Why are vets against grain free

Grain-Free Dog Food: Is A Grain-Free DietSafe?

There are countless varieties of dog food you can choose from, including grain-free dog food. Some pet parents choose grain-free dog food as a result of allergies, while others may want the benefits of grain-free dog food. So, is grain-free dog food safe, and is it a good idea to feed your dog a grain-free diet?

In most cases, regular dog food is just fine for your dog, and you should let your vet decide if your dog needs specialty food. However, you may consider switching your dog to a grain-free diet if they have an allergy to grain thats causing skin problems, such as red patches, itchy skin, and hair loss.

So, is a grain-free diet right for your dog, and is it safe to switch to a grain-free diet? Ultimately, its best to leave decisions about your dogs diet to your vet, but a little learning never hurts. If youre considering grain-free dog food, heres what you need to know first.

Is Grain-Free Dog Food Better For Dogs?

You might be wondering if switching to a grain-free diet is better for your dog. The truth of the matter is that there have been no studies that show that grain-free dog food is better than regular dog food, even when it comes to the best grain-free dog food. You shouldnt expect to see any immediate health benefits from switching your dog to a grain-free diet.

While a grain-free diet may seem healthier for your dog, the opposite is actually true in many ways. Like humans, dogs need a balanced diet to get all the nutrients they need to stay healthy, and some of those nutrients come from the grains in their dog food. Healthy grains are good for your dogs heart, which means a grain-free diet can lead to heart problems due to a lack of certain nutrients.

In fact, recent reports indicate that grain-free diets play a major role in dogs with canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a condition that causes weakened heart contractions and poor pumping ability. As DCM progresses, the heart chambers expand, the valves may start to leak, and indications of congestive heart failure develop.¹

In 2018, the FDA reported that their investigation of dogs with DCM indicated that a high proportion of dogs (90%) were on grain-free diets.²Additionally, researchers are examining the link between DCM and dogs on BEG (boutique, exotic ingredient, and grain-free) diets.³

Keep in mind that its best to talk to your vet about what kind of dog food you should give your dog. Different dogs may need different dog food, and some dogs may be allergic to the ingredients in regular dog food. There are also different types of dog foods for different breeds, different size dogs, and dogs with different health conditions. Only your vet can determine which type of dog food is right for your dog.

Grain Vs. Grain-Free

As a pet parent, you might be wondering about the differences between grain-free dog food and regular dog food. The answer is more complex than the fact that one type of dog food doesnt contain grains. Its important to consider the nutrients your dog gets from the grains that are in regular dog food, and what those nutrients do for your dogs health.

The grains in dog food are an essential part of heart health for dogs, just like healthy grains play an important role in heart health for humans. In fact, all the ingredients in dog food are in there to make sure your dog is getting the nutrients they need to be healthy. This is why its so important to choose healthy dog food, particularly if you own a very large or small breed.

Its also important to consider the fact that many grain-free dog foods contain high amounts of certain ingredients, including peas, lentils, potatoes, and legume seeds. High concentrations of these ingredients may lead to your dog getting more of certain nutrients than they need, which can cause medical issues. This is why its important to talk to your vet if youre considering switching to a grain-free diet for your dog.

Because grains in dog food can help support heart health, a grain-free diet can lead to certain heart-related medical conditions in dogs. Dogs who eat a grain-free diet for a long time may be at higher risk of developing dilated cardiomyopathy, which can eventually lead to congestive heart failure.

While theres no significant evidence that says grain-free diets are bad for all dogs or that grain-free dog food contains harmful ingredients, its best to make sure your dog gets a varied diet. Including grains in your dogs diet can help them get all the nutrients they need to lead a healthy life.

How to Choose the Right Food for Your Dog

If you want your dog to be as healthy as possible, its important to choose the right dog food. There are tons of different types of dog food, including organic dog food, grain-free dog food, diet dog food, regular dog food, and more. In order to choose the best food for your dog, you need to consider several factors, including their breed, weight, any health problems they may have, and whether or not theyre allergic to ingredients in regular dog food.

Breed is an important factor when it comes to choosing dog food. Some dog breeds are more active than others, and different breeds also grow to be different sizes. Its also important to consider the fact that some breeds may be more prone to health problems if theyre overweight, such as labradors.

If your dog is overweight, you might want to talk to your vet about choosing low-fat food that helps them shed some pounds. Excess weight can lead to several long-term health issues in dogs, so its important to make sure your dog maintains a healthy weight.

There are also certain dog food brands that cater to specific health issues, including dog food for diabetic dogs, dog food for dogs with gastrointestinal issues, and dog food for dogs with sensitive skin. If your dog seems to have issues when they eat certain types of dog food, or if they have a health problem that requires a special diet, talk to your vet about what type of dog food is right for them.

