Chapter 12

 

Grains and Legumes as Dog Food

I have grouped grains and legumes together for a number of reasons.  Firstly, they are both seed type foods.  secondly, being seeds, they both require to be cooked.  Thirdly, when feeding them to dogs, it is better if they are fed together.

They should be fed together because in a number of ways, each contains what the other lacks.  Grains lack the amino acid Lysine and legumes lack the amino acid methionine.  Grains are high in phosphorus and low in calcium, while legumes are high in calcium.

By combining these two foods in approximately equal amounts .. at the same meal, you will be producing a food which is correctly balanced for both amino acids and also for calcium and phosphorus.  For example, instead of feeding just rice to your dog, add some type of legume.  It can be as simple as a can of baked beans.

However, do not be mislead.  None of this means I strongly recommend either of them as dog food.  I give you this information as an indication of how best to use them, and particularly because so many people use of these foods when feeding their dogs, but not the other.

Commonly, dog owners feed grains without legumes.  That is fine is small amounts.  However, what is not fine, is when either gains or legumes becomes a major part of their dog’s diet as is so common today.  That sort of eating may be OK for humans (although that is not necessarily true), but it is not for dogs.  That brings me to the next point.

Another reason for grouping grains and legumes together, is because neither is to be recommended in large amounts as food for dogs.  Neither are foods which have figured prominently in the eating history of the dog prior to the last fifty years or so.

• There is much circumstantial and direct evidence linking the consumption of both of them in large amounts to many disease problems suffered by modern dogs.

 

LEGUMES AS DOG FOOD

Apart from sprouted legumes, and fresh vegetables such as peas and beans, the legumes I refer to here are the dry seeds.  As such they have to be either soaked or cooked or both, before you can feed them to your dog.

As I have mentioned, combined with grains in about equal amounts, they are useful as dog food.  However, they are cooked, they have to be, so this immediately reduces thier nutritional value, and is a major reason I recommend against using large amounts of them.

Apart from that, they contain high levels of starch, moderate levels of reasonable to poor protein, and they are capable of generating in your dog, a lot of ‘’wind’’.  This is a definite problem in deep chested dogs which are inclined to ‘’bloat’’.

Legumes do not usually cause a problem if they are only a small part of a dog’s diet.  Unfortunately, many home cooked recipes for dogs and quite a few commercial dog foods contain high levels of legumes, eg. Soyabean meal.  This is not good nutrition for a dog.  The results obtained when dogs are fed these sorts of diets for any extended period of time bear witness to this.

WARNING :  Many commercial dog foods full of lovely looking chunky meaty pieces, do not contain meat.  That supposed meat, which looks as though is has been carved directly off o big lump of steak, is in fact textured vegetable protein.  Pure soy protein.  With all the inherent problems of cooked protein from legumes.

• The bottom line is that cooked legumes are fine in small amounts as a minor component in your dog’s diet.  A diet that should be based on raw meaty bones.  They are not however, recommended as a major part of a dog’s diet.

 

GRAIN AS DOG FOOD

Grain, particularly cooked grain is not a food the dog has evolved to eat in large quantities, and yet that is precisely what a lot of modern folk ask their dog to exist on.

Most domestic dogs eat a diet based largely on grain.  This is because they eat commercial dog food, and most commercial dog foods have a high grain component.  This includes most canned and softt moist dog foods and practically all dry dog foods.

Commercial dog foods are based on grain because it is cheap and available.  Certainly not because it is the best food to feed dogs.

Another group that regularly feed grains the their dogs are the health food faddists.  Usually poeple who follow the ‘’Macrobiotic ideas’’ or the ‘’Pritikin-type’’ diets.  These people tend to feed their dogs the same way they feed themselves.  They use rice, usually brown, but sometimes white, as the basis of the diet.

This is done very much for economic reasons, and partly because they have faith is such diets.

• Unfortunately, grain based diets are implicated in all sorts of allergies and other health problems such ar arthritis ans cancer in human beings.

One culprit is the protein called gluten found in grain, particularly wheat.  That is why so called health foods often boast of being ‘’gluten free’’.  However, grain problems go much deeper than that.

