People in United States has spent over $63 billion per year for their pets according to American Pet Products Association. Pet lovