Why Fresh Food for Dogs?
Simply put — it’s what dogs are meant to eat.
For thousands of years, dogs have been our loyal companions, thriving on our leftovers – real, whole foods like cooked meats, grains, fresh fruits, and vegetables — not processed pellets. Their bodies are built to digest and benefit from cooked food.
Fresh food provides everything your dog needs to thrive: high-quality, digestible protein, healthy fats, essential nutrients, and the natural goodness of fruits and vegetables. It’s simple, it’s real, and it leads to longer, happier lives for your best friend.
Science-Backed Benefits of Feeding Fresh Food
Why not feed kibble?
Kibble is ultra-processed food - it’s like you eating cereal for every meal, every day.
Obesity, cancer, and diabetes in dogs are on the rise, and their lifespans are shrinking. Fresh food for dogs can help improve their health and quality of life.
What Big Kibble Isn’t Telling You: The Risks of Ultra-Processed Dog Food
Inferior Digestibility: Kibble is processed at extremely high temperatures, destroying vital nutrients like proteins, vitamins, and enzymes that are crucial for your dog’s health.
Synthetic Vitamins & Nutrients: To compensate for destroying nutrients during processing, kibble manufacturers spray synthetic nutrients on kibble, but these artificial additives are hard for dogs to digest, which results in lower absorption compared to nutrients from fresh foods
High Sugar and Carbohydrate Content: Kibble often contains excessive amounts of refined carbohydrates and sugars (hidden under various names), which are unnecessary for dogs and can lead to weight gain, diabetes, inflammation, and may even fuel cancer cell growth.
Potential Gastrointestinal Issues: Kibble, which expands in the stomach, has been linked to a higher risk of bloating and potentially leading to Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus (GDV).
Dental Health Concerns: Despite claims, kibble's crumbly texture can contribute to tartar buildup and promote harmful bacteria growth due to high carbohydrate content.
Poor Gut Health: Kibble's processed nature and often poor-quality ingredients can disrupt the delicate balance of your dog's gut bacteria, reducing beneficial strains and promoting harmful ones, leading to digestive issues and impacting overall health.
Artificial Additives: To extend shelf life, kibble often contains unnecessary artificial colors, flavors, and harmful preservatives (BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin) linked to various health problems, including cancer and organ damage.
What to Look for on the Pet Food Label:
If the ingredient list for the dog food contains the words acetate, chloride, gluconate, hydrochloride, nitrate, or succinate, it includes synthetic minerals. Any terms that have "oxide" and "sulfate" forms of minerals (for example, zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, or copper sulfate) are also synthetic compounds.
Common synthetic
Vitamins are:
- Synthetic B1-Thiamine Mononitrate
- Synthetic B2-Riboflavin Supplement
- Synthetic B3-Niacin Supplement
- Synthetic B5-Calcium Pantothenate
- Synthetic B6-Pyridoxine
- Hydrochloride
- Synthetic B7-Biotin
- Synthetic B9-folic acid
- Synthetic B12-Vitamin B12
- Supplement
- Synthetic Vitamin
- C-L-ascorbic-2-Polyphosphate
- Synthetic Vitamin D-Vitamin D supplement
- Synthetic vitamin E-Vitamin E supplement
- Synthetic Vitamin menadione sodium bisulfite complex
A dog's body cannot utilize synthetic compounds like natural ones can. Synthetic vitamins and minerals can block the cell receptors, making them unavailable for natural components when a dog consumes whole foods.
Why not raw?
Though feeding your dog raw food is better than kibble, the myth that dogs should eat a diet similar to wolves is false. Wolves are to dogs as humans are to monkeys. Though each shares similar DNA, optimal diets are far from the same. The truth is, dogs have survived by eating the scraps of human food - that’s why they’re such good moochers - and of course, we’re not eating raw food.
