s health– which starves your cat’s cells of what it needs. There’s no substitute for animal proteins in your cat’s diet, and fresh, raw, or (rehydrated) freeze-dried proteins are best.

#3 A Diet Low in Carbohydrates

You’ve seen how certain carbohydrates are important for cats, but the fact is, cats need far fewer carbs than other animals. They’ve evolved to get their energy from protein, and while they can use carbohydrates for energy, they can’t do it nearly as effectively as other species. When carbohydrates are included in the appropriate quantities (think <15%, but the lower, the better), they provide critical nutrients and those uniquely super-charged antioxidants cats won’t otherwise get.

What Commercial Pet Foods Get Wrong About Carbs & Cats

Most (read: the majority of) cats are eating too many carbohydrates.

The average dry food contains 35-50% carbohydrates. And many contain significantly more.

This number is unacceptable and a leading cause of not only the obesity epidemic but the extreme rise in the number of diabetes cases in pets.

Cats only need around 10-15% of their diet to come from carbohydrates.

Many veterinarians recommend even lower, and you’ll see in Dr. Bessent’s recipes that a few are formulated for as low as 5%. And because you are providing such a small quantity, you need to pick those carbohydrate sources carefully. They need to provide your kitty with a healthy dose of super-charged antioxidants. Dr. Bessent chooses produce like cranberries and blueberries to provide exactly that.

Unfortunately, common pet food ingredients like corn and rice are cheap and are used to help to bind kibble together. They don’t provide either the protein or the vitamins cats need– they’re filler that can leave your cat malnourished and deficient. These just aren’t ingredients cats were meant to eat.

Many canned foods aren’t much better in terms of high-carbohydrate content, though they’re at least supplying more moisture.

Perhaps worst of all, it can be tough for a well-meaning cat parent to try to decipher a pet food label or determine what it actually contains.

But! Praise the buts. Feeding your cat doesn’t have to be a mystery. There are a few tips and tricks you can use.

How To Figure Out Whether A Food Is Truly Up To Snuff

First, if carbohydrates that aren’t species-appropriate are listed prominently on the label (corn, wheat, rice, to name a few), chances are the percentages are too high for your cat. To calculate the exact number of carbs, you’ll need to roll up your sleeves and pull out your calculator.

Then, you should also beware of these 3 dubious pet food label tricks.

When in doubt, just follow nature’s cues and look for products with whole, fresh ingredients your cat might choose for herself.

- Food high in animal proteins and embellished with species-appropriate carbohydrates that provide essential antioxidants to keep her youthful and fit.

And if you have any questions, thoughts, cute photos of bleps… reach out or drop them in the comments below.

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Dr. Chris Bessent

Chris Bessent, DVM, MSOM, Dipl. OM, L.Ac. has over thirty years of experience in veterinary medicine including certificates in veterinary acupuncture, veterinary chiropractic and veterinary Chinese herbology. Imbued with Eastern philosophy and the knowledge that food is the foundation of health, Dr. Bessent also received her degree in veterinary nutrition and began to formulate recipes fit for a carnivore from nothing but whole foods. Currently, she divides her time between the Simple Food Project and Herbsmith, both of which are owned and operated out of her facilities in southeastern Wisconsin.

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August Li - Content Writer

August is an author, artist, and animal activist. He lives on the coast of South Carolina, where he spends his days looking for sea glass, merpeople, and friendly cats.

Kayla - Editor

Kayla is the Content Editor for The Simple Food Project. She has a cat named Professor Cat-Faced Meowmers, who goes by Kitty, and a goof of a dog, named Duck. She stays busy biking trails, playing board games, and searching for the next best craft beer.

May 13, 2021April 12, 2024

HPP & Pet Foods– What You Need to Know

Home / Blog | Read Time: 6 minutes

If you’re already feeding raw or considering making the switch from kibble, good for you! There’s a 100% chance you’ve done some research exploring the good, the bad, and the complicated of a raw food diet.

While your Chief Grouch Officer or Miss Meowsie might love going down a rabbit hole, it’s less fulfilling for us humans. Right about now, you may be wondering whether High-Pressure Processing (HPP) is a safe way to mitigate risky bacteria, like E.coli or salmonella. Understanding the pros and cons of HPP can help you make an informed decision about how to feed your pet to keep them happy, healthy, and full of excited wiggles.

Let’s dig in to learn more about how HPP works and what the research says.

What is HPP?

HPP uses ultra-high pressure to destroy harmful pathogens and preserve food. It’s the pasteurization process du jour in both the people-food industry and raw pet food industry.

HPP doesn’t use heat or additives, both of which can compromise nutritional value and make food look, taste, or smell off in a really off-putting sort of way.

Sounds Like A Great Idea, Right?

Food that comes out of a package and also tastes like food might seem like a miraculous work of culinary innovation, but HPP has the raw pet food community aflutter with division. Maybe not quite as intense as the paleo vs. vegan debate among humans, but still contentious.

Some in the raw community believe HPP is a safe and effective way to eliminate the bad bugs in food, while others are beleaguered by existential angst over whether HPP’d food can even be considered raw.

How Does HPP Work?

Now that we’ve gotten our paws wet let’s dive into how HPP works. In a nutshell, HPP happens in five simple-ish steps:

1. 1. Food products are hermetically sealed in flexible packaging, like a pouch.
  2. The package is placed in a chamber, surrounded by essentially an intertube of water.
  3. The chamber is filled with fluid, usually cold water.
  4. Ultra-high levels of pressure are applied to the food via the fluid– 85,000 PSI.
  5. The package stays under pressure for a set period of time– 300 seconds.

This all sounds pretty unremarkable, but when we say “ultra-high” levels of pressure, we are not kidding.

The amount of pressure applied during HPP is analogous to the pressure found in the deepest place on earth – the Mariana Trench. That’s seven miles below sea level and deeper than Mount Everest is tall. Most HPP foods undergo a pressure about five times that of the pressure in the Mariana Trench (Oh My Dog).

Not much can survive this level of pressure, including microorganisms in food.

What Are the Pros & Cons?

The Yay-sayers That Are Down With HPP

A number of raw pet food companies have enlisted the help of third-party researchers to better understand HPP and its effect on food. Multiple studies have shown that HPP raw diets were bioequivalent to non-HPP raw diets, making HPP a desirable option to safely manage microbes and preserve nutrition.

All those in favor of HPP have cited a few key benefits –

- Tastiness – Proponents say food tastes just as wildly delicious after HPP as it does beforehand.
- Nutritional value – Studies have shown that HPP does not affect vital nutrients, so your pet gets all the goodness he needs to play, bark at strangers, and run amok at the dog park.
- A win for food safety – HPP has been shown to eliminate most food-borne pathogens such as Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria, making food safer and extending its shelf-life

- Gateway raw – As bacon is to reluctant vegetarians, HPP can be a gateway to introduce raw-hesitant people to feeding their pet a species-appropriate diet.

Nay-sayers, Now You Have Our Full Attention

For pet parents who want to avoid processed dog foods entirely, HPP (keyword – processing) is off the table.

When placed in the context of, “Isn’t HPP’d food better than kibble?” the answer is a resounding yes. But for many pet parents, that’s a pretty low bar.

Those with raised eyebrows have voiced more than a handful of concerns about HPP:

Proteins are denatured – The high pressure used in HPP alters proteins, which can affect the nutritional value of the meat.
Bye, beneficial bacteria – Like humans, our pets need friendly bacteria in their gastrointestinal tracts to balance the complex community of microbiota known as the gut microbiome. HPP is an equal opportunity destroyer, eliminating both the good and bad bacteria in foods.

Risk of recontamination (if the container is reopened) – Bags and containers are routinely opened in the pet food process to form the meat and in the case of air-dried or freeze-dried companies who use the process, to dry the meat. (You can’t HPP dry material because it would be entirely powder.) Recontamination is the reason for most pet food recalls.
Potential transfer of phthalates to food – Chemical compounds in food packaging have been linked to thyroid issues and obesity in pets and humans. Studies have not confirmed or denied whether phthalates are transferred to food during processing, meaning more research is needed before we can accurately assess this risk.
The process adds expense for the producers and consumers– roughly an additional $1.62 per lb.

Unprocessed raw food is already safe.
- Most commercially available raw foods are grain-free and therefore mycotoxin-free.
- The quality raw pet food brands use high-quality, human-grade meats sourced from healthy animals.
- Microbially responsible food processing lowers the risk of recalls.
Raw is raw – HPP is, by its very nature, a process. Many raw food enthusiasts contend that foods that have undergone HPP can no longer keep their “raw” cred.

Why Do So Many Raw And Freeze-Dried Pet Food Companies Use HPP?

The FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 (FSMA) mandated new regulations for both human and pet food suppliers, chief among them the “Zero Tolerance” mandate for pet food companies. This requires that any pet food sold is free from E.coli, salmonella & listeria.

This standard is so high that even human foods are not required to comply with it.

Raw pet food companies employ a range of responses to the FDA’s standards, but HPP is the most popular.

The Downsides

There are more than 2,500 strains of Salmonella.

Guess how many are harmful?

If you guessed about 100, you win. Of these 100, only a handful of strains cause the majority of illnesses. But the Zero Tolerance policy covers every strain of Salmonella, which is why there is an ongoing scuffle between raw food companies, the FDA, and the USDA about this standard.

The Upsides

It keeps both humans and pets safe because, unfortunately, 4D (dead, dying, diseased, or downed) meats are allowed in pet foods.

While dogs tolerate bacteria (that whole omnivore v carnivorous species thing), the bacterial load from a healthy, well-cared animal is very different from the bacterial load found in 4D meats. Their systems aren’t invulnerable to the high bacteria loads that 4D meats are known to carry.

It is also much safer to handle clean, quality food than handle 4D meats that could cause serious health issues for the immunocompromised among us.

Until we address the use of 4D meats as an industry, this policy protects our pets’ welfare.

Dr. Bessent’s Perspective

From the DIY raw feeders to commercial, the reality is everyone has the bacterial load of meats to contend with– and the best defense against it is sourcing quality meat first and foremost.

As carnivores, dogs and cats are designed to healthfully process the normal bacteria loads found in their prey. That’s why pets can (and do!) lick their butts, eat poop, and not die (though their parents may die from embarrassment when these behaviors happen in public). But, a carnivore’s skillset is only as good as the quality of meat they’re eating.

