When Dogs Eat Better Than Their Owners

A U.K. study concludes that pet food is healthier, under the Food Standards Agency’s "traffic light" program than most of the food people are eating.

Noted John Searle, the scientist who carried out the pet food analysis at the British Government accredited Global food testing laboratory in Burton-upon-Trent:

It would not do a human any harm to eat this cat and dog food. The taste would be a bit different from what you’d expect, but nutritionally it is fine.

Makers of pet foods include the same multinationals — such as Nestlé and Mars — that make human foods but, ironically, the pets foods are generally healthier what is being served to humans.

Notes The London Times:

The laboratory analysis found some positive signs for human food — fibre, for example, which is an important aid to digestion, was lower in the pet food.

 

However, on key measures the pet food came out well. The unhealthiest fast food item was KFC chicken pieces, which contain 23.2g of fat per 100g and 1.9g of salt. If a KFC meal is eaten with fries, the figures are lower. While a McDonald’s Big Mac contains 10.7g of fat per 100g, a combined meal with fries has an average 12g.

In addition to the products tested in the laboratory, 30 human foods and 15 pet foods were compared using their labels. The pet food consistently outperformed the human in terms of health.

So there it is: Your dog is probably eating better than you are.

And that is probably true even if you are feeding your dog "Ol’ Roy" and you are paying extra money for grass-fed beef and organic vegetables for yourself.

Remember: the most important part of any human or canine diet is not quality, it's quantity.

Veterinarians see dogs all day long, and they almost never see a dog that is malnourished, in terms of underweight or short on nutrients, but everyday, several times a day, they see dogs dying and in pain from obesity.

Human doctors tell much the same story.

Bottom line: How much is in the bowl is far for important than what's in the bag.

And YES, your dog probably is eating healthier than you are!