Grain-Free Dog Food: FAQs

Why do vets not recommend grain-free dog food?

Your vet may recommend against grain-free dog food because it lacks ingredients that contain critical nutrients for dogs. Heart health is big for dogs, and grains help support heart health. If your dog eats grain-free dog food, theyre not getting those nutrients which can lead to poor heart health.

Theres also the fact that grain-free dog food tends to contain higher concentrations of certain ingredients, including lentils, peas, potatoes, and legume seeds. Eating too much of these ingredients may contribute to an unbalanced diet that can cause health problems, so your vet may recommend against a grain-free diet for that reason. Ultimately, its best to talk to your vet before choosing the best dog food for your dog.

Can grain-free dog food cause heart problems?

While theres no evidence that proves grain-free dog food is bad for dogs, there is an association between grain-free dog food and dilated cardiomyopathy, a heart condition that may eventually lead to congestive heart failure and even death. This may be a result of a grain-free diet lacking certain nutrients that help support heart health in dogs.

Its also important to consider that grain-free dog food may contain larger amounts of certain ingredients, including peas and lentils. This can lead to a dietary imbalance in dogs, especially over a long period of time. Its always best to talk to your vet before trying new dog food.

Should dogs eat grain-free or whole grain?

If you want to keep your dog healthy, its important to make sure theyre eating a balanced diet that includes all the nutrients they need. Unless your dog is allergic to ingredients in regular dog food, vets typically recommend feeding your dog normal food. However, larger breeds may be better off with low-fat foods that prevent excess weight gain.

Ultimately, its best to talk to your vet about what kind of food is right for your dog. Your vet can recommend dog food based on your dogs breed, weight, and medical history. If you notice your dog gaining weight over time or if new health issues occur when your dog switches food, you can talk to your vet about trying another brand of food.

Final Notes

Grain-free dog foods can be good for dogs who are allergic to grains, but there are also potential problems with a grain-free diet for dogs. Before you switch to grain-free dog food, talk to your vet about the pros and cons and how to choose the best grain-free dog food.

If you need a little help making sure your dog has the best food, Dutch is the simple solution. With Dutch, you can schedule an online video chat with a vet to talk about what kind of food is best for your dog, how much they should eat, and more. Try Dutch today and make choosing the right dog food a simple decision.

Is Grain-Free Dog Food Bad?

It was a routine vet visit for Oliver, Julie Carters 3-year-old Golden Retriever. At least, it was until the vet listened to Olivers heart and uttered the sentence that would change her life: He has a heart murmur.

It was February 2018, and Carter had also brought in an interesting article from the Morris Animal Foundation website noting a disturbing upswing in the number of Goldens diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). These dogs had in common two things: They had a deficiency of taurine, an amino acid, in their blood, and they were fed boutique dog foods from small companies often with unusual, grain-free, or legume-rich ingredient lists. Oliver was eating such a diet. He had a low taurine level. And he had DCM.

Oliver, now under the care of a veterinary cardiologist, was immediately placed on a mainstream diet containing grain and was given taurine supplements as well as heart medications. He remained symptom-free until one day, without warning, he suffered a fatal arrhythmia while walking across the kitchen floor. It was August 2018, six months after his diagnosis, and just five days after celebrating his 4th birthday.

DCM is a serious disease of the heart muscle that can ultimately lead to death. It occurs more often in large breeds, and in some breeds, its thought to have a genetic component. It also typically occurs in middle-aged to older dogs. Goldens are not considered an at-risk breed for DCM in general, but they are at risk for taurine deficiency.

Taurine and Heart Disease

Taurine, an amino acid thats abundant in meat, was implicated in cases of cat DCM 30 years ago. It turned out commercial cat foods didnt contain sufficient taurine. When taurine was added to the food, DCM in cats basically disappeared.

Taurine immediately became suspect in dog DCM, but relatively few instances of taurine-deficient DCM have been identified in dogs. Certain diets, however, notably those high in lamb, rice bran, or fiber (especially beet pulp) and very lowprotein diets have been associated with canine taurine deficiency.

Fast-forward to 2018. Veterinary cardiologists started noticing higher than usual numbers of dogs with DCM. At Tufts University, Lisa Freeman, DVM, Ph.D., DACVIM, a board-certified veterinary nutritionist with a research emphasis on nutritional effects of heart disease, reported an alarming number of these dogs were eating what she called BEG (boutique, exotic-ingredient, or grain-free) diets.

Boutique diets are produced by small companies without nutritional testing facilities. Exotic-ingredient diets use unusual sources, such as kangaroo or duck, which have not received extensive testing more common sources such as chicken or beef have. Grain-free diets replace grains such as rice and corn with potatoes or legumes (beans, peas, and lentils) as a carbohydrate source. No study has ever shown grain-free to be superior to grain-inclusive diets.