In a dream world, the rancid, bacteria-laden 4D meats and meat meals wouldn’t be allowed in pet food, but that’s not the case. So, regulations and processes have to be in place.

We aren’t going to tell you to choose or not choose foods processed with HPP. That’s for you to decide. Instead, we can offer a bit of guidance when you are choosing.

The best guidance? Ask questions…

About sourcing and the quality of their ingredients, including meats

Are they using real, whole foods?

- - Clean, quality, USDA-inspected meats and organs, including grass-fed beef and wild-caught fish
  - Grocery-grade, non-GMO organic fruits and vegetables
  - A whole food calcium source like USDA-inspected necks (avoid bone meal)

About transparency

Is the food third-party tested for pathogens?

A quality pet food company may have a lookup feature or post these results to verify this.

We can’t speak for other companies, but Dr. Bessent explored all of her options when creating The Simple Food Project recipes, including HPP. She decided to develop her own pasteurization step in the freeze-drying process.

She formulated these diets using only 13-16 real, raw whole food ingredients to give her clients a better option. Each recipe blends freeze-dried and dehydrated food in proportions especially for your carnivore– high in quality, human-grade meats (70-80% per recipe- all USDA inspected) and low in carbohydrates (15-23% from fresh USDA organic fruits, veggies, and seeds).

Besides being a safe and effective pasteurization process, the best thing about freeze-dried food is that it retains about 97% of its original vitamins and minerals, so your pup is getting every vitamin, mineral, and antioxidant from food alone. It is the closest option to real, raw, whole food in a shelf-stable form. It allows the average pet parent to feed a species-appropriate diet without having to balance and source a diy raw diet.

Ultimately, it’s up to you. Whatever you do, you’ve got options, information, and questions in tow. And you’ll be able to check off what matters most– real, whole foods for your carnivore.

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Dr. Chris Bessent

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Jen Stiff

Jen is a freelance writer, editor, and storyteller. She lives in San Diego with her rescue dog, Meatball (breed: Alaskan Eskimo chicken nugget remix). Meatball meows like a cat but does not bark and loves sunshine more than life itself. Besides Meatball, Jen also loves toast, traveling, and reading under puffy clouds.

Kayla

Kayla is the Content Writer for The Simple Food Project. She has a cat named Professor Cat-Faced Meowmers, who goes by Kitty, and a goof of a dog, named Duck. She stays busy biking trails, playing board games, and searching for the next best craft beer.

May 6, 2021April 12, 2024

3 Dubious Pet Food Label Tricks You Need To Know

Home / Blog | Read Time: 6 minutes

You’re doing your due diligence to find good dog food: you’re reading ingredient labels, decoding Guaranteed Analyses, but you still may not be getting what you pay for. Practices like ingredient splitting are at work, and some rules you may rely on are actually defunct. Once you’re aware of them, though, you’ll know how to navigate these tactics! (And learn a few new tips and tricks to navigate labels in the process…)

Using these newfound skills, you can get exactly what you want in your four-legger’s diet and avoid what you don’t.

Ingredient Splitting

Ingredient splitting is a technique used to make it appear as if low-quality ingredients (think grains or vegetable byproducts) are less abundant.

How It Works

Ingredients are split into sub-ingredients so that they appear farther down on the ingredient list. If each of these ingredient parts were combined, they’d place higher in the ingredient list (likely before that “first” ingredient).

Common Ingredients Used

Whole foods like peas can be broken down into all of these smaller parts and be labeled as entirely separate ingredients. These are known as sub-ingredients or by-products.

pea protein, pea flour, pea starch, pea fiber
wheat gluten, wheat bran, wheat germ, wheat flour
corn starch, corn gluten meal, corn flour, cornmeal, corn gluten

Why This Technique Is More Than A Misleading Practice

Sub-ingredients are commonly used in pet foods since they are readily available and cheaper to produce and can be problematic for a few reasons.

#1 Pet food can bulk up protein percentages using sub-ingredients like pea protein

When kibble guaranteed analysis’ say there’s X% of protein, they don’t have to specify the source. Legumes happen to be full of plant-based protein, so when a pet parent reads a label, there’s no way of knowing whether “protein” refers to plant protein or meat protein.

#2 It obliterates the common rule of making sure meat is the 1st ingredient

The only steadfast rule about ingredient labels, per AAFCO, is that the 1st ingredient listed on an ingredient label has to be the largest part of the recipe, so pet parents used it as a guide when looking for quality pet food.

First 5 Ingredients: Bison Meal, Peas, Pea Protein, Tapioca, Dried Egg

But the ingredient-splitting technique can circumvent this rule, making it null and void.

If you combined the second and third ingredients into one pea ingredient rather than splitting them into pea and pea sub-ingredient, the ingredient label would read more like this:

1. 1. 1. Peas
    2. Bison Meal
    3. Tapioca
    4. Dried Egg

Ultimately, the ingredient-splitting technique makes it that much more difficult to make sure your dog is eating quality food– one with the right proportions of ingredients. Because if your dogs eating 80% legumes and 20% poor-quality meat, those proportions don’t meet the unique dietary needs of your dog, the carnivore.

Just consider the DCM findings released by the FDA. The overwhelming consensus was that legumes as a food group were bad (spoiler, they’re not). Consumers were even looking for grain-in food and continue to, because of it. But the biggest takeaway should be that you can’t use the high percentage proportions of peas/potatoes/legumes that grain-free kibble is using.

The bottom line is a carnivore can’t eat the diet of a goat. As a species, dogs just aren’t designed for that.

How to Get Around This Practice

Legumes and grain ingredients are the most common ingredients that are split, so when you read the ingredient label, look for sub-ingredients like grains, corns, chickpeas, peas, lentils.

You want to see the whole food (e.g., “pea”) on that ingredient label, not the byproduct, so if you see 2, 3, or 4 sub-ingredients (e.g., pea protein, pea flour, pea starch), you know that devious ingredient-splitting practice is at work.

There are also tiers of quality among the ingredients used in dog foods. Legumes like lentils and peas are higher-quality than ingredients like corn, for instance, because of their nutritional value.

When used in species-appropriate proportions, real whole foods like peas serve a purpose. They are an extraordinary whole food source that offers unique nutrients not gotten from meat proteins– everything from manganese, phytonutrients, and fiber with benefits for the immune system, gut health, and beyond, so don’t hesitate to add them to the bowl.

The 1st 5 Ingredients Rule

This rule is similar to the first ingredient needs to be meat rule. It was relatively good practice for pet parents new to reading pet labels, too. It was born out of the fact that ingredient labels list ingredients from the greatest to the least (before being cooked).

Using that logic, you’d simply have to pay attention to the first five ingredients listed on a pet food label and critique them since they are the most abundant.

How It Works (Or Doesn’t)

First, using the first five ingredients in that ingredient deck from earlier, we already know that the ingredient-splitting technique is at work.

First 5 Ingredients: Bison Meal, Peas, Pea Protein, Tapioca, Dried Egg

But not evaluating ingredients outside of the five also leaves you more vulnerable to ingredient-slitting techniques, since you aren’t accounting for pea byproducts lower down the list.

And here’s the big kicker– nothing about those first five ingredients can tell you the true proportions of that recipe: carbohydrate content in the average kibble or dry dog food can range drastically– anywhere from 30% – 70% carbs in a recipe.

You cannot know which it is because neither the ingredient label nor the GA is telling, so toss that rule. You might as well pitch the “1st ingredient is meat!” rule too, and instead, use a few other approaches to find out what’s in a pet food.

How to Find Out What A Pet Food Is Actually Made Of

#1 Pick Up the Phone

Call the manufacturer and ask for a recipe breakdown– this is not the GA. It’s a breakdown of the proportions in a recipe.

Dogs need 70-85% real, high-quality meats (organ & skeletal) and then fruits, veggies, and seeds in much lesser amounts (25% or less) to provide whole food vitamins and minerals.

If they come back with a jumble of confusing numbers or convoluted responses, retreat post-haste and don’t look back.

#2 Count Carbs

Roll up your sleeves and bring out the calculator to figure out the percentage of carbohydrates in a recipe.

How to calculate carb content

Start by finding the guaranteed analysis.

Dry Matter Basis– use this for kibble, freeze-dried, dehydrated recipes.

100% – % protein – % fat – % moisture – % ash (if not listed, use 6 percent) = % carbs

*Fiber is roughage that doesn’t break down into sugar, so it’s not included.*

Wet Matter Basis– use this for canned and commercial raw food recipes.

100% – % protein – % fat – % moisture – % ash (if not listed, use 6 percent)= % of carbs on a wet matter basis.

To convert to DM basis– take the % of moisture and subtract that from 100%. (Then, convert this percentage to a decimal, divide by 100.)

Take the % of carbs on a wet matter basis and divide by the decimal, and you’ve got the carbohydrates on a DM basis.

**You can use these calculations to find the carbohydrates in cat and dog foods.

Again, you’re looking for a low-carbohydrate dog food that’s no more than 25% carbohydrates or so (but the less, the better).

Frankly, dry dog food or kibble doesn’t meet these criteria.

The Salt Divider Rule

The Salt Divider, coined by Dr. Marion Nestlé, essentially says that because pet foods generally use similar formulas set by AAFCO standards, consumers can establish a rule of thumb. Any ingredient that follows salt in an ingredient deck must make up less than 1 percent of the diet.

How It Works

As you may know, the ingredient label lists ingredients from the greatest to the least (before it’s cooked).

Here’s the catch. From a regulatory standpoint, pet foods can smatter the front of their packaging with beautiful brightly colored fruits and vegetables, fish filets, chicken breast, as long as there is a pinch of that ingredient (or some byproduct of it) in a recipe.

But you can use this tool of deductive logic to see through marketing claims or promotional copy.

Fruits and vegetables may be on the front of the packaging. They may even woo you with words like antioxidants, but if those ingredients follow salt in the ingredient list, they make up less than one percent of a recipe– think half of a blueberry to a 40 lb bag.

So, keep the salt divider rule in mind and take everything else related to packaging with a grain of salt.

Tips & Tricks to Take Home

to the Store, to a Shop Page

You’ll want to keep that carb calculator in your back pocket and any pet food brand you’re interested in on speed dial. Besides that, remember what works and what doesn’t.

