Did you know that more than half of dogs in the US are overweight? New studies show that the culprit for an obese pup is a high carbohydrate percentage in foods! While proteins and fats are vital for dogs, they have no need for starches. Despite this, dry dog foods contain anywhere from 30 to 60% of starch in their servings!
Too much starch in the diet changes insulin activity in dogs. Other problems are also highlighted by high carbohydrate intake. Harmful microorganisms thrive on carbohydrates. A high carbs diet may disturb balance in the gut bacteria composition, leading to leaky gut syndrome. This can severely weaken your pup’s immune system, and be a cause of some autoimmune diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, laryngeal paralysis, as well as behavior problems.
A rich starch diet can also lead to yeast infections. These infections can become systemic, and eventually present themselves as misdiagnosed allergies.
When thinking of your pup’s diet, try as hard as you can to cut carbs! There are a lot of raw food choices that don’t contain any more than 2% starch. And if switching to raw food isn’t your choice, try to pick dry food with the least amount of carbohydrates.
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