The FDA Gets Involved

Freeman collaborated with several veterinary cardiologists and alerted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In July 2018, the FDA announced it had found sufficient evidence to investigate. In November 2018, Freeman and her collaborators issued a commentary published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. It would become one of the most downloaded articles in the history of that publication.

The FDA has since issued several updates. From January 2018 through April 2019, the FDA received reports of 553 dogs with DCM compared with previous years that ranged from zero to three dogs. These included 95 Goldens, 62 mixed-breeds, 47 Labrador Retrievers, 25 Great Danes, and more than 50 additional breeds with more than one report.

The FDA report lists 16 dog-food companies that had 10 or more cases of DCM associated with their food, but many more foods are involved. The brands themselves are probably not the important part of the report, but rather what these foods have in common.

When the diets were examined, no protein source stood out as being over-represented. In fact, the most common proteins were chicken, lamb, and fish, although some contained unusual proteins such as kangaroo, bison, or duck. More than 90 percent of the diets were grain-free, and 93 percent of the diets contained peas or lentils. A far smaller proportion included potatoes. When these foods were tested, they contained the same average percentage of protein, fat, taurine, and taurine precursors as grain-containing products.

Joshua Stern, DVM, Ph.D., DACVIM, was one of the original veterinary cardiologists who noticed the increase in DCM cases in Golden Retrievers. Since then, Stern, of the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine, has been studying Goldens with DCM and taurine deficiency. In an unpublished study of 24 Goldens with confirmed DCM and low taurine, all but one dog had substantial cardiac improvement after a diet change and the addition of supplemental taurine. All of the dogs had been eating BEG diets at the time DCM was diagnosed.

What Now?

While many dogs eating BEG diets do not appear to be developing DCM, veterinary cardiologists are recommending feeding foods made by well-established manufacturers. These conduct feeding trials and use standard ingredients such as chicken, beef, rice, corn, and wheat. They point to five American manufacturers: Purina, Hills, Royal Canin, Iams, and Eukanuba.

Critics contend that the number of reported dogs compared to the number eating these diets hardly constitutes an epidemic and that no controlled feeding trials exist that compare DCM rates in BEG versus non-BEG diets. However, most cases of DCM still go unreported, and the smaller BEG companies dont conduct feeding trials.

At least one study is now underway. Researchers at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine have begun an AKC Canine Health Foundation-funded study to determine if diet type has an effect on the echocardiographic, taurine values, or blood biomarker values of outwardly healthy dogs. Dogs with abnormalities will be offered a diet change and then re-checked for a year afterward. Two at-risk breeds (Goldens and Doberman Pinschers) and two not-at-risk breeds (Whippets and Miniature Schnauzers) will participate.

We are working hard to help answer this question as soon as possible, says lead researcher Darcy Adin, DVM, DACVIM. This study will not answer every question but hopefully will address the issue of whether nutritionally associated DCM is real, if so what types of foods are associated with it, whether taurine deficiency plays a role, whether blood cardiac biomarkers may be useful for detection, and whether improvement can be seen after nutritional intervention.

Meanwhile, dog owners remain concerned. Thanks to dedicated veterinarians and devoted dog owners, there are excellent resources are available. Several Facebook pages are devoted to the topic; the most popular, Taurine Deficient (Nutritional) Dilated Cardiomyopathy, has more than 100,000 members. Other groups include Taurine Deficiency in Golden Retrievers and the Canine Nutritional DCM Support Group, a support group dedicated to owners who have an affected dog or have lost their dog to DCM. There is also a website.

More than a year after Olivers death, Carter copes with her loss by helping others cope with theirs, and by spreading awareness of the problem. This has prompted many owners to have their dogs hearts checked by a veterinary cardiologist.

But Oliver isnt her only concern. Riley, Carters 9-year-old Golden, has been diagnosed with the same disease. While their cases share several similarities, the most glaring one is the fact that both Oliver and Riley ate the exact same food for several years. a grain-free, limited-ingredient diet loaded with legumes, Carter says. Carter also has a loveable 1-year-old Golden named Finn who has never eaten a BEG diet, nor will he ever be fed one.

Oliver is undoubtedly the best-known DCM victim. Deciding to be proactive and educate others about this life-threatening disease was a quick and easy decision to make, Carter recalls. When Oliver was diagnosed in February 2018, there was very little information accessible to the public about canine nutritional DCM. Shortly after Olivers diagnosis, I dubbed him the Face of Dilated Cardiomyopathy, hoping that putting a face to this horrible disease would get the attention of dog owners and make it easier to educate them.

While Oliver is often recognized as the Face of DCM, he is not alone, says Carter. There are hundreds of other dogs suffering and dying from this preventable disease. I have seen firsthand how many of these heartbroken families are crumbling under the emotional, physical, and financial weight that comes along with this diagnosis.