Ingredient splitting is a real practice that pet food brands are guilty of– when you read an ingredient label, you have to keep this in mind.
The Salt Divider Rule can tell you what a pet food is peddling versus what they’re actually dishing out to dogs.

Use this newfound trick and thank advocates like Marion Nestle and Rodney Habib for bringing it to the light of day.

The 1st 5 ingredient rule may be null and void, but the ingredient deck can still tell you plenty about the food.
- Are there synthetic vitamins and minerals? Or do the vitamins and minerals come from whole foods alone?
- Are they using real, whole foods or sub-ingredients and byproducts?
- Do they use real, whole meat proteins or meat meals and meat & bone meals?

Now that you’re prepared, go out and get exactly what you want for your four-legger. Or take a look at the recipes created by Dr. Bessent. Formulated to provide her clients a better option, they may just be what you’re looking for, too.

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Dr. Chris Bessent

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Kayla

April 21, 2021April 12, 2024

What Others Aren’t Telling You About “Low Carb” Dog Food

Home / Blog | Read Time: 6 minutes

You, my two-legged friend, are doing everything right for your four-legger. Searching for a low-carb diet, muah, beautiful, you are on the right path.

The problem is there’s a lot of marketing jargon out there– crafted messaging that’s going to say–

- Buy this recipe– it’s the lowest in carbs.

- Meat is the first ingredient!

- No grains or fillers!

But that, up there? That does little to tell you anything other than buy x, y, or z food. We want to cut through all of the fluff and marketing spin and tell you what no one else will. That’s why we’re pulling back the curtain and letting you in on exactly what needs to be in your dog’s bowl based on a veterinarian’s 30+ years of experience feeding real, whole DIY raw balanced diets.

Cutting Through Marketing Jargon & Claims

“No corn, soy, or wheat, gluten, grains, fillers” are all words pet parents long for! But what is it saying about the ingredients that are in the bag? To cut through these shiny terms, you’ll actually want to disregard the majority of the packaging, starting with these claims.

The Term “Low Carb” Doesn’t Tell You Anything

The current regulatory standards regarding a statement like “low carb” make buying food all the more confusing since the statement is only used in comparison to another recipe or brand. And what’s worse is that marketers are defining the term in an effort to differentiate their brand, not veterinarians. With such ambiguity around its definition, you can’t let this term influence your buying decisions.

Take these snippets from a post that’s supposed to be a guide to the best low-carb options on the market.

“____is a high-quality dry dog food. Its nutrient profile is significantly above average…and a significantly low proportion of carbohydrates.” compared to what, exactly? A dog food with 50 or 60% carbohydrates?

What they can use are comparative claims, such as “25% less than” another product.

“This formula is the highest-protein, lowest carb multigrain formula for dogs of All Life Stages from X company.”

They are saying lowest-carb in comparison to the other recipes their brand offers, not that it is low-carb.

Per AAFCO, the GA or the Guaranteed Analysis can not list carbohydrates– so any brand leveraging the term really could contain any amount of carbs. Frankly, the term “low carb” is no more than an opinion, and to get to the facts, you need to ask the hard questions.

“Grain-Free” Does Not Equal Low Carb

Grain-free claims shouldn’t automatically be considered healthier. Recipes can simply replace high-carb grains (corn, wheat, rice) with other high-carb ingredients like starches (chickpeas, potato, legumes like soy, peas, and lentils).

The come-to-dog moment here is that you can’t simply swap ingredients like feeding 80% peas instead of 80% grains.

NEITHER ARE SPECIES APPROPRIATE for your carnivore.

That’s why the “grain-free” label isn’t always synonymous with high-quality pet food and why you shouldn’t let it dictate what you’re buying.

“#1 Ingredient is Meat” Claims Don’t Guarantee Less Carbs Either

The only steadfast rule, per AAFCO, is that the 1st ingredient listed on an ingredient label has to be the largest part of the recipe.

That means the first ingredient could make up 70% of the recipe or as little as 10%, with the 2nd ingredient making up 9.9999% of the recipe, the 3rd ingredient 9.9998% of the recipe, and so on. If that’s the case, then suddenly, the first 10 ingredients are now just as important to consider.

Carbohydrate content in the average kibble or dry dog food can range drastically– anywhere from 30% – 70% carbs in a recipe, and you won’t know which it is because neither the ingredient label nor the GA is telling, So, you have to roll up your sleeves and bring out the calculator.

The Only Way To Determine If It’s Low Carb Is To Calculate Carbs

With general claims, it leaves the pet parent to do a lot of the heavy lifting, unfortunately. You should have every fact and figure to make the most informed decisions, so here’s the information you need to arm yourself with in your search.

How to calculate carb content

Start by finding the guaranteed analysis.

Dry Matter Basis– use this for kibble, freeze-dried, dehydrated recipes

100% – % protein – % fat – % moisture – % ash (if not listed, use 6 percent) = % carbs

*Fiber is roughage that doesn’t break down into sugar, so it’s not included.*

100% -23% -13% -10% – 6% = 48% carbohydrates (yeesh)

Wet Matter Basis– use this for canned and commercial raw food recipes.

100% – % protein – % fat – % moisture – % ash (if not listed, use 6 percent)= % of carbs on a wet matter basis.

100% – 10% protein – 5% fat – 78% moisture -3.3 % ash = 3.7% on wet matter basis

To convert to DM basis– take the % of moisture and subtract that from 100%. (Then, convert this percentage to a decimal, divide by 100.)

100% -78% moisture= 22/100 = .22 OR 22%

Take the % of carbs on a wet matter basis and divide by the decimal and you’ve got the carbohydrates on a DM basis.

3.7% wet matter/ 22%= 16.8% carbs on DM basis

You can use these calculations to find the carbohydrates in cat and dog foods, so keep these handy.

Is there a % that’s considered “low carbohydrate”?

You’re looking for a low-carbohydrate dog food that’s no more than 25% carbohydrates or so (but the less, the better).

Frankly, kibble doesn’t meet this criterion.

It’s Not Just About Carb %– Some Carbs Are Better Than Others

Pet foods championing for low-carb food options is really fluffin’ fantastic news– truly. Because despite life-threatening diseases being positively linked with overweight dogs and cats, pet obesity is still rising and reaching epidemic proportions.

U.S. statistics from 2018 showed that more than half – 53.9% of dogs and 58.9% of cats – are not just overweight; they are obese. More than half.

In the U.S., severe obesity among humans has effectively doubled in the past two decades, and our pets are right there with us.

So, YES, low-carb is an ABSOLUTE must that’s not up for debate– what is, is whether being low-carb is the best and only metric to consider when looking for dog food. Is it the only one that gauges whether a food is providing what your dog needs to thrive?

Frankly, it’s a bit reductive just to say pick this low-carb food. Instead, you need to ask where those carbs come from in the recipe– what foods are picked and why.

Simple vs Complex Carbs

Fruits and vegetables, along with grains, starches, and legumes, all have varying amounts of carbohydrates.

Foods that fall in the simple carbs category provide minimal nutrition to dogs. Complex carbohydrates, on the other hand, include fruits and vegetables that provide some of the most crucial nutrients. The complex carb category may contain starches (like sweet potatoes), but complex carbs also contain those sought-after nutrients.

- - Vitamins
  - Minerals
  - Phytonutrients
  - Antioxidants

Some of the most beneficial nutrition comes from plants in the modern dog’s diet, it’s simply about picking with a purpose.

Opt for superfoods that offer diversity in your carnivore’s diet, so you provide key nutrients that a dog’s diet cannot get from meat alone.

Note: We want to be very clear here. We are not saying that a dog can survive on plants alone. A quality diet is filled with real, whole, quality meats (NOT meat meals) and then lesser amounts of produce. That’s why you need to be judicious and pick plants with purpose.

Glycemic Index

Certain foods like fruits and veggies — especially brightly colored ones– contain carbohydrates, but they are digested slower and promote stable blood sugar levels, which is why they have a low GI value.

Corn, wheat, rice, potatoes, and other starchy carbohydrates are deemed high GI because they cause spikes in blood sugar– put in the simplest terms, this is the link to obesity and diabetes.

Knowing that high-glycemic carbs (like wheat or corn) do a whole lot more damage than a low-glycemic carb (like spinach), we just need to choose the right plants– low-glycemic fruits, vegetables, and seeds in proper proportions for the carnivore (remember 25% or fewer carbohydrates).

Opt for low-glycemic superfoods but by no means shy away from medium glycemic superfoods. Remember, if they are fed in species-appropriate proportions, you’re using them for all of those unmatched nutrients!

Carbs Aren’t The Only Thing to Consider When Picking A Food

The % of carbs is just one (small) portion of a carnivore’s diet but again a CRUCIAL part. Whatever carbs are in a recipe should actually serve a purpose– to fill in the gaps of a diet where meat can’t.

It’s a lot to digest, but all you really need to focus on is feeding your scavenger carnivore a biologically appropriate diet.

15% – 25% nutrient-dense, low-glycemic fruits, vegetables, and seeds
70-80% meat-based proteins

Follow that, skip the marketing jargon and flowery prose, and don’t be afraid to get on the phone and ask.

If you want a low-carb food for dogs right here and now, the Simple Food Project offers recipes that check all the boxes you’re looking for because Dr. Bessent wanted to provide her clients with a better option. These recipes are freeze-dried and dehydrated and made with only 16 real, raw whole food ingredients and fit for the carnivore– high in protein (70-80% per recipe- all USDA inspected) and low in carbohydrates (15-23% from fresh fruits, veggies, and seeds).

Whatever you do, you’ve got these tools to sidestep the dodgy carb-o-loaded dog foods, so don’t hesitate to use them!

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Dr. Chris Bessent

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Kayla

April 12, 2021April 12, 2024

Can Dogs Eat Raw Beef?

Home / Blog | Read Time: 6 minutes

Raw beef for dogs? A hearty yes! Not only can dogs eat raw beef, but they should because this lean, savory meat protein offers benefits from tip to tail.

Let’s look at all the reasons why raw beef should be in the bowl.

Benefits of Raw Meat

Genetically, dogs are designed to digest animal proteins in their raw form. Their ancestors consumed the whole carcass, including muscle meat, bones, tendons, organs, skin, and fur, as a complete meal.

That’s probably not going to happen in your house, but you can add raw beef to the bowl, and you should because real food makes a difference.

Food is functional– Each food we choose to put in the bowl directs, changes, and shapes our animal's health– not just weight or performance but also wellbeing.

