The-Truth-About-Pet-Foods

15
THE “PETS REQUIRE
SPECIAL DIETS” MYTH
There are life-stage pet foods, large breed foods, breed specific
foods and a host of foods targeting specific diseases. Promoters
of such diets embellish advertisements with just enough technical
flare to create the illusion that such foods spring from hard research and
science. Here are some of the buzzwords to snare the uninformed and
trusting public: “science,” “research,” “clinical,” “doctor,” “university,”
“trials,” “studies,” and the like. Lace this argot with a little pie chart here,
a bar graph there, a scientific reference or two, and it all becomes very
impressive.
In actual fact, you would be hard pressed to find any controlled study
published in a peer-reviewed journal that has ever proven the value of any
such diets over just good, varied home cooking. (This is not to suggest
that such publications are the only place to find good evidence. But if the
promoters of such foods are going to start throwing around “science,”
then they should be able to cite the medium of science – scientific journals.
“Put up or shut up,” comes to mind.)
Aside from this, do specific diets even make sense Well, let’s go to
the great teacher and mother of us all – nature. Do puppies in the wild eat
differently than adults, or seniors Do different kinds of canines or felines
eat different foods Do big dogs or cats eat anything fundamentally different
from what kittens or puppies eat after weaning Are carnivores in
the wild who get sick (a very rare thing in terms of the degenerative conditions
we see plaguing modern pets) doomed if they can’t find a diet to
match their condition The answer to all is an emphatic “no.”
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