Ketogenic Diet for Dogs - Mother Nature Way!

A ' Ketogenic Diet ' for dogs is kind of a trendy phrase these days. There is sound reasoning behind this keto diet idea. I have to tell you honestly though, it makes me laugh that people and vets are only just figuring this out now. Hasn't anyone been paying attention for the last millions of years. Hello? Anybody there?

I laugh, not because it's funny, but because it's obvious. Mother Nature has been providing such a diet for wild dogs since the beginning of time. She provides meat/bones/organs in the form of the prey animal. Since you most likely won't be throwing a carcass off the front porch, it would be a good idea to observe the food in the picture above. Look at it closely. What do you see? Meat, bones, organ meat, some green tripe (the grayish looking stuff) and a raw egg. You will also notice that there are no vegetables or fruit in the bowl. 

Dogs are carnivores not omnivores, and so have no dietary need for carbohydrates in the form of plant food, at all. What they do need, is the predigested stomach contents (green tripe) of the herbivore prey animal.

Herbivores eat plants and grasses. This is the plant food that the deer would eat, for example. The deer's stomach has already broken down and predigested the plants into a form of food that the carnivore (wolves, coyotes, dogs) can efficiently digest and use.

This is how Mother Nature authentically serves up plant food to carnivorous canids. There are no grains, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, pumpkin, apples, banana, blueberries or any other silly thing commonly found in dog food, commercial or raw.

A Low Inflammation Keto Diet
As Cancer Treatment Nutrition for Dogs

The last century has produced a ton of research showing that people, as well as dogs and cats, will benefit from eating a low carbohydrate diet. This research is particularly notable as it regards people with cancer and cancer in dogs.

It is well known that cancer cells feed preferentially on glucose as a source of energy, but malignant cancer cells do not have the ability to burn fat for energy. Also, protein must first be processed through the liver and converted into glucose, before cancer cells can use it as food. So quite obviously, when carbohydrates are reduced and/or eliminated from the diet, it becomes very hard for cancer cells to feed and thrive.

Here's Why a Ketogenic Diet Works for Health

The idea is to force the body to burn protein and fats for energy instead of carbohydrates ( sugars). The main point is to eliminate carbohydrates from your dog's diet, especially if you are working to overcome a dog health challenge of any kind, but mostly because a low inflammation keto diet as described here, will help to prevent health problems before they start.

This becomes of paramount importance when dealing with the ultimate inflammatory disease, cancer. Cancer cells need glucose to thrive. The theory being that if you eliminate the most available source of glucose from carbohydrates which convert to sugars, you will starve the cancer cells, while the rest of the body thrives on glucose created from fats and proteins. Makes sense to me!

How to Implement Ketogenic Diet Foods             
So, a natural evolutionary diet for dogs like this, provides...

• protein in the 25-80% range 
• fat in the 20-75% range

Most dogs have spent their entire lives eating a diet that provides both protein and fats at the lower end of these percentage ranges. So, implementing a ketogenic diet works best when protein and fat percentages are changed and introduced slowly, so as not to overload the pancreas, gallbladder and other digestive processes.

Current research information on ketogenic diets usually has

• protein at the lower end at 25%,
• fat at the high end at 75%
• carbs at a negligible 2%

Because cancer is considered an ' inflammatory ' disease, but also for general health reasons and prevention, the choice of meats is usually restricted to

• mostly ' white and red' meats such as free-range chicken and turkey with skin and fat, rabbit, venison including bone
• smaller amounts of ' red ' meat such as range fed Lamb, beef or bison with natural bone included
• green tripe from ruminant animals (cows, sheep, goats, buffalo, deer, elk )
• organ meats, offal
• free range eggs
• fatty cold-water ocean fish such as sardines, mackerel and wild caught salmon
• appropriate natural health supplements

Consider a high protein, high fat, low carbohydrate diet for your dog. For many years, long before the ' trend ' I have fed a raw food diet for dogs that closely replicates these diet guidelines, because it just makes sense. It's the best thing you could do for your beloved pet daily. Please don't wait for cancer to appear. Cancer is the number one killer of dogs today.

Specialty Stores like Whole Pets Food In Commerce, MI carry wide variety of hard to find foods & formulas!

Credit : http://www.dog-nutrition-naturally.com/ketogenic-diet.html