The-Truth-About-Pet-Foods

Company A: “We never use animal fat or poultry fat, which is
rancid and may contribute to heart disease and cancer. We
use canola oil and flaxseed oil, which are good for the immune
system. Our flaxseed oil doesn’t contain hexane; a
chemical used by other flax oil companies. Our flaxseed oil
helps the heart and is used by dogs with cardiomyopathy. Our
flaxseed oil helps to reduce the incidence of epileptic seizures.”
Truth Response: Animal fat is the natural fat consumed by carnivores.
If Company A does not use it, how can they claim their food is
“natural”
All animal fat is not “rancid.” This would only be true if the fat were
not properly stabilized. Highly unsaturated vegetable oils used in Company
A’s product are much more susceptible to rancidity than animal fat. 1
Flaxseed oil is so unstable it should only be eaten as freshly ground seeds
or as a separate supplement in light impervious, nitrogen-flushed glass
bottles kept in the freezer. Putting flaxseed oil in pet food paper bags,
which are then stored on shelves, is a sure formula for rancidity and freeradical
pathology.
Animal fat does not “contribute” to heart disease and cancer per se.
This plays to popular misconceptions and the “low fat,” “low cholesterol”
fads, but does not reflect current science. There are nutritional factors
within animal fat that are even cardioprotective and anticarcinogenic. 2
Animal fats are “good for the immune system,” too. They contain
important essential fatty acids, fat-soluble vitamins and other fat-soluble
nutrients valuable to carnivores not found in canola and flaxseed oils.
Hexane is not used by most companies in the manufacture of nutritious
flaxseed oils. If it is used, it is then removed from the final product in
good manufacturing methods. 3 This is an attempt to create a bogeyman
where there is none.
1. Wysong RL, Lipid Nutrition – Understanding Fats and Oils in Health and
Disease, 1990. Z Lebensm Unters Forsch, 1995; 200(1):47-51. J Food Sci,
1987; 52(3):832. J Food Sci, 1988; 53(6):1897. Science News, 133(21):332.
Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation Health Journal, Winter 1996:8.
2. Wysong RL, Lipid Nutrition – Understanding Fats and Oils in Health and
Disease, 1990. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2001; 98(23):13294-9. Med Clin
(Barc), 1998; 110(17):641-5.
3. Companies offering hexane-free flaxseed oil include Wysong Corporation,
Reliance Vitamin Company, Inc., NOW Foods, Vitamer Laboratories, Suzanne’s
Brand, Doctor’s A-Z.
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