Food is the foundation of health: yours and your pets. Consider just some of the benefits whole foods like beef offer your carnivore.

Raw beef offers nutrients like protein, which is the building block for muscles, ligaments, skin, cell maintenance and provides energy for running after a squirrel or chasing a ball. Beef also offers essential fatty acids Omega 3 (EPA & DHA) & 6. Omega 3s nourish and hydrate the skin for healthy skin and a shiny coat. Plus, with its anti-inflammatory properties, omega 3 benefits everything from the heart to the immune system.

Consider this coverage from tip to tail and just one of MANY reasons dogs need essential fatty acids in the bowl.

Not bad, right? Now, let’s take a closer look at your four-legger’s needs.

What Makes Raw Beef a Good Choice?

Your dog, the carnivore, NEEDS meat to thrive.

Think about what dogs ate before they were members of the household. What did generations of animals eat when they roamed apart from us. Surely, they didn’t hunt wild kibble… No, a dog’s biology supports a carnivore’s diet.

Dogs share 99.9% of the same DNA as the grey wolf. As we’ve domesticated animals, we’ve bred them for specific propensities (think hunting or herding) and aesthetics (looking at you pugs), but we haven’t bred out their DNA.

The basic physiology, i.e., their internal anatomy, has changed little since domestication, which also means their nutritional requirements haven’t changed.

Take a peek inside their mouths–

Large canines and pointed molars meant for ripping and tearing meat from the bone.

Little to no salivary amylase (the enzyme necessary for breaking down carbs) in their mouth.

High acidity levels in their stomach can handle the number of bacteria found in fresh prey.

With anatomy like that, a dog’s diet should match.

That means… Meats and organs, about 70-80%

And, of course, a diet low in carbohydrates, no more than 25% or so (but the less, the better) from vegetables, fruits, seeds, even minimal amounts of predigested grains.

But before you add a hunk of raw beef to your carnivore’s bowl and call it dinner, there are a few things you need to know first.

Not All Beef Is Equal

Not all beef offers equal nutritional value. Most animals used in beef production are grass-fed or grain-fed. Your canine companion benefits most from the grass-fed variety, and here’s why.

Omega-3 and 6 fatty acids are essential components of a carnivore diet. Dogs can’t don’t produce them naturally, so we must include them in their daily diets.

What’s more, Omega 3 and Omega 6 have to be balanced to reap the benefits. The target ratio of Omega-3 and Omega-6 should be 1:1 in the diet. This is crucial, so those ears should be at attention, pups.

Too much Omega 6 and not enough Omega 3 can lead to chronic inflammation and ultimately havoc on the body, including diabetes, gut issues, or cancer.

Raw grass-fed beef has a more balanced ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 essential fatty acids. The meat of grass-fed cows contains almost five times the levels of Omega-3 fatty acids than grain-fed cows with higher levels of Omega-6.

And then there’s the fat difference. Grass-fed animals have leaner muscle mass because they’re out roaming the pastures all day and not carb-o-loading. That means less stress-caused oxidation to cells and more nutrients in the muscles and organs.

For Mr. Squishmallow, grass-fed is the superior choice.

Is Raw Beef Right For Your Dog?

Absolutely, dogs have forgiving digestive systems. With higher acidity in their stomachs and shorter intestinal tracts, they can eat raw meat that may harbor salmonella or listeria spores with no problem– and before you panic, some pathogens are completely normal. Remember, we’re talking real, whole, fresh food.

We hoomans have more sensitive digestive systems that allow those bacteria to wreak havoc for us, which is why we’re hyper-aware of naturally occurring pathogens in our food.

That’s not to say a big dose of salmonella or listeria from 4D meats that are contaminated or spoiled wouldn’t cause a problem for your dog. Again, it’s all about choosing high-quality sources.

Any dog who is immunocompromised should avoid raw meats. With a weakened immune system, their body isn’t functioning at 100%, making them more vulnerable to pathogen loads. To not deprive these pups entirely, you could cook the beef lightly or opt for a freeze-dried option.

How Much Raw Beef Can I Feed My Dog?

The amount you dish out depends largely on how you’re using raw beef– as a topping on a meal, feeding as a treat, or switching to a raw food diet.

It’s all about kcals– the number of calories a dog needs in a day based on their activity level and age.

If used as a snack or training treat, 90% of your dog’s daily diet should be nutritionally balanced food. And as difficult as it can be to resist tossing a few extra at snack time, treats should be 10% of the caloric intake.

No matter which way you offer beef, happy tippy taps will commence, but just remember that while a great addition to the bowl, raw beef alone doesn’t serve as a balanced meal for your dog. If you want to incorporate raw beef into their diet, use it as a topper to a meal that is complete & balanced or consider making the switch over to a balanced DIY raw diet.

How Can I Offer My Dog Raw Beef?

Any form of raw beef will get those ears to perk up in excitement, but just be sure to cut into bite-size pieces or small morsels.

Cut up or mince (like hamburger) and add it right to your dog’s bowl for a nutritional boost.

Dogs are just as excited to receive lightly cooked meat as raw, but the cooking process decreases the nutritional benefits, so if tossing raw meat to your dog isn’t your thing, try freeze-dried. It’s as good as raw, retaining almost 100% of its nutrients.

Why Beef Is Just One (Big) Portion Of A Carnivore’s Diet

Adding a helping of raw beef to the bowl or tossing in spinach is undoubtedly this mastiff-sized step for your dog’s health, but it is the first step. Beef, foods like spinach, and blueberries should be parts of a whole, comprehensive diet for your dog.

Real, raw whole food ingredients picked for the carnivore:

high in meat proteins (70-80% per recipe- all USDA inspected)
low in carbohydrates (15-23% from nutrient-dense fruits, veggies, and seeds)

And the proverbial raw beef on top? Diets like the Simple Food Project’s Beef & Salmon Recipe are already nutritionally balanced with whole foods only (no synthetic vitamins here, folks).

Even if you’re feeding recipes like the above as a topper, you’re providing the most beneficial nutrition– antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals from whole foods, and key nutrients that a dog’s diet cannot get from meat alone (or from kibble for that matter).

It’s real food made especially for your carnivore, making it easy to put the right food on your dog’s plate daily.

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Lynn Guthrie - Content Writer

Lynn Guthrie is a writer focused on improving the lives of cats and dogs. She is pawrent to two dogs and two cats. When not writing, she enjoys traveling the US with her husband in their RV and gardening.

Kayla - Editor

March 31, 2021April 12, 2024

What’s the Difference Between Air-Dried, Dry-Roasted, & Dehydrated Dog Food, Exactly?

Home / Blog | Read Time: 6 minutes

How do you know which food is the best to feed your pet?

Dog food jargon can make it tough to determine what’s what, and which recipes to reach for. If your pet’s food bag includes terms like ‘air-dried,’ dehydrated’ or ‘dry-roasted’ on the label, it’s very likely you will have no idea which one to choose.

But, you want to know a secret...? Dehydrated dog food, air-dried recipes, and dry-roasted ingredients are…all 👏 the 👏 same 👏 thing.

They’re all shelf-stable, nutrient-rich foods you can rest easy feeding to your pet. Why? Because dehydration preserves essential vitamins and minerals that are depleted when ingredients are processed at high temps—ahem, we’re looking at you, kibble.

Here’s a deep dive into all things dehydrated. And a look at why it’s an absolutely exceptional option for your pet.

Air-Dried, Dehydrated, and Dry-Roasted: What to Know

Air-drying, dehydrating, and dry-roasting are all ways to remove moisture from ingredients. This process turns raw (or cooked) ingredients to shelf-stable and ready-to-devour. You’re welcome, two-leggers! Regardless of what you call it, the process is simple and uses three rather quippy concepts: low, slow, and airflow.

Dehydration Keeps the Temp Down Low

All air-dried, dehydrated or dry-roasted ingredients are cooked—but at a low heat. Because cooking ingredients kill bacteria (harmful ones like E. coli and salmonella and some not so harmful – but that’s for another post) and make them shelf-stable. If you’re also wondering why this is helpful….well, it’s more for you, hoooman, than your four-legger! Shelf-stable foods are easy to store and easy to clean up. But that’s not the only reason we love dehydrated foods.

Keeping temperatures low removes moisture without compromising natural vitamins and minerals. That means your whisker-toter gets all that drool-inducing nourishment from real food, instead of synthetic vitamins added back in after the extrusion process– which is what happens with kibble.

Dehydration Requires A Slow and Steady Approach

Removing moisture without destroying nutrients, taste, or texture takes a lot longer than high-heat processing. Hence, the s-l-o-o-o-o-o-o-w cook time.

Dehydration can take up to 10x as long as kibble processing, which includes drying, extruding, and baking at high heat. It’s only one step, compared to several, but it still takes more time! And in this case, patience pays off. The lower the heat, the longer the cook time, and the gentler the process.

Dehydration Uses Air Flow

When you’re baking cookies, you press that ‘convection bake’ button because airflow helps you avoid burnt cookie bottoms. The same concept holds true with dehydrated pet food. A nice gust of wind during dehydration helps ingredients dry-out evenly. This is why dehydrated pet foods are exposed to airflow throughout the entire low and slow process.

Airflow also ensures all ingredients are indeed dried through and through. This helps turn raw meats into ready (and safe) to-eat treats.

Why the Process Matters

As a pet parent, the goal is always to feed REAL, whole foods. Raw feeding is the gold standard, of course, but it’s not feasible for every pet parent. If you’ve got the knowledge to balance a raw diet, means of sourcing (access to healthy organs and quality bones), and time to prepare, you go girl!

But when that’s not the case, you want an option that’s as close to eating fresh whole food as possible and that’s where cutting-edge pet industry processes like dehydration come in.

As you’ve probably witnessed first hand when you forget about those two-week(?)-old veggies in the fridge–food is fragile. As time passes or when food is processed (cooked) in any way, nutrients like vitamins, minerals, active enzymes, and antioxidants diminish. The more heat processes food goes through, the fewer nutrients that are left in that food.

So, gentle processes like freeze-drying and dehydration allow ingredients to keep their best features (whole food vitamins & minerals) in a shelf-stable format that’s convenient for you.

Freeze-dried diets are the closest thing to a totally ‘nothing-about-this-is-cooked’ raw diet. And that’s because the freeze-drying process maintains 97% of whole food vitamins and minerals. Pretty amazing, right? That’s why it’s seen as the closest thing to a fresh food diet.

