How Much Nutrition Is In Your Pet's Food, Really?
There’s a spectrum for that.
Good, better, best,
never let it rest,
until your good is better,
and your better is best.
~St. Jerome
As we’ve been discussing in previous issues of The Pawsitive Pathfinder: Family Edition, just like we as humans are being encouraged, even by mainstream medical associations, to consume more fresh foods and reduce the amount of foods we eat with lots of processing— our pets should also limit the amount of food they consume with ultra processing while adding in more fresh whole food options in to balance nutritional needs.
Now, let me ask you something. What made you decide to purchase the last food you bought for your dog or cat? Was it recommended by your veterinarian? Did you make your decision solely on price? Based on the fact that it’s what you’ve *been* getting, so why mess with what “works?” Or if you did try something new, did you choose something based on the terms and descriptions on the packaging? Were you at all confused by what you found out there?
First let me say that there is no wrong answer here. If you are reading this newsletter, there are a few things that I already know about you. Like me, you love your furry kid very much, and likely describe them as a Family member. I can also guess that you deeply want the very best that you can provide for them, and desire for them to live as long as possible, living their best life for all that time. We all do the very best that we are able to do.
The commercial pet food industry is much like the commercial human food industry. While they are both making strides to help provide options for more fresh whole foods and allow us to lessen the amount of processed foods we consume (or feed our loved ones)- let’s face it- it can be quite confusing sometimes when trying to figure out what is actually the best option of what we are looking at. Sometimes wildly so. And marketing in the pet food industry is *REALLY* confusing these days as industry expectations are evolving and regulation terms and classifications are being expressed in packaging and advertising in so many different ways, all vying for our attention.
How do you really know what’s what??
Enter the NOVA system of food classification.
The system was developed in 2009 by a team of researchers at the University of Sao Paulo to help explain the relationship between health, disease, and dietary patterns for humans with respect to food manufacturing. The NOVA system groups foods based on how much processing food undergoes in the creation and packaging of it, and why the processing is done.
The system can be adapted a bit to serve our purposes here, as well, for explaining a little easier what pet food falls under what level of processing — and what that means for your furry kids nutrition, as well as overall—and lifetime—health.
In this case, the main quantification of the food processing is how many steps the food undergoes adulteration from its whole food source. For the purposes of understanding the labels on your pet’s food options, this means how many times heat is applied during processing. Whenever heat is applied to a food source, it diminishes the nutritional content and value of the food. Heating also creates unwanted byproducts that can adversely affect your beloved companion’s health over time as they build up in the body.
Okay, so let’s see if we can dig in a little deeper and get a clearer picture of what this all means for Fido and Fluffy.
The information gathered for this week’s issue was gotten mostly from a wonderful video that Rodney Habib and Dr. Karen Becker, co-authors of The Forever Dog, did earlier this year explaining all of this. It was fascinating, enlightening, and a helpful way to think about all the different kinds of pet food out there on the market today. [You can watch the whole video here.] They did such a good job that I will be using their terms here to help give you an idea of what to look for the next time you go to buy your pet’s food.
According to the NOVA Classification System, the range is from minimally-processed to ultra-processed. I made a little visual to help you see the different types of pet food against the amount of processing (measured in the number of steps that apply heat to the food).
The colors of the types of pet food range from bright green to dark red. You can kind of think of them like the greener colors lean in the direction of fresher foods, and as you move through the spectrum to the yellows and oranges there’s caution to be taken, and then on into the last two red options at the end, where real concern should probably be heeded when feeding those options to your pets.
So let’s see what we have on the menu, shall we?
First up is a Homemade diet. This is raw food, based on a nutritionally complete recipe, that is simply chopped up and fed to your furry kid. This is as close to whole, fresh food as you can get. Usually reserved for dogs—and pet parents who have time and resources to do this option well—this is the least adulterated option on the list.
Next up is Commercially Available Raw food. Always found in the frozen section of a food provider, this option is generally created using a nutritionally complete recipe by a veterinarian/pet care provider.
Which brings us to the Gently Cooked options. This category of pet food is experiencing quite a surge in popularity, and as a result many companies have options on the market now. This type of food is chopped up whole food, often food-grade, that goes through one gentle heat step that kills bacteria, and then is frozen.
After that we have the Freeze-Dried category. This type also has no thermal processing. The food is flash-frozen under vacuum, and then the water is extracted out of it, creating a shelf-stable product that is often made of fresh, food-grade ingredients.
Moving on from here, we begin to move into categories that require heat processing steps (usually multiple) to arrive at the finished product.
We start with Dehydrated food. The biggest question here is what kind of food the manufacturer starts with when creating the product- whole, fresh food or already processed food powders (which adds more heat steps).
From there we come to Canned food. One of the most popular options for pet parents, canned food has both its pros and cons. And of course, there are a vast array of options that run the gamut of nutritional density.
The next category is Air-Dried. The big question when looking at these types of food is to ask what temperature they dry the food at. High heat, even if it’s just one heat step, can do a lot of damage to the food, so look out for that if this is one of your options of choice.
After that we come to the Baked category of food. While that may sound great from a human perspective for food, for pet food—as mentioned earlier—adding heat constitutes a breakdown of nutrients while adding unwanted chemical byproducts that remain in your furry kid's body and accumulate over time. And again, the question to consider here is at what temperature are they baking the food.
As we arrive at the two red boxes on the chart, we arrive at one of the other most popular options for pet parents: Dry food. And like the wet canned food category, the options here range from best, better, good, and probably not so great. Plus, as we’ve discussed in previous issues of TPP: FAMED, when you add some fresh, whole food toppers and mix-ins, the nutritional profile of a meal with dry food goes up substantially.
The final category on the chart is Semi-Moist food. Dr. Becker was pretty adamant that this is basically just junk food for pets. So, if you choose this option, take that as you will.
Ultimately, across a lifetime, eating ultra-processed foods has health consequences— for us, and for our furry companions. And, generally speaking, those consequences appear to be the same for them as it is for us. Ultra-processed foods lack the nutrition the body needs to operate properly while also adding unwanted byproducts to the body, which creates inflammation— first in the cells, then in whole organs and systems, and eventually if unchecked throughout the body. And the research is growing that, unequivocally, inflammation is THE root cause of all disease.
A good solution to the question that often comes up about quality versus price is to mix and match. Just like nobody you know likely eats perfectly healthy all the time, as long as you feed your fur babies a majority of complete nutrition—even if it comes from several sources—it’s a win in the long run for both you and your companion. Each category of food has a spectrum from best to worst in nutritional quality, from food-grade to feed-grade in ingredient quality, and the level of adulteration based on how many heat processes it goes through to be created.
So you’ve got lots of choices, no matter your budget, access, or pet’s preferences or restrictions. In a sea of hyped-up marketing and fierce competition for your pet food purchases, being armed with more information than just bright colors and nifty slogans can help you make informed decisions on your beloved companion’s behalf. I hope this issue of The Pawsitive Pathfinder: Family Edition can help a little with that.
In the coming issues, we'll talk about more ways to help our furry friends eat fresher, species-appropriate meals as well as more about what to look for and what to avoid when choosing your fur baby's food.
Thanks for reading this issue of The Pawsitive Pathfinder: Family Edition. And if there are other topics you'd like to talk about, or have thoughts you'd like to share, please hit REPLY on this email and let me know. 🤓
Until next time...
