Pet food processing samples |
IS THE PET FOOD INDUSTRY IN THE BUSINESS
OF POPULATION CONTROL?
Author: John B. Symes, D.V.M. (“Dogtor
J”)
Beltline Animal
Hospital
1212 W. I-65 Service Rd. South
Mobile, AL 36609
www.dogtorj.net
Does that question seem like a totally
absurd notion? Is it possible that the manufacturers of our pet’s
food are so out of touch with the animal’s nutritional requirements
that they make their formulary blunders by accident? After studying
the effects of gluten, dairy, soy, and corn on the health of people
and their pets for the past seven years and reading what researchers
have known for years, I have come to the conclusion that there is
something seriously wrong in Mudville.
After the recent incredible pet food recall story, any pet owner
with a functional brain has to be questioning why we feed dogs and
cats the way we do. Notice that I did not include veterinarians in
that last sentence. I am afraid that we have been too thoroughly
programmed to look at this situation with the eyes of a child. And
once again, I cannot throw stones here but simply make a point. When
asked what to feed, I used to parrot back what we had all been led
to believe, “Just stick with a good, name-brand pet food and stay
away from generic brands. And, do not add table food to your pet’s
commercial diets because that will simply unbalance the formula that
the pet food manufacturers have worked so hard to get right over
their years and years of research and manufacturing.” Oh, how I hang
my head in shame now that I know differently.
I’ve had this discussion with countless clients over the past 28
years of practice. It has only been the last seven that I have been
awake to the reality of just how unscientifically these foods are
formulated and produced. All one has to do is look at the ingredient
list and compare it to what we know these pets would consume in the
wild.
It helps to know the history of what
man has done to the grains and other ingredients that make them even
more unnatural and harmful.
All grains are man-made, man-raised crops that we have cultivated
for human consumption starting very early in our agricultural
history. People love to point out that man ate wheat and drank milk
in Biblical times so these things must be good and healthy. Even
well-intentioned, Scripture-oriented books make this statement. But
they leave out two very key points: The wheat we consume now is no
longer “God’s wheat” and the milk we drink is no longer “God’s
milk.”
The original wheat was “pure in its generations” (no hybrids) and
contained 1-2% gluten. This was changed forever by our Northern
Germanic ancestors in the mid 400’s A.D. when they blended two other
plants to “God’s wheat”, creating a hybrid and one that contained
much more gluten . . . so much more that they were stricken with
“celiac disease” (gluten intolerance). This is historical fact. It
is that new wheat, which we term “common wheat” that became the
ancestor of today’s wheat, which now contains as much as 55% gluten,
a far cry from the 1-2% found in original wheat. Plus, our wheat is
no longer pure in its generations as it has become a mutant blend of
multiple plants that man has continued to manipulate, especially in
the recent past.
The parallel to the wheat story is “the tale of two milks.” The milk
they drank in Biblical days was goat’s milk. Remember: They were
tending their flocks by night, not their herds. Cattle (oxen) were
relegated to doing work and providing meat. It was not until the
middle of the second millennium that man went into the dairy
industry utilizing cow’s milk. Goat milk . . . the universal foster
milk . . . has 0-2% casein, gluten’s evil twin, and a troublesome
glycoprotein that has also been tied to numerous immune-mediated
disorders. Cow milk has a whopping 80-86% casein, the protein that
Borden uses to make Elmer’s glue. Lactose is not the culprit in
milk. It is the various proteins it contains – including alpha s-1
casein, alpha lactalbumin, and beta lactalbumin – that do the harm
to cells and stimulate the (appropriate) immune responses. I will
leave it up to the reader to decide who started the lactose myth.
Understand that goat milk has plenty of lactose and all mammals can
successfully be raised on goat milk provided they have not already
developed a serious intolerance to the myriad of proteins in cow’s
milk.
Corn is a very interesting story. Did
you know that corn is the only grain that is not self-propagating?
Wheat, for example, produces seeds that will fall and produce more
wheat. Corn must be planted by man in order to grow and if left
alone, it would cease to exist. It was cultivated in Mesoamerica in
the millennia B.C. and went through many changes during its
domestication. In other words, man had his hands in the making of
corn right from the start. The interesting thing is that wherever
this new grain was introduced, pellagra (niacin deficiency) broke
out. Many texts will say that it is because the niacin was “locked”
inside the corn making this essential vitamin unavailable for
absorption, which appears to be true. But, the common characteristic
of the “big 4” . . . gluten (wheat, barley, rye), casein, soy, and
corn . . . is their ability to damage the villi of the intestine
(duodenum) where many essential nutrients including niacin are
absorbed. So, was the pellagra due to the unavailable niacin in the
corn or due to the fact that the corn blocked the absorption of
niacin from the remainder of their diet? Just how much of this new
corn were they eating? Was there no other source of dietary niacin?