But that’s not to say that dehydrated diets aren’t exceptional, as well. Dehydration still retains 50-60% of those beautiful, oh-so-delicious whole food vitamins and minerals.

Kibble doesn’t even come close to accomplishing this. You know that super lengthy ingredient list on the back of so many kibble bags? It’s so long because the “food” ingredients are cooked to obliteration at sky-high temps, and post-processing vitamin packs add essential nutrients back into the food so it can meet Complete & Balanced Nutritional Standards.

Oh, not to mention that fats and flavor enhancers are also added back into kibble because it’s been cooked. Over. And over.

What To Look For In A Dehydrated Dog Food

There are countless ‘dehydrated’ pet foods on the market, so how do you determine which is best for your pet?

Real Ingredients You Recognize

The manufacturing process used to make a batch of dog food doesn’t really matter if you don’t start with the right ingredients– that means real, whole foods. And the only way to know exactly what’s inside is to read the ingredient list. No matter how long it is (*cough*, kibble, *cough*), synthetics included.

When reading, look for ingredients you actually recognize. Organic apple means the food’s got real apples inside. Apple pomace means the food includes a powdered, reconstituted apple inside.

Peas, well you know what those are. Pea protein, on the other hand, gets a little more complicated. Pea protein is made from peas, sure. But it’s the by-product– a result of breaking down and separating parts of those peas. And while pea protein is high in protein, it’s the wrong kind of protein. It’s missing key animal amino acids your dog the carnivore needs.

If you see meat meal on the ingredient list, it means the protein source has been ground, rendered, powdered, and otherwise processed before it’s even begun the kibble-making process. And that means there are several more heating processes to come.

PRO TIP: Kibble recipes also frequently utilize grains, legumes, and other plant protein ingredients to boost protein levels. And don’t even get us started on ingredient splitting! It’s a seriously bad practice that involves ‘splitting’ ingredients into subgroups so they appear lower on the ingredient list. Remember how we discussed reading the entiiiiiiiire ingredient list? This is why. If you see multiple ‘pea’ ingredients like pea protein, pea fiber, and pea flour, this is exactly what we’re talking about!

Proper Proportions For The Carnivore

In addition to looking for pet food with real, whole ingredients, it’s also important nay, CRUCIAL to get the recipe just right. Here’s how a recipe should break down:

Get Plenty Of Protein – From Meat

For our pets, plenty of animal protein is key. In fact, dogs should eat a diet that’s 70-80% animal protein. The keyword here being: animal. Protein source is important.

Your pet needs protein that includes muscle, skeletal meat, and organs. You just can’t get that from a plant! And, as we mentioned in the pro tip above, kibble recipes often include more plant protein than animal sources. This doesn’t include meat meals, which are processed and reconstituted, often with carcasses and very little meat.

Look for Low-Carb

Your dog also needs a diet that’s low-carb because this is the diet dogs are designed to eat.

Look for food with a carb percentage between 15-25%. And those carbs should come from fruits, veggies, and seeds. Why those ingredients? Because they’re jam-packed with phytonutrients like antioxidants, flavonoids, carotenoids, and lignans; superfoods that play a big part in your tail-wagger thriving.

Omega Ratios Are Important, Too

Balanced dog food should also contain the right ratio of essential Omega 3 (EPA & DHA) to Omega 6 fatty acids. Why? Because your pet can’t produce Omega 3 or 6-fatty acids on his own. And this is exactly why they’re referred to as essential fats.

The ideal Omega 3:6 ratio is 1:1. That said, a ratio of up to 5:1 is still healthy. Most pet foods do not label how much Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids are included in the recipe. What’s more, the average diet (kibble) contains outrageous ratios. Like, 20:1.

Such a disproportionate amount of Omega 3 to Omega 6 fatty acids creates chronic inflammation in the body, which is a leading cause of many chronic diseases. This includes cancer, heart disease, liver failure, kidney issues, and more.

But the good news is that the right Omega 3:6 ratio can be gotten through food alone, and that should be one of the goals with the food that goes into the bowl.

Transparency And Pet Food Practices You Can Trust

You should be able to trust the company that makes the food you feed your tail-wagger! He is your ride-or-die, partner-in-crime, the other half of your best friend forever necklace, after all.

But, how can you be certain a pet food company walks-the-walk and doesn’t just talk-the-talk?

Know the buzzwords– in an industry with so many options, it’s tough to distinguish what’s real, what’s jargon, and what’s just plain misleading. This is why it’s important to know pet food keywords when you see them and what they’re actually saying. That includes ‘air-drying,’ ‘dehydration’ and ‘dry-roasting.’

You’ve also got to do your research– look for transparency in the company and its manufacturing processes. Pull out your metaphorical magnifying glass, and secure your Sherlock Holmes hat. Dig a little deeper and ask important questions. Check off what matters most: the manufacturing process, whole food ingredients, a full recipe breakdown. Oh, and a company you can trust to provide you with all the info you need to know.

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Kira - Writer

Kira is a writer who lives in Montana. She takes advantage of the mountains and river—and spends a lot of time outdoors. She has a giant shaggy dog who’s the perfect sidekick. And spends her free time making things. Crafting, sewing, and jewelry making are favorites!

Kayla - Content Editor

Kayla is the Content Editor for The Simple Food Project. She has a cat named Professor Cat-Faced Meowmers, who goes by Kitty, and a goof of a dog, named Duck. She stays busy biking trails, losing at board games, and searching for the next best craft beer.

January 27, 2021April 12, 2024

The Power of Krill for Dogs & Cats

Home / Blog | Read Time: 6 minutes

Krill are tiny crustaceans, only about 2 inches long. But don’t be fooled by their small size — they can change your pet’s life.

Though they are teensy ocean creatures, krill are packed with vital nutrition that can help our land-dwelling cats and dogs live a long, vibrant life. No matter the age, size, or breed of your pet, krill can provide them with crucial nutrients that nourish and fuel the entire body. And that means more time and energy for all their favorite things — from curtain-climbing to frisbee fetch.

There’s a reason krill should be on your radar — and in your pet’s bowl. Actually, a LOT of reasons. So let’s dive in…

The Power of A Single Ingredient

Krill is packed to the brim with nutrition — and yet, it’s just one ingredient. One ingredient means no preservatives, no artificial additives, and no fortifying. It’s just plain krill — high-quality nutrition straight from the ocean. All the good stuff and none of the bad.

So what exactly is all that good stuff? What makes krill so vital for our cats and dogs?

1. Omega 3

Krill is full of omega-3 fatty acids. We’re talking good fat. Omega 3s promote a healthy inflammatory response throughout your pet’s entire body and benefit everything from the heart to the immune system.

Cats and dogs can’t produce omega 3 on their own, so they absolutely need to be eating omega-rich foods. Not only that, but it has to be the right kind of omega 3s — with DHA and EPA fatty acids. This form is readily available for the carnivore’s body to use — a.k.a. exactly what ferocious Mr. Fluffums needs. And that’s exactly the kind you will find in krill.

Plant-based sources of omega 3, on the other hand, contain ALA, which isn’t as bioavailable to your pet — and therefore not as beneficial. So be on the lookout for meat based sources of omega 3, which contain that vital DHA and EPA.

Omega 3 with EPA and DHA

Omega 3 with ALA

One last thing: adding omega 3 to the bowl is especially vital for kibble-fed pets. Kibble usually provides a lot of omega 6 and hardly any omega 3 — and it’s all about a balanced ratio with these two omegas. Too much omega 6 and not enough omega 3 can lead to inflammation and health problems. So don’t hold back when you add omega 3 to the bowl!

2. Phospholipids

Phospholipids deliver the omega 3 right to where your pet’s body needs it most and help the body absorb a greater amount. This makes krill a super efficient and high-quality source of omega 3s. Nutrients aren’t useful unless the body can actually use them, and phospholipids make it possible for the body to maximize the omega 3s and really reap the benefits.

3. Choline

Krill also contains choline, an essential nutrient shown to promote brain, heart, and liver health. Not bad. Not bad at all.

4. Astaxanthin

Astaxanthin is known as “nature’s most powerful antioxidant.” It’s hundreds of times more powerful than other antioxidants, which means its free-radical scavenging ability is unparalleled.

Antioxidants neutralize free-radicals in the body, which prevents oxidative stress (cell damage) and premature aging. Filling the bowl with antioxidant-rich foods gives your pet the tools their body needs to stay healthy and strong — especially as they age.

And here’s a hot tip for kitty parents — cats especially need meat sources of antioxidants (like astaxanthin!) because cats aren’t meant to have loads of leafy greens. Dogs can thrive with a combination of plant-based and meat-based antioxidants (yes, you should give your dog spinach!), but cats are obligate carnivores, which means meat is the name of the game pretty much 24/7. This makes krill absolutely crucial to a kitty’s diet — it’s a meat protein and nature’s most potent antioxidant all in one. And that’s win/win.

The Power of Sustainable Choices

There’s another piece to consider when you decide to fill your pet’s bowl with krill: we want healthy pets, but we also want a healthy planet — which means paying attention to our marine ecosystems and making sustainable choices.

Always look for manufacturers that source from fisheries that are committed to sustainability and minimizing our environmental impact (look for the Marine Stewardship Council label).

In our Simple Food Project recipes, we only use wild-caught krill. Our MSC-certified supplier is one of the most sustainable fisheries worldwide, with a deep commitment to conservation. They created a revolutionary technology called Eco-harvesting, which utilizes a hose to collect krill and bring it on board. This ensures that no other marine wildlife is harmed in the process. This kind of technology and conscientiousness allows us to care for our pets and our planet simultaneously.

As you peruse your krill options, you may come across chews and oils, but our recommendation is ground krill — which is the entire krill.

Ground krill is by far the most sustainable option. In order to produce oils and chews, manufacturers extract oil from the krill — and then throw away what remains. This is especially true for how humans use krill (since humans typically don’t want to eat a whole krill). If the rest of the krill isn’t used for anything, this practice is wasteful.

That’s where ground krill comes in. Ground krill uses the entire krill — including the parts that would otherwise be discarded after oil extraction. So when you choose ground krill, you’re also choosing an option that complements the human industry, provides your pet with maximum nutrition and honors the krill and marine ecosystem.