A fundamental problem for humans is, they have only been eating grain in large quantities for about 10,000 years.  That is, in many respects, it is till an unnatural food for us.  Our internal make up is still not designed by long evolution to cope with loads of grain.  We are better adapted to eating fruit, vegetables and to a lesser extent meat.

The dog is in exactly the same position, only more so.  Whereas humans have had about 10,000 years to get used to eating cooked grains, most breeds of dogs have only been fed cooked grain in any quantity for between 30 and 100 years.  There may be the odd breed round the world which has been kept on a basically grain diet for longer, but that would not be common.  In fact, for the majority of Aussie dogs, copious grains eating has only been going on for about 30 years.  That is, since the introduction of commercial dog foods on a large scale in Australia, particularly dry dog foods, in 1966.

Grain feeding does not usually cause immediate problems.  Dogs are scavengers and omnivores which means they can cope with just about any food, cooked or raw without problems.. for short periods or in small amounts.

• It is when a generally unsuitable food, such as grain, is fed as most of the diet for a number of years that problems begin to surface.

Dogs that eat grain as the major part of their diet suffer premature ageing and the early development of degenerative diseases, such as arthritis, cancer, diabetes, and other pancreatic problems.  Many skin problems, allergic problems and arthritic problems respond to the withdrawl of grain from a dog’s diet.

 

Why do Grain Based Diets Cause Problems ?

 

They are a Cooked Food

Grains have to be cooked because dogs cannot digest them raw.  Grains contain enzyme inhibitors.  Cooking destroys those enzyme inhibitors allowing dog’s to digest them.

• The problems with cooked food have been discussed at length.  You will remember they include losses of vitamins, fibre, enzymes, anti-oxidants and other longevity/health factors.  In other workds, lost nutritional value.  Loss of health promoting power.

 

Full of Soluble Carbohydrates

When a dog eats any grain based product, for example bread, dry dog food, a rice based home made diet etc., it is receiving a product containing about 70% carbohydrate.  Most of this is starch with a little bit of fibre.

• Unfortunately, starch, once cooked, has a reaction in the body not much different to feeding pure sugar.

That is , such products fed over a long period of time are likely to cause any disease which can be attributed to a diet high in soluble carbohydrates… particularly sugar diabetes.  This is particularly true of breads, especially white breads.  Of the grains, it is the very popular rice which acts most like sugar.

 

Grains Cause Mineral Imbalances

Grains fed in large amonts without legumes, cause problems because they are unbalanced nutritionally with respect ot a dog’s mineral needs.

• They are high in phosphorus and low in calcium.  that low calcium is not good for the bones of dogs of any age, but is particularly bad for the bones of growing pups.  The high phosphorus is not good for the kidneys of adult dogs.

 

Grains Contain Small Amounts of Poor Quality Protein

In general, the protein quality of grains should be regarded as poor and not easily available to your dog.  Grains are deficient in the amino acid lysine, and compared to animal proteins, plant proteins are poorly digested.

The protein content in grain varies quite a bit.  It ranges from about 6 or 7% in rice, up to about 17% in some wheats.

Most grains average about 12% protein.  This is too low for a growing pup.  It would be quite a reasonable level for an adult dog if it was good quality protein, but as I have mentioned it is not.

• Unfortunately, rice, the most popular of the grains that people feed to their dogs, is the one with the lowest levels of protein, and possibly the poorest quality protein.

 

Grains Actively Stop the Absorption of Calcium

They do this in two ways.  Firstly because they lack the amino acid lysine, and secondly because they contain phosphoruous compounds called ‘’phytates’’.

Your dog’s body requires the amino acid lysine (the one missing from grains) as a carrier for calcium.  Lysine ensures that enough calcium is absorbed from the gut and distributed to where it is needed.

The compounds in grains called phytates tend to bind Calcium.  This makes the already low levels of calcium in cereals even more unavailable.  The low lysine further ensures that not much calcium is absorbed.  This makes a mostly cereal diet a pretty calcium defient diet… not much good for a growing pup.  Not much good for a growing pup’s bones.  Not good for an adult dog on a low calcium diet.