The fact is that corn proteins can block the absorption of calcium,
iron, iodine, B complex (including niacin), C, and numerous trace
minerals (e.g., zinc, boron, magnesium, manganese) in the same
fashion that gluten, casein, and soy can in susceptible individuals.
Soy was the Asian’s mistake. After examining the serious effects of
soy on human health, I can say that with all confidence. Wheat was
the Northern Germanic’s blunder, cow milk consumption with the
Anglo-Saxon’s error, corn was the Mesoamerican’s wrongful creation,
and soy was the Asian’s serious mistake.
They should have never removed soy from the ground where it was used
in crop rotation as a way to fix nitrogen in the soil. I’m certain
that one fine day, someone asked why this crop could not be eaten.
They quickly learned that it had to be processed to be consumed
safely, including soaking and fermentation, the latter being the
key. If one were to read the rigorous process that soy must undergo
to render it safe to consume, I dare say the majority would ask,
“What’s the point???” But, even after that process is completed, the
finished product contains more potentially harmful proteins and
estrogens than all others. It is fully capable of inducing villous
atrophy of the duodenum and is known to be a powerful factor in the
development of thyroid disease and estrogen-related disorders. Soy
milk has 16-22,000 times more phytoestrogens than mother’s milk. The
effect on the developing child is both potentially devastating and
well-documented. All of the “big 4” are used to make industrial
adhesives, but soy is used to make super glue. Yes, they put your
car together with soy-based super glues!
Now, I must ask the reader – is a
little ol’ veterinarian from Alabama really the only one who
understands all of this stuff, or do the research and development
departments of the pet and human food giants know most of what I
just wrote? Are the people responsible for making the decisions
concerning your pet’s nutrition blissfully ignorant about how
unnatural these man-made, man-raised crops are for your dog and cat,
or are they making bad decisions in the face of what they know to be
true and good?
To be honest, I sometimes wrestle with which is actually worse . . .
ignorance or greed. I always decide that greed is worse because,
after all, it is the “root of all evil”. But, the ignorance in the
face of available knowledge is really frightening. It implies that
all of the other undesirable human traits are in play – laziness,
apathy, deception, self-centeredness, etc. At least the greedy are
motivated. If they could be motivated for good, we would really have
something. So, we can easily see it is the combination of these two
. . . ignorance and greed . . . that reduce the world to something
very short of ideal.
After all is said and done, we are left with questions like: “Why do
we feed carnivores all of these grains?”, “Why are cats fed dry
foods when they are so unlike what they would eat in nature?”, “Why
are the average ages of dogs only 12 years and cats only 13 years in
the United States when they have been know to live 30 and 40 years
respectively?”, “Don’t the pet food makers know better than to make
these diets with such harmful ingredients – are they ignorant or
greedy . . . or something else?”
I’ve even been asked by thinking clients, “Could these food
companies be in cahoots with veterinarians so that pets stay sick
and the vets who are pushing these foods make more money?” Or, “Are
pet food makers and pharmaceutical companies working hand-in-hand to
keep each other in business?”
Other people, including veterinarians, realize that pet food
companies (and pharmaceutical companies) are often responsible for
the continuing education of vets and ask how that figures into the
grand scheme of things.
These are ALL great questions.
Related questions often asked of me are, “Why don’t more people know
what you just told me?” and “Why doesn’t my doctor talk to me this
way?” Of course, I can write for hours offering answers to these and
many other questions, but I would like to leave them with the reader
to think about awhile.
But, how will the public find the answers to these questions and our
initial query found in the title of this article? Quite simply, they
will find them on the Internet and by talking with others. Thank God
(literally) for the Internet. Sure, the World Wide Web is a mixed
blessing . . . it is a home for the spider to trap unsuspecting
victims. However, the vast majority of what I have written on my
ever-expanding Website can be confirmed by doing creative Internet
searches. I am constantly amazed at what can be found in such a
short period of time using a simple search. All we need is an idea
and it can be turned into an afternoon, a week, or a lifelong quest.
My mission has been to discover truths and make it available to
those who need it. Certainly, I do believe that I have had Divine
guidance in my journey, something Else that is available to anyone
who desires it. But, the first step is to wake up and see the
startling fact that there IS something seriously wrong in Mudville.
This awakening can be quite unsettling but well-worth the process.
We must put our minds in gear and apply our common sense. When we do
this, the first thing that happens is the flooding of our thoughts
with questions. That is a good thing. Then come the answers. They
are out there. But, the deeper we go into the rabbit hole, the
harder the questions . . . and, frequently, the more disturbing the
answers. It can be a painful process but one that is absolutely
necessary. A solid spiritual base is an invaluable asset because the
ultimate answer to why things have gone so wrong lies in what is in
the hearts of men.
Where are the hearts of those who produce the food we and our pets
consume? |