The Power of Krill

Preventive care is incredibly powerful, and adding krill to the bowl is one of the best things you can do for your pet’s long-term health. Krill provides the body with vital nutrition during every phase of life — from developing puppy brains to aging seniors.

Krill can:

Boost the immune system
Encourage a healthy inflammatory response
Defend against free radical cell damage
Promote healthy aging
Support growth and development
Foster heart health
Balance the Omega 6 : Omega 3 ratio
Elevate a kibble diet
Support overall health and wellbeing

No matter the size, age, or breed of your pet, the nutrients in krill provide every pet with the tools to thrive. Krill can take every single pet’s health and wellbeing to the next level.

That’s why Dr. Bessent added ground krill into every one of our Simple Food Project Recipes. And if your pet needs a little extra, it’s as easy as adding ground krill like Pure Krill to the bowl. Just be ready for your pet to go crazy for that fishy flavor.

Regardless of how you feed krill, you’ll be taking a concrete step toward a healthier pet. The krill will nourish the entire body, allowing your favorite four-legger to start reaping the health benefits.

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Dr. Chris Bessent

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Hayley - Content Writer

Hayley is a freelance writer based in Northern California. (Writing for the Simple Food Project is her favorite, but don't spread it around.) She enjoys riding horses, taking road trips, and eating grilled cheese sandwiches. Her foster dogs have mixed feelings about the spinach she keeps trying to sneak into their bowls.

Kayla - Editor

January 26, 2021April 12, 2024

6 Ingredients in Cat “Food” That Aren’t Meant To Be Eaten

Home / Blog | Read Time: 6 minutes

Mr. McWhiskers is a pure delight. He only scratches the sofa sometimes (he’s very polite that way), he’s an excellent coworker and sits on your laptop right on time every day, and he takes all your outfits to the next level with the refined layer of hair he leaves behind.

Mr. McWhiskers deserves the best in every way — especially in terms of what he eats (because let’s be honest, Mr. McWhiskers LOVES to eat).

But is he eating ingredients that aren’t meant to be eaten?

We’re not talking about the occasional pillow stuffing that just somehow escaped from the pillow. Or a thread from that sock he stole.

No. We’re talking about ingredients within his cat food. Ingredients that manufacturers put in his food intentionally. Ingredients that you would never dream of eating.

You know that long list of ingredients on the back of the cat food bag? Yep. That’s where you’ll find these doozy ingredients. And the actual uses of these ingredients (i.e. their proper, non-food uses) should raise some red flags. Like — giant, wildly-flapping-in-the-wind, neon red flags.

The Problem(s) With Kibble

Many pet parents choose to feed kibble. True, it’s a convenient choice — but convenience comes with some scary tradeoffs.

Kibble is heavily processed and often has a shelf life of decades. It’s akin to junk food. Yes, it’s cheap and convenient, but it often causes obesity and numerous health problems down the road. Plus, it doesn’t properly nourish the body — even though it can cause obesity. Kibble leads to overfed and undernourished pets.

It’s also worth noting how kibble is made. In production, the kibble is heated to extremely high temperatures — 275-572 degrees F. The idea is that this temperature will kill pathogens (which it does), but it also ends up killing healthy components like antioxidants and enzymes. Additionally, when proteins and carbohydrates are heated to such high temperatures, they become toxic and/or carcinogenic (read: cancer-causing).

This is serious stuff. Our four-leggers deserve better.

Many Cat “Foods” Contain Ingredients That Are Not FOOD

Okay, so we know some concerning things about kibble. Now let’s get to the nitty-gritty — the specific ingredients that should make you run.

Let’s demystify some of the ickiest and most dangerous ingredients for your cat. We’ll cover 1) what the ingredients are and 2) what they are supposed to be used for (hint: not food).

Powdered Cellulose

What is it: Cellulose is a fibrous plant-based compound. It comes from plants, which doesn’t sound too alarming, but don’t be fooled. This is not meant to be eaten by cats — or anyone, for that matter.

What is it supposed to be used for: Cellulose is typically used to make paper and fabrics. It’s also used in household items like sponges and glue. The form often found in cat food is derived from sawdust, which is considered a “byproduct” or “waste” from wood. Sawdust is great for various landscaping uses and to soak up spills, but it is certainly not meant for Mr. McWhiskers to have for dinner.

Food Dyes (Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Red 40, Blue 2)

What is it: Food dyes are artificial chemicals that can provide color to many foods (ever had a lollipop that left your tongue blue for hours?).

What is it supposed to be used for: Well, coloring food at best. But we have to ask if this is really necessary — especially for CATS! Does your cat really care or even see what color her food is? Colors are often added to make the food look more enticing to you (the consumer, not your cat). But artificial colors just aren’t worth the cancer risk. Yep, food dyes are known carcinogens for animals. No, thank you. It’s just not worth it.

Ethoxyquin

What is it: Ethoxyquin is a synthetic preservative meant to prevent rancidity.

What is it supposed to be used for: Certainly not food! Ethoxyquin is banned for direct use in human food (it’s toxic if it touches the skin or is swallowed), but it is allowed in pet food — that should be a red flag right there. And the scientific community has some pretty big concerns relating to toxicity that can lead to autoimmune disorders, reproductive damage, cancer, and more.

BHT and BHA

What is it: These are closely related synthetic chemical preservatives (often in dry cat food and human food like cereal and packaged snacks).

What is it supposed to be used for: In addition to being used as food additives, BHT and BHA are commonly used in beauty products, plastic, gasoline, wax, paint, and more (ew). What’s even worse? They’re known carcinogens.

Meat and Bone Meals

What is it: Meat and bone meals are a mysterious mixture from sources such as roadkill, expired food from grocery stores, and inedible byproducts from slaughterhouses. These meals often contain bones and feathers and very little (if any) valuable parts like muscle meat, which is reserved for human consumption. The meal is formed through a high temperature and high-pressure process that essentially converts carcasses and byproducts into a powdery substance — and that is what goes into your pet’s food (yikes).

What is it supposed to be used for: Well, compost at best. Meat and bone meals are often essentially garbage that’s being repurposed as food for our pets. We’re all about repurposing, recycling, and sustainability, but here’s something we’re not about: feeding our pets unhealthy and unsafe waste.

Glucose and Grains (Wheat, Corn, Rice)

What is it: Here are some familiar and recognizable ingredients (finally)! We’re going to assume you know what grains are. And as a Biology 101 reminder, glucose is a simple sugar and a component of carbohydrates.

What is it supposed to be used for: This category is a little different. For other species (like humans or goats), grains are perfectly appropriate. The issue is that the grain is not species-appropriate for cats. Have you ever felt like your kitty is hungry all the time? Well, that’s because she’s not getting the nutrition she really needs. Cats simply cannot process high-carbohydrate ingredients like grains and fillers. A high-meat diet is absolutely imperative to their survival. So even if your kitty eats a seemingly appropriate amount of food each day, she still won’t get the nutrition she needs if that food is filled with carbohydrates. (You can learn more with “Cats and Kibble”).

What Cats Need to Thrive

Cats are obligate carnivores, which means their entire body is designed for hunting and consuming prey — meat. Anything other than meat in their diet should be limited, and carbohydrates (from produce and seeds) must be predigested. (Learn more with “Cat: The True Carnivore”). When you’re choosing a food for your cat, always look for high meat content (like 80-90%) and ingredients you recognize

Your cat deserves real, whole food — not “cat food” that isn’t actually food at all. We know that health starts with what’s in the bowl, so fill it with everything your cat needs to truly thrive!

Meat. Your cat would like us to emphasize once again that the answer is meat — and just to be clear, we’re talking raw meats and not meat meals (shudder).

And don’t forget about antioxidants and omegas, which support a healthy inflammatory response, boost heart health, foster a robust immune system, and promote healthy aging. Adding these doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, single ingredients like krill can provide a supercharged daily dose of both these nutrients.

You can even learn to curate the bowl for your cat, filling it with the quality staples that all cats need and going beyond the basics to tailor a plan for your unique four-legger.

There are a lot of ways for you to give Mr. McWhiskers the nutrition he needs to thrive. The solution isn’t one-size-fits-all. Maybe you want to try DIY raw. Or maybe that’s a bit too much of an endeavor. In that case, another great option would be freeze-dried whole food nutrition like The Simple Food Project recipes.

Regardless, it’s safe to say several ingredients absolutely do not belong in your cat’s bowl. Now that you know what they are — and the non-food purposes they actually serve — you can make healthier choices for Mr. McWhiskers for years to come.

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Dr. Chris Bessent

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Hayley - Content Writer

Kayla - Content Editor

Kayla is the Content Editor for The Simple Food Project. She has a cat named Professor Cat-Faced Meowmers, who goes by Kitty, and a goof of a dog, named Duck. She stays busy biking trails, losing at board games, and searching for the next best craft beer.

December 4, 2020April 12, 2024

Can Dogs Eat Spinach?

Home / Blog / Everything Dog | Read Time: 6 minutes

Cue the lights. The music starts and the applause swells. The kitchen sparkles, ready for your next culinary masterpiece. Sure, your dog is the only audience member, but what a supportive and attentive viewer! Tonight, your official taste-tester is in for a surprise because your special ingredient is… spinach.

We’ll cover everything you need to know about spinach and dogs.

Before that, some basics.

Can Dogs Have Spinach?

Yes, not only can dogs eat spinach, but they should eat those super-powered greens because both humans and dogs can benefit in equal measure from their daily stems and leaves.

Whole Food Nutrients vs Synthetics

This whole food provides a whole lotta whole food nutrients for pups, including vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. If all of this comes from just one leaf, which would you choose?

You get…

Vitamin A helps dogs maintain that healthy, sparkling fur coat. And while you won’t find any dog reciting the bottom row on the eye chart anytime soon, Vitamin A helps keep their peepers in working order.

Vitamin B is a major player when it comes to brain function, blood cell formation and nervous system maintenance. Three big ones, if we don’t say so ourselves.

Vitamin C has proven to play a key role in dogs’ immune function, much like it does for their two-leggers.

Vitamin K assists with the clotting process when a dog is nicked or cut, assuring their body can perform its own first aid in a pinch.

Calcium does what Mom always said it would: Bone health is pivotal for a growing pup. (P.S. no video games until you finish your milk.)

Iron is essential to the formation of red blood cells and hemoglobin. For dogs, a healthy iron intake means proper blood circulation and origination.