Those phytates also bind other essential minerals such as zinc and chromiun and selenium, making them unavailable to your dog as well.

 

Grains are Very Poor Food for Growing Pups

• If cereals are fed in large amounts to growing dogs, it is important to make sure that plenty of bones are being fed at the same time.

The first reason for this is the low calcium (and other minerals) levels in cereals as just described.  The second reason is because lysine, the amino acid missing from cereals is a key amino acid in the formation of collagen, which is the major protein in bone, cartilage and conective tissue, including skin.

Bones make up for this deficiency.  Another factor involved here is the lack of vitamin C in a diet based largely on grain.  Vitamin C is an essential nutrient in collagen and therefore bone and other tissue formation.

• As mentioned, grain based diets are low in zinc which is essential for skin health, bone growth and general growth, for immune system health, for proper development of the organs of reproduction and so on.

With respect to fat content and essential fatty acids, most whole grains contain no more than 2% fat and more is needed for dogs, especially for growing dogs.  The exception to this is oats with 7% fat.

• It does not take a lot of imagination to realise that a diet high in cereals, with not much else added, which is commonly fed to both adults and growing pups, is bound to cause bone and other growth problems.

 

Grain Based Diets are Poor Skin Food

A predominantly cereal diet (EG. MOST COMMERCIAL DOG FOODS) is great recipe for skin disaster.  Collagen, the basic framework on which skin is built is formed poorly on a grain based diet.  Many nutrients are necessary for the production of healthy skin.  These include, amongst others, good quality protein with plenty of lysine, vitamin C, essential fatty acids, the B complex including biotin, and zinc.  All of these are poorly available from a predominantly grain diet.

Modern dogs are plagued with skin problems.  Most animal health care professionals are kelp busy, particularly in the warmer months treating these very proventable conditions.  The occasional thought may be given to a ‘’wheat allergy’’ and on that basis it may be suggested that grains be withdrawn from the diet.

In a small percentage of cases, a simple allergy may be the problem.  However, the vast majority of skin conditions are built on nothing less than a totally unsuitable diet.  That is, a grain based diet.  In other words, the resultin skin problems are due to a much wider range of problems than a simple allergy.  They are caused by a wide range of nutritional deficiencies and imbalances.

• Unfortunately, once these conditions are set in motion, and have been present for a number of years, they are almost impossible to treat successfully.  Even with a proper diet!

They will improve vastly, but the dogs ofter have to spend the rest of their lives being medicated, because the original nutritional insult, that largely grain based diet, leaves their body permanently damaged.

 

Grains and Allergies

Most allergies are developed because unsuitable foods are introduced to puppies at too young an age.  Instead of leaving pups on mother’s milk (often because mother can not make sufficient milk for long enough because of poor modern feeding habits – i.e. commercial dog food), pups are weaned early.

• Commonly, as with humans, they will be weaned on to some grain based cereal.

This is a widespread and much applauded practice, and yet is not to be recommended.  It is a great recipe for sensitising the young pup’s body to wheat protein, and setting it up for allergies later on in life.  Much better to feed mum properly on bone based diets, so that she is able to produce sufficient healthy milk for her pups until they are at least five or preferably six weeks old, and then gradually wean the pups using raw meaty bone mince.

 

Grains … Not a Great Idea for Dogs

In other words the majority of dogs, that is, all the dogs eating grain based commercial dog food, are being fed a food for which their physiology (their internal workings) is totally unsuited.

Let us now examine the common grains that are fed to dogs, looking at their individual characteristics as they relate to a dog’s nutrition and health.

 

Rice as Dog Food

This is without doubt one of the most popular bases for home produced dog foods.  this popularity is partly for economic reasons… the stuff is really cheap, and partly on supposed health grounds… The belied that a healthy diet is being produced.

• Rice is great invalid food.  This is because it is easily digested.  It does not place any great strain on an already taxed system, and it has useful properties which help resolve health problems involving diarrhea.

Rice, particularly white rice, is almost pure starch.  Instant energy.  Low in protein of poor quality.  It’s protein is deficient in lysine.  This is not a problem if rice is fed in small amounts or for short periods, or if it is sensibly combined with other foods to make up for it’s shortcomings.

