my dog ate what? how to correctly read dog food labels
TRANSCRIPT
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Incorrect Feeding Causes Problems
“The most important decision that you make each day
regarding your pet’s health is what you feed it. What you
pour into that bowl each morning has the greatest
influence of anything else you will do to keep them
healthy and living long”
~ Dr. Ernie Ward, Founder, APOP
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My Dog Ate What?
Key Learnings
• How Much to Feed Your Dog
• Estimating your dog‟s daily calorie needs
• Calories and serving sizes
• How to Read and Evaluate a Dog Food Label
• Macro nutrient analysis
• Interesting statistics
• Other ingredient categories
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Quick Bio
• Founder of SlimDoggy.com- canine fitness, food, and
weight management.
• Weekly dog food articles
• FitDog Friday fitness articles
• Creator of the SlimDoggy App, the Run Keeper and
Weight Watchers for dogs.
• Health and Fitness “Enthusiast”.
• Dog Lover/Rescuer - dogs in the family for almost 50
years.
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It‟s All Math
• Weight management is all about math:
• Calories (kcals) burned >= Kcals eaten
• Three primary factors that determine kcals:
1. Age (puppies are a furnace!)
2. Weight (60-90%) - due to metabolic processes required to
sustain life.
3. Activity (10-40%) – due to exercise and movement. Most dogs
are probably in the 10-15% range.
“You can‟t out-exercise a bad diet but…”
-SlimDoggy Steve
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Daily Kcals Burned
Dog Weight (lbs) 10 40 70
Little exercise 280 790 1,200
15 minutes, light
activity
290 821
Exercise= 30
1,248
30 minutes,
vigorous activity
310 870 1,320
Derived from Waltham Center Approach: kg^.75 * Factor
How many calories does your dog burn each day?
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Measure Accordingly
• Example: 821 kcals per day =
• 3.7 cups of Merrick French Country (2 ¼ cans )
• 2.4 cups of Natures Variety Lamb (1.4 cans)
• Not including treats!
Tips:
1. Check your dog foods kcals (and units) especially when switching foods.
2. Don’t rely on the label to tell you how much to feedinstructions are too generic.
3. Exercise helps keep weight off over the long run: 3 lbs per year in our example.
Imagine feeding same amount after switch? About ¾ cans
per day too much– more than 300 cans per year extra
food!
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How Much To Feed is Only Part of It
• Knowing how much to feed is crucial to ensure that your
dog maintains a healthy weight.
• Knowing what you are feeding your dog is crucial to
ensure that they are eating the „best‟ food possible.
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Interesting Info
• Although omnivores, dogs are descendents of the
carnivore wolf.
• Ancestral diet was 85 % meat with some vegetation and
fruits.
• High in protein and fat
• Little carbohydrates
• Nothing artificial
• Short digestive tracks do not easily process plant/grain
proteins.
• Tip: Keep it simple! Minimally processed foods with no
artificial chemicals is best! Think “Paleo”.
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Snapshot of a “Good” Dog Food
High in protein (meat as a first ingredient).
Real, named protein sources (e.g., beef or chicken).
No by-products.
High quality fats (e.g. named fats or oils).
High quality carbohydrates (e.g. oats, peas).
No artificial ingredients (e.g. red 40, Propylene Glycol)
Little or no fillers. If you see corn in the first few
ingredients, be wary.
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Focus on Macro Nutrients
Protein: necessary for growth and development,
muscular, skeletal, and immune systems
Fat: provides essential nutrients such as omega-3 and
omega-6 fatty acids essential for healthy skin, coat,
immune, kidney and other functions
Carbs: “what‟s not to like?” Source of fiber.
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Protein - What to Look For
Good Bad
Chicken Poultry
Beef Meat
Salmon Fish
Turkey Liver Liver
Menhaden By-products
Named proteins that you would see
in nature
Unnamed “meals”
Named meals are OK and concentrated protein sources. We prefer just meat.
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Fat - What to Look For
Good Bad
Chicken Fat Poultry Fat
Beef Fat Beef Tallow
Canola Oil Vegetable Oil
Flax Oil Lard
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Carbs - What to Look For
Good Bad
Rice Middlings/mids
Oats Starch
Barley Gluten
Sweet Potato Cereal
Chick Peas Corn????
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How Much of the Macronutrients?
Macro Nutrient
Growth
(Puppy) and
Reproduction
Adult
Maintenance
Protein 22% 18%
Fat 8% 5%
AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles
The Association of American Feed Control
Officials (AAFCO) publishes nutritional
minimums.
No mention of carbs!
How do I know the profile of my dog‟s food?
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Guaranteed Analysis
• Summary of macro nutrients in a food.
Report on Protein, Fat, Fiber, and Moisture %.
Used as an indication of food‟s macro composition.
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Guaranteed Analysis: Two Examples
Fresh Pet- Turkey, Vegetable & Rice (Wet)
• Protein: 9%
• Fat: 6%
• Fiber: 1.5%
• Moisture: 76%
Merrick- Classic Real Beef with Whole Barley & Carrot (Dry)
• Protein : 30%
• Fat: 15%
• Fiber: 3.5%
• Moisture: 11%
Which is higher in protein?