Lutein is a carotenoid that’s got an eye out for your pups’ eyes. This antioxidant helps fight off free radicals and reduce oxidative stress that can be damaging to the eyes

Fiber can help keep your dog, ahem, regular. And not just on the rear end. Fibrous diets can help create a feeling of fullness to prevent overindulgence.

Potassium keeps almost everything on the up and up, from the heart to the kidneys to the nerves.

Zeaxanthin is another eye-catching antioxidant. Much like lutein, it’s drawn to the eye where it helps protect against oxidative damage from UV rays.

Or you get…

Synthetic Vitamin A – The long list of impossible words at the end of kibble ingredient decks are piles of synthetic vitamins and minerals.

They have to be added to kibble because the food never offered them in the first place, or they were lost in the high-heat extrusion process.

If we can ditch the synthetics on an ingredient deck by including one ingredient, it’s really a no-brainer.

Yes, all that. From one little leaf. Impressed? Just you wait.

Why Feed Your Dog Spinach?

Still not convinced? Let’s get to the main event: It’s all about the antioxidants, including lutein and zeaxanthin mentioned above.

But before we go any further, what exactly are antioxidants? And why does my pup need them?

Here’s the scoop: As a result of normal metabolic processes (chemical reactions that happen inside the body to keep us alive and healthy), free radicals get released. These may sound cool, but free radicals are not our friends.

They actually do some serious cell damage, which leads to oxidative stress, which contributes to our risk of disease including cancer as well as aging and age-related health problems. This shows up in humans and dogs in various ways, including:

Graying hair
Graying eyes
Deteriorating vision
Thinning skin
Dementia

So where do the antioxidants come in? Well, antioxidants are the real MVP here because they reduce the oxidative stress caused by harmful free radicals (antioxidants are anti-oxidation… get it?!). Now this is making sense!

Science tells us antioxidants could actually be one of the most important components in the upkeep of necessary biological functions — everything from the inner ear all the way down to strands of DNA. Plus, research shows that antioxidants are pivotal to a carnivore’s traditional diet. (“Wait, my dog is a carnivore? Yes, your dog is a carnivore.”)

Dogs do produce antioxidants on their own, but the level decreases significantly as they get older — which means Mr. Paws McGee is going to need some supplemental antioxidants. And guess what, food is packed full of ‘em.

Yep, you got it: Spinach.

Super Powers Of A Superfood

While meat should be the primary means of nourishment for dogs, spinach complements their diet.

A side salad, if you will.

Some may warn against the oxalic acid in spinach, but realistically, there would only be cause for concern if a high percentage of your dog’s diet consisted of spinach– like platefuls of spinach for breakfast, lunch, elevensies, and dinner. While rabbits would dig in, that’s not an appropriate diet for your scavenger carnivore, so that’s really not relevant for your pup.

What is relevant are those antioxidants we were raving about earlier. Spinach gives your dog a turbocharged dose of antioxidants that’s tough to come by with meat and bones alone.

That could mean a stronger immune system, steadier heart health, and reduced risk of cancer for your dog. In fact, a 2005 Purdue study shows that adding some leafy green vegetables to your dog’s food three times per week causes a 90 percent decrease in cancer risk. You can listen to Rodney Habib talk about it here. Impressed? We are. Not too shabby for a little green plant.

Ways To Feed Your Dog Spinach

It doesn’t have to be glamorous. It doesn’t have to be seasoned. Heck, it doesn’t even have to be cooked. There’s more than one way to get your pup eating his greens.

For the sophisticated palate – if your dog is a leaf eater by trade, then by all means: chomp those leaves in all their green glory. It would take a whole lot of spinach for its acidic content to cause any digestive damage, but we still wouldn’t recommend it as a meal replacement so much as a supplement. Just be sure to rinse it off as well as you would your own salad (and always choose organic if possible). Dogs can stomach some pretty rough-and-tumble ingredients, but pesticides aren’t one of them.

For the picky pups (you know who you are)– if your dog doesn’t appreciate a nice side salad, you’re going to have to be a sneak. A few leaves at breakfast. A few leaves at dinner. Chopped finely and cooked simply, it’s fairly easy to sprinkle in some spinach with every meal.

How To Prepare Spinach

Try dicing up the leaves. They’re much easier to hide. Or blending them (smoothie, anyone?). Toss blueberries, a few carrots and kefir in there for good measure. Chop them finely, add bone broth and divy that tasty soup into ice cube trays for a special treat. If you’ve ever fantasized about having your own cooking show (like we clearly have), now is the time to show off for the canine food critic in your life!

Should I Cook It?

You don’t have to, but you can. For maximum antioxidant benefits, raw or lightly steamed is the way to go. But if Madame Booperton isn’t in the mood for crunchy leaves, cooking is a perfectly good solution.

Many of the best nutrients, including antioxidants are heat-labile meaning they break down when exposed to heat, so to get the most out of these leafy greens we want to keep the heat to a minimum.

The best way to do that is to steam the spinach on the stovetop for about two minutes, just until the leaves wilt.

Next best, would be lightly sautéing those leafy greens for about three minutes, pulling them once they’re wilted. You could mix it into a meat like ground turkey and voila– dinner served. (Note: This is a great option once in a while, but balance is everything in home-cooked diets.)

You could also take that sauteed supergreen, chop it finely, and sprinkle it into a warm bowl of bone broth. Or mix it into an extra drool-worthy treat of theirs – cottage cheese and kefir come to mind.

The point is there is so much you can do with this little leaf and any which way you do it will all have a big impact on your pup!

If this all sounds good in theory but not quite up your alley as a sous chef, check out the Simple Food diet. Allow us to explain.

How We Do Spinach

There’s a reason we don’t call our food kibble. Because it isn’t. It’s real food made specially for your carnivore. Every one of our recipes starts with tasty mainstay ingredients like spinach that make it easy to put real food on your dog’s plate daily.

And here’s the cool part: freeze-dried. Pun intended. That’s right, freeze-dried isn’t just for astronauts anymore. The amazing thing about freeze-dried food is that it retains about 97 percent of its original vitamins and minerals. This is especially important for those antioxidant-rich fruits and veggies like spinach.

Regardless which recipe your pup chooses, they all come with enough of the good stuff to help your dog benefit from those wonderful perks with every bite. Our Chicken & Turkey recipe, for example, includes organic spinach alongside organic carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkins seeds and plenty more nutrient-packed yum. Same goes for our Beef & Salmon recipe: Organic peas, organic carrots and organic spinach come together to bring out a flavorful blend that’s one part surf, one part turf — and all parts free of the fillers, byproducts and synthetic who-knows-what that so many brands use to fill their bags.

Ultimately, it’s up to you how your dog enjoys their spinach, well and your pup. But if you’re asking us? Try to find a way to sneak it in where you can.

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Dr. Chris Bessent

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Kayla

Kayla is the Content Writer for The Simple Food Project. She has a cat named Professor Cat-Faced Meowmers, who goes by Kitty, and a goof of a dog, named Duck. She stays busy biking trails, losing at board games, and searching for the next best craft beer.

January 5, 2020April 12, 2024

Feed Cats What They Eat in the Wild? Myth or Exactly As Nature Intended

Home / Blog | Read Time: 6 minutes

The pet food aisles offer more choices than ever before, so what should you feed your cat? The truth is, your little lionheart has almost the same nutritional needs as her wild cousins– a high protein, high moisture, low carbohydrate diet.

Let’s dig into the specifics of feeding nature’s perfect hunter.

How Cat Biology Determines Nutritional Needs

Before we venture down the vole hole, we need to be in total agreement that cats are obligate or true carnivores. In short, they absolutely need, cannot live without meat and organs in their diet.

We’re on the same page. This is going great! (If you’re scratching your head, stop now. Read this.)

As obligate carnivores, cats also have unique dietary requirements. This just means they get certain vitamins and fatty acids from their diet because they’ve lost the ability to make certain amino acids and vitamins in their own bodies the way that omnivores and herbivores do.

So, we know they need more protein in their diets as well as certain amino acids. Their physiology and anatomy offer ironclad proof that, as a species, cats are designed to eat prey. They’ve evolved characteristics that make them ideal for this role, like:

Sharp, pointed teeth for ripping and tearing

Short and simple g.i. tract to process raw meat in hours rather than days

Highly acidic stomach to handle the bacterial load found in fresh prey

Sharp, pointed teeth for ripping and tearing

Short and simple g.i. tract to process raw meat in hours rather than days

Highly acidic stomach to handle the bacterial load found in fresh prey

And, as if we needed further evidence, we need only look to the feral or wild cat diet to understand what a domestic cat’s diet should consist of.

A recent study from the School of Veterinary Medicine, UC Davis, observed that wild or feral cats hunt and eat a combination of wild rodents and small birds.

The dietary analysis showed 67% water content, 62% crude protein, 11% crude fat, 14.8% ash, and 2% carbohydrates.[i]

Given A Choice, What Would Your Cat Eat?

Additional research has actually provided rather substantial evidence that given the option, domestic cats would also pick a diet that was biologically appropriate for them, i.e., what they’d eat if in the wild.[ii]

Holistic veterinarian Dr. Karen Becker graciously translated the study to people speak to digest the most significant findings.[iii]

Every cat in the study chose the high-protein food over the high-carb food when given the option, even if there was less of the high-protein food available. When offered three foods, the cats mixed them to meet a daily percentage of 52% protein, 36% fat, and 12% carbs.

What Do These Numbers Say About a Cat’s Diet?

These numbers tell us that if cats had it their way, they wouldn’t be eating kibble, which is notoriously high in carbohydrates, 40% on average. (Carbs are needed to form and hold the kibble together during the extrusion process, not to mention grains are cheaper than meat). Instead, cats would opt for a high-protein food with moderate amounts of fat and low carbohydrates.

How to Meet The Nutritional Needs of Cats

We need to provide our kitties with food that comes as close to the wild or feral cat diet as possible, and the best cat foods would do that by meeting the three fundamental dietary requirements of cats.

A Diet High in Moisture

A Diet Rich in Animal Proteins

A Diet Low in Carbohydrates

Cats Need A Diet High in Moisture

Cats tend to be solitary hunters, hunting throughout the day, usually catching and eating from 6 to 10 small rodents or birds per day. A cat would get incremental amounts of moisture from their prey several times throughout the day to nourish their body.

