The following was taken from an email that was sent out to our subscribers on 7-26-15
My sister called me this morning to tell me that her dog was sick. They took her to the ER Vet last night because they thought her Lyme disease had flared again. The Vet concluded that it was something in her stomach and gave her a round of antibiotics, Pepcid and told her to feed her meat and pasta. Meat..OK…pasta….WHAT??! Dog’s diets, much like humans, should mimic what they were exposed to in the wild. Their genetic makeup of enzymes are still that of roaming the earth and eating other animals–not grains, fillers and chemical laden meat.
If you have ever been to the human ER for gastritis, the B.R.A.T. diet may sound familiar. Banana, rice, apples and toast is a common diet prescribed in medicine. Ironically, gluten (and other inflammatory proteins) containing grains have been indicted as poor health choices and highly inflammatory; backed by copious amounts of research. For more information on gluten check out my other articles The Gluten Free Hoax and Gluten…What’s the BIG idea. You may not feel like you are negatively effected by gluten but I can guarantee that no one has ever told me they felt better on it. Gluten containing grains can be the silent “killer” for some; lurking around increasing inflammation unnoticed until your inflammatory bucket fills and symptoms present.
Before you read further I would like to insert this disclaimer: I am by no means claiming to be an expert on canine physiology or biochemistry.
I am merely applying my knowledge of the human body to that of a dog. I am confident in stating that a dog does not posses nor have they ever had the ability to process and cook pasta. It is bad enough that animals are fed cheap, highly processed by products from the food and farming industry; but pasta…that’s just not right. The last thing you want to do to an inflamed puppy is dump more inflammation into their system. Food should be the fuel for healing and vitality not part of the problem. This enforces my theory that poor science and education has now trickled into all of the healing arts.
I have recently tried to completely cut gluten from my life. For a while now I have avoided the obvious foods with gluten in them: breads, pastas, cereals etc.; but now I have vowed to myself to take it one step further for the next 30 days. Cut it ALL out. “Gluten Free” on the label does not necessarily mean it does not contain gluten…. confused yet? There is a threshold that the FDA allows a foodstuff to have and still be labeled gluten free. That magic number is 20 parts per million (ppm). How much is 20 part per million? It is 0.0020%–a very small number; yet detrimental to some. How did the FDA come up with this figure? A small study showed that 20ppm did not have damaging effects on the intestinal lining of Celiac’s patients. The sample size was small so im not sure how that all relates into the real world. Nonetheless, gluten free foods are not gluten free. Check outhttp://celiacdisease.about.com/od/PreventingCrossContamination/a/Gluten-Free-PPM-table.htm as they break down foods into 5ppm, 10ppm and 20ppm.
So for the next 30 days I have decided to remove even those foods that the FDA allow to be labeled “gluten free”. I will be sticking with all whole foods; veggies, fruits, nuts and lean meats. I’m currently on day 4 and can already feel the difference. This is a huge result already, as we are not looking at an individual who ate fast food everyday and had a very poor diet. What I mean is we are looking at a diet that was an 8-9/10 and now being a 10 out of 10. That is only 1-2 points better and still having improvement in less than a week. In clinic we usually compare diets at a level 2 to a level 6-7; a 4-5 point jump so we do expect to see large improvements.
I wish you all a great rest of the weekend! If you would like join me for the next month and see how much eliminating 1 food group can do for your health.