• However, if rice is fed over a lifetime, as the basis of the whole diet, particularly if it is white rice, several nutritional errors are likely to be made… depending on how much rice is fed, and what other foods are added to the mix.

The first error, particularly with white rice, is a diet very high in what is almost a soluble carbohydrate.  Research has shown, and clinical experience bears this out.

• I have seen many instances of dogs fed copious quantities of rice, and in many instances it was brown rice, all their lives end up with pancreatic disease, which includes diabetes, Pancreatic Insufficiency, and Pancreatitis.

The second problem, is a diet which does not have enough total protein, and a diet deficient in one particular essential amino acid… lysine.

The third error, particularly if white rice is used, it a diet low in fibre.

At this stage you could be forgiven for thinking that I am telling you not to feed rice to your dog.  Not at all.  Do it.  After all, the Orientals have been eating it for thousands of years very succesfully.

• The trick is to use smaller amounts of it together with other foods.  foods which will make up for it’s deficiencies.  Use it in such a way as it will produce a healthy dog.

The most important food is of course RAW MEATY BONES such as chicken wings or meaty lamb off cuts, or scraps of pork on the bone.  They add essential fatty acids, they balance up the protein, and instantly fixd the lack of minerals, particularly calcium and zinc.  However, I get ahead of myself here, practical feeding comes in the next section.

 

Wheat as Dog Food

All the general comments I made about grains apply very much to wheat.  Compared to rice, wheat is actually quite a nutritious grain.  It has about twice as much protein, more fibre, higher in vitamin E content, and is high is some of the B vitamins.  Because it contains the protein gluten, it is used to make bread.  The gluten is what holds the little gas bubbles … allowing the bread to rise.

Nobody that I know of, goes out and buys wheat to feed their dogs.  Not the way they do with rice for example.  However, plenty of wheat products are fed to dogs, the most common in Australia being commercial dog food, with dry dog food having the highest content of wheat and other grains.

Some farmers will take wheat based stock foods and feed it to their dogs.  When combined with meat meal and raw meaty bones, together with lots of cattle, and/or sheep and/or horse feces, and possibly vegetable scraps, these dogs will do quite well.

The other very common wheat products people feed their dogs is pasta and bread.  Well, that is fine, in small amounts.  I have already mentioned that bread, especially white bread in large amounts will have much the same effect on your dog as feeding pure sugar.. so do not do it !

A lot of people feed young puppies a diet consisting mainly of a human breakfast cereals made from wheat.  All the comments I made about grain and the problems it causes with growth, and in particular, growing bones applies here.  These human cereals are particularly bad because of the added sugar.

• You must let raw meaty bones form the bulk of a puppy’s diet if it is to be healthy and have healthy bones.

 

Oats as Dog Food

If you really want to feed grain products to your dog… think strongly about feeding oats.  Rolled oats.  Or the grains, oats is about the best grain for your dog.

• Rooled oats have the highest fat levels of all the grains, a whopping great 7 or 8%, and that fat in high in essential fatty acids.
• Oats are high in protein.  They have 15% which is two and a half times more protein than rice.
• Oats are a good source of minerals.  They have the highest calcium al all the grains (twice as much as rice), and good levels of iron, zinc, potassium, and manganese.
• Oats have good levels of vitamin E and the B vitamins.  Oats have much higher levels of dietary fibre that other gains, much of it being the valuable soluble type.

However, before you get too excited, when you buy rolled oats, you buy a heat treated product.  It has been passed through heated rollers, a process which is necessary to destroy the enzyme inhibitors.  Also remember, it is still a grain, which means it’s protein is deficient in lysine.  In other words, despite those good things you have just  read, it can only form part of your dog’s diet, and should not form the bulk of it.

Some people tell me of stories they have read about working dogs in Scotland existing and being very healthy on a diet consisting almost solely of oats.

Oats may have made up the bulk of their diet but they were probably also given unpasteurised milk and possibly eggs.  In addition, those dogs would have consumed many othe ‘’foods’’.  Their diet would have included feces, soil, many different grasses and herbs, small animals such as rats and mice together with the carcases of dead sheep.