The wild cat’s normal eating behavior may actually play a role in why they are less sensitive to the sensation of dehydration than other species and have a very weak thirst drive. This also explains why today’s kibble-fed kitties are at such risk for chronic dehydration– especially because when cats are dehydrated, it takes longer to restore their water balance by drinking alone.

Knowing that feral cats get moisture through their prey and that their thirst drive isn’t doing them any favors, it just makes sense that domestic cats, too, need moisture in their food.

Whether it’s a raw diet, wet food, or a freeze-dried food that rehydrates, moisture needs to be a key component to their daily meals.

Cats Need Protein (Lots of It and From Animals)

A small bit of biology in 4. 3. 2. 1. There are different types of protein, and protein quality depends not only on the source (i.e., whether it’s from an animal or plant) but also on who’s eating.

Animal proteins are considered “complete” proteins for cats (and dogs) because they offer all the amino acids (in the right amounts) that a cat or dog needs for growth, maintenance, and overall health.

On the other hand, “incomplete” plant proteins, like corn gluten or soybean meal, either don’t have the amino acids that cats (or dogs) need and/or aren’t available in the correct amounts. That includes taurine and arginine– essential amino acids crucial to cats’ health.

So, offering cats the right kind of protein is just as important as offering them a high-protein diet, and the best cat food brands will always be sure to do that with real, whole meats composing 80% + of the recipe.

Know that the guaranteed analysis won’t provide you this information. You have to call the company and ask how much of their recipe is made of human-grade meats.

Cats Need A Diet Low in Carbohydrates

For those who didn’t attend med school (this writer included), you may not know that glucose is what the body uses as energy. Healthy cats tend to have consistent blood glucose levels (aka energy) because, as carnivores, they are very practiced at making glucose (energy) from the amino acids obtained from a meat-based diet. This is a slow and steady process that provides consistent energy levels throughout the day. This really ensures that our kitties are proficiently powered for pouncing and the mandatory midnight zoom through the living room.

What Happens When Cat Food Contains Too Many Carbs?

When you eat, say, two donuts, you get that big jolt of sugary energy, but then your energy quickly plummets. So, it calls for a 2 pm stroll to your coworker’s candy drawer for a pick-me-up.

These extreme highs and lows in energy leave you feeling drained, but this rollercoaster can only occur because your body has the ability to cope with these big loads of glucose (i.e., sugar).

Cats don’t have this ability, though. So when they eat dry, carb-heavy kibble, they aren’t getting what we love about that big sugary rush of energy because carbs are the wrong type of energy for them. Instead, all of that glucose goes unused, floating throughout their bloodstream, leaving your cat famished because their body hasn’t been able to use any of the “food” they ate.

That’s just the short-term effect. In the long term, blood glucose levels stay high because of all of that unused glucose in the bloodstream, which leads to addiction, obesity, diabetes, and other health problems.

That’s why we recommend complete proteins, and when it comes to carbs for cats, less is more. The small percentage they do consume should be picked for the essential nutrients not gotten from meat– berries, leafy greens, and other species-appropriate carbs talked about here.

Food Your Indoor Carnivore Would Pick

Kibble isn’t just the biggest carb offender. Overall, most kibble fails to meet any dietary requirements for cats, which should really disqualify it as a viable option for any cat.

Unfortunately, many canned foods aren’t much better. They might be an improvement over kibble on the moisture front, but many still contain high-carb fillers and fall short on protein.

Just like her wild and feral cousins, your cat is going to flourish on a diet high in moisture, high in animal protein, and low in carbohydrates.

These aren’t suggestions or some New Age fad but requirements that need to be at the top of every pet parent’s list when considering which foods to feed their carnivore.

Remember, when in doubt, follow nature’s example and choose food made from high-quality, whole meats using the smallest percentage of nutrient packed-produce for your cat’s unique needs.

Diets like the Simple Food Project Recipes are already nutritionally balanced for your carnivore with whole foods only (no synthetic vitamins here, folks).

Even if you feed these recipes as a topper, you’re providing the most beneficial nutrition– antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals from whole foods, and key nutrients that a cat’s diet cannot get from meat alone (or from kibble, for that matter).

It’s real food made especially for your true carnivore, making it easy to put the right food on your cat’s plate daily.

REFERENCES

[i] Kremen NA, Calvert CC, Larsen JA, Baldwin RA, Hahn TP, Fascetti AJ. Body composition and amino acid concentrations of select birds and mammals consumed by cats in northern and central California. J Anim Sci. 2013;91(3):1270–1276.

[ii] Hewson-Hughes, A. K., Hewson-Hughes, V. L., Miller, A. T., Hall, S. R., Simpson, S. J., & Raubenheimer, D. (2011). Geometric analysis of macronutrient selection in the adult domestic cat, Felis catus. Journal of Experimental Biology, 214(6), 1039-1051. doi:10.1242/jeb.049429

[iii] Becker, K. (2016, September 13). How Cats Choose the Food They Eat. Retrieved from https://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2016/09/13/cats-choose-food-they-eat.aspx

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CAT EATS MOUSE

MOUSE = COMPLETE PROTEIN

Remember, ALL the amino acids (AA) in the right amounts, that cats need to thrive.

PROTEINS ARE BROKEN DOWN INTO AMINO ACIDS (AA)

These protein chains need to be broken down so they can enter the bloodstream. (Remember those important amino acids like taurine + arginine?) .

Fun fact, this is where digestive enzymes like protease come in and break chains down

FIRST – AA’S BUILD + RESTORE THE BODY

They get put back together and sent anywhere proteins are needed like muscles and tissue, etc.

LEFTOVER AA’S ARE CONVERTED INTO INACTIVE GLUCOSE

This process is called gluconeogenesis.

THEN IT’S CONVERTED TO ACTIVE GLUCOSE (THE KIND CELLS CAN ACTUALLY USE)

Liver enzymes (fancy name, Hexokinase) slowly convert inactive glucose to active glucose that cells can use for steady levels of energy throughout the day.

PANCREAS RELEASES INSULIN

The pancreas is the watchman for glucose sending insulin to move active glucose into the cells.

INSULIN + ACTIVE GLUCOSE CAN MOVE INTO THE CELLS

Insulin is like a VIP pass into the cell via insulin receptor.

ACTIVE GLUCOSE IN CELLS = ENERGY

WHICH MEANS ZOOMIES!

CAT EATS MOUSE

MOUSE = COMPLETE PROTEIN

Remember, ALL the amino acids (AA) in the right amounts, that cats need to thrive.

PROTEINS ARE BROKEN DOWN INTO AMINO ACIDS (AA)

These protein chains need to be broken down so they can enter the bloodstream. (Remember those important amino acids like taurine + arginine?) .

Fun fact, this is where digestive enzymes like protease come in and break chains down

FIRST – AA’S BUILD + RESTORE THE BODY

They get put back together and sent anywhere proteins are needed like muscles and tissue, etc.

LEFTOVER AA’S ARE CONVERTED INTO INACTIVE GLUCOSE

This process is called gluconeogenesis.

THEN IT’S CONVERTED TO ACTIVE GLUCOSE (THE KIND CELLS CAN ACTUALLY USE)

Liver enzymes (fancy name, Hexokinase) slowly convert inactive glucose to active glucose that cells can use for steady levels of energy throughout the day.

PANCREAS RELEASES INSULIN

The pancreas is the watchman for glucose sending insulin to move active glucose into the cells.

INSULIN + ACTIVE GLUCOSE CAN MOVE INTO THE CELLS

Insulin is like a VIP pass into the cell via insulin receptor.

ACTIVE GLUCOSE IN CELLS = ENERGY

WHICH MEANS ZOOMIES!

Dr. Chris Bessent

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On the Agenda

Cats Process Carbs Differently

Carbohydrates and Cats’ Wild Cousins

Take a Cue From Nature On Which Carbs Are Best For Cats

Fitting Carbs Into a Balanced Feline Diet

What Commercial Pet Foods Get Wrong About Carbs & Cats

How To Figure Out Whether A Food Is Truly Up To Snuff

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Dr. Chris Bessent

August Li - Content Writer

Kayla - Editor

Home / Blog | Read Time: 6 minutes

On the Agenda

What is HPP?

How Does HPP Work?

What Are the Pros & Cons?

Why Do So Many Raw And Freeze-Dried Pet Food Companies Use HPP?

Dr. Bessent’s Perspective

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Dr. Chris Bessent

Jen Stiff

Kayla

Home / Blog | Read Time: 6 minutes

On the Agenda

Ingredient Splitting

#1 Pet food can bulk up protein percentages using sub-ingredients like pea protein

#2 It obliterates the common rule of making sure meat is the 1st ingredient

The 1st 5 Ingredients Rule

#1 Pick Up the Phone

#2 Count Carbs

The Salt Divider Rule

Tips & Tricks to Take Home

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Dr. Chris Bessent

Kayla

Home / Blog | Read Time: 6 minutes

On the Agenda

Cutting Through Marketing Jargon & Claims

The Only Way To Determine If It’s Low Carb Is To Calculate Carbs

How to calculate carb content

It’s Not Just About Carb %– Some Carbs Are Better Than Others

Carbs Aren’t The Only Thing to Consider When Picking A Food

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Dr. Chris Bessent

Kayla

Home / Blog | Read Time: 6 minutes

On the Agenda

Benefits of Raw Meat

What Makes Raw Beef a Good Choice?

Not All Beef Is Equal

Is Raw Beef Right For Your Dog?

How Much Raw Beef Can I Feed My Dog?

How Can I Offer My Dog Raw Beef?

Why Beef Is Just One (Big) Portion Of A Carnivore’s Diet

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Dr. Chris Bessent

Lynn Guthrie - Content Writer

Kayla - Editor

Home / Blog | Read Time: 6 minutes

On the Agenda

Air-Dried, Dehydrated, and Dry-Roasted: What to Know

Why the Process Matters

What To Look For In A Dehydrated Dog Food

Get Plenty Of Protein – From Meat

Look for Low-Carb

Omega Ratios Are Important, Too

Transparency And Pet Food Practices You Can Trust

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Dr. Chris Bessent

Kira - Writer

Kayla - Content Editor

Home / Blog | Read Time: 6 minutes

On the Agenda

The Power of A Single Ingredient

1. Omega 3

Omega 3 with EPA and DHA

Omega 3 with ALA

2. Phospholipids

3. Choline

4. Astaxanthin