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Dry Matter Basis
A standard to compare dry and canned foods.
Re-calculate the Guaranteed Analysis after adjusting for
moisture.
Rebase the GA values with:
GA % / (100% -Moisture%)
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What About Bob Carbs?
Note: fiber comes from carbs so it is not included in the calc
Estimate carbs with a simple trick:
100%-protein-fat-fiber-ash-moisture, where ash = 2% for can, 7.5 %
for dry
• Carbs %= 100%-9%-6%-76%-2% = 7.0% as reported
• DM basis= 7.0% / (100-76%) = 29%
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Dry Matter Basis
Fresh Pet- Turkey, Vegetable & Rice
• Protein: 38%
• Fat: 25%
• Carb: 29%
Merrick- Classic Real Beef with Whole Barley & Carrot
• Protein : 34%
• Fat: 17%
• Carb: 41%
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1st Ingredients Most Important
Ingredients are listed based on their prominence in the
recipe.
Look for protein as the first ingredient.
First 5 ingredients can often tell the macro story.
But…watch for splitting.
Lower value ingredient is split into multiple ingredients to
lower its relative spot.
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Splitting Example
From an actual label:
Chicken Meal, Ground Whole Wheat, Wheat Flour, Corn Gluten
Meal, Ground Rice, Rice Bran, Chicken Fat….
Un-split version (possibly):
Wheat, Rice, Chicken Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken Fat….
Get the idea? Chicken moves down to the 3rd spot.
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How Common is Grain Splitting?
33 % of the dry and canned food have 2 or more
ingredients of rice, corn, or wheat.
56 % of these cases were for rice, 28% corn and 16%
wheat.
Tip: don’t assume that protein as #1 means it is!
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Other Ingredient Groups
Besides the macro nutrients, there are other ingredient
groups to examine:
Fruits and Vegetables
Preservatives
Colorings
Sweeteners
Vitamins and Supplements
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Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are mostly tertiary ingredients but
can provide some key benefits:
• Low calorie source of fiber and vitamins.
• Low calorie way to add sweetness to the food.
• Antioxidants can reduce inflammation and possibly
reduce the risk of some cancers.
• Source of water (can be helpful in summer).
Tip: F&V can provide health benefits to your dog.
Consider supplementing your dog’s diet with store bought.
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Preservatives
• Preservatives extend the shelf life of dog food
• A „necessary evil‟ given the way the industry currently
operates (production to consumption takes many months)
• Choose natural preservatives, in the form of anti-oxidants
and vitamins vs. chemicals!
• Check expiration/production dates on packaging.
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Preservatives
Good Bad
Mixed Tocopherols (Vitamin E) Ethoxyquin – this is a pesticide and
has been linked to cancer
Vitamin C including Ascorbic Acid
and Ascorbyl Palmitate (ascorbate
denotes vitamin-c)
Propylene glycol- this is an ingredient
in anti-freeze
Rosemary (and extract) BHA & BHT– both are suspected of
being cancer causing.
Sage (and extract) Tertiary Butylhydroquinone (TBHQ )-
a form of butane used for varnish +
resins
Clove (and extract) Sodium Metabisulphite- a bleaching
agent
Tip: Look for natural preservatives that add nutritional
benefit.
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Colorings
• Why are colorings added?
• To make food more appealing to the human.
• To mask low quality ingredients and recipes.
• Are you kidding me?
• Dog‟s don‟t care what the food looks like nor its color!
• Dog‟s are partially color blind!
Tip: avoid red, yellow, blue, etc. dyes that add no value and
potential risk
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Sweeteners
• Dogs taste sweet, yet… no excuse to lace food with sugar
or artificial sweeteners.
• Added to lower quality food to enhance flavor.
• Sugars are high calorie/low nutrition additives.
• Dog‟s can become addicted – lead to diabetes and other health
issues.
• Fruits and veggies can provide nutrition and sweetness.
• Artificial sweeteners are…artificial. No place for these in
your dog‟s food.
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Sweeteners
Good Bad
Cherries/Berries Sugar, caramel, cane
Apple Corn syrup
Carrots Sucrose, fructose
Peas Sorbitol
Honey /Molasses Propylene Glycol
Tip: Look for fruits and veggies to add sweetness and
nutritional benefit.
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Vitamins and Supplements
• Often added to meet minimum AAFCO standards.
• Some of the benefits may be lost due to cooking process
(heat).
• Quality brands add these after cooling
• Additional supplements may not be in high enough doses
to have an impact--> many labels wont provide this info
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Vitamins and Supplements
Good Bad
Chelated, chelates Vitamin K3 or Menadione
Non-acidic Vitamin C- Ester C,
Calcium Ascorbate, Stabilized
Vitamin C
Sulfate based minerals
Natural Vitamin E (Tocopherols) Oxide based minerals
Tip: Vitamins are a “nice to have”. Look for those that add
value as preservatives and are most absorbable.
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More Information
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