• They balanced their own diets on a whole lot more than oats !

 

Other Grains .. E.g. Corn, Rye, Millet, Barley, etc.

Since these are not readily available in large amounts, there is no real point in pursuing their individual attributes as food for your dog.  No doubt each has its own particular values and characteristics.  The best approach to adopt here, is, if you want to feed these foods to your dog, do so, in small amounts, occasionnaly, as part of a VARIED diet and if possible, balanced by a legume.

• In other words, feed NOTHING EXCLUSIVELY to your dog.  Most particularly do not base your dog’s diet on grain.  Base it on raw meaty bones, preferably chicken pieces.

 

Bread as Dog Food

Bread is usually made from flour, gluten (a protein), yeast, oil, salt, with various chemicals added such as emulsifiers and preservatives.

As a food for dogs it is unbalanced, particularly with regard to the essential amino acids.  The carbohydrate part, the starch or the flour, particularly in a white loaf is not dissimilar to pure sugar in it’s effects on your dog’s body, although whole meal bread is a lot better is a lot better in this respect.  It is not high in essential fatty acids.  It dogs supply energy, but mosthly from soluble carbohydrated.  The salt part will not do a lot of harm unless other foods with excess salt, such as commercial dog foods, make up most of the diet.  Basically, it is devoid of most vitamins, most minerals, and is particularly low in calcium.

If you are feeding bread, feed it in small amounts only as part of a broadly based diet.

 

Sprouted Grain

This is a very healthy and natural way to feed grain to your dog.  It is a way of feeding grain without cooking it.  That means your dog obtains all the benefits of the whole raw grain with none of the draw backs.  In fact, once the sprouting process has begun, that gain is a power pack of nutrition.  Much more valuable than the dormant seed nutritionally.

• This is because the newly sprouted seed contains all of the original nutrients plus an incredible increase in the vitamin content, including the vitamins A, B complex, C and E.

If you wish to feed sprouted grain to your dog, pop along to your local health food store where they will be pleased to supply you with both the grain and detailed instructions for getting started.

IMPORTANT :  Do make sure the grain is food grain.  Do not use seed grain.  Most seed grain has been treated chemically and is poisonous.

Briefly, all you require is a glass jar, lots of clean running water, the grain, a piece of cloth to put over the top of the jar and a rubber band to keep the cloth in place.  I use wheat as the gain, it is readily available, cheap, and sprouts with reasonable ease.  Note that grain takes longer to sprout than legumes.

Soak the grain for about 24  to 48 hours in water.  Chage the water twice daily while it is soaking.  When the grains are obviously swollen, tip the water out, rince well several times, cover the top of the jar with the cloth, and lay the glass jar on its side with the bottom end slightly elevated so that any water drains out.

Keep the grain in the dark during the soaking and sprouting.

Again, rince the grain several times a day during this period.  Once the grain begins to sprout, spread it out thinly in the sun on absorbent paper until the shoots turn green, or alternatively, just place the whole jar out in the sun, and keep moving the grains and rinsing them (24 to 48 hours).  Now it is ready to use.

IMPORTANT :   Do not allow big long shoots to form, you want it just sprouted and that is all.  Use it as you would any other vegetable material, by crushing and grinding it.  Use it immediately after that process.  Store excess uncrushed grain in the refrigerator as you would any other sprouted seed.

It is not necessary to use this sprouted grain in enormous quantities.  Mix a handful to two with other vegetable material.

• Sprouted grain is the MOST healthy way to feed grain to your dog, and once crushed, very closely mimics the stomach contents of a grazing animal.  It is a top quality product which will contribute enormously to your dog’s health and wellbeing.  If you have the time to prepare it, I cannot recommend it too strongly.

 

Sprouted Legumes

These will sprout more quickly than grains.  In general, follow the advice as given for gains, except half the time for soaking, and just leave the sprouting seeds in the jar when you pop them out in the sun to green up.

Like the grains, they should be eaten when they have just sprouted.  This is when their nutritional value is maximal.  If you allow them to grow long and leggy as they are in the shops, much of their nutritional value has been lost.

Incidentally, with experience, you will find your own unique method of sprouting seeds, the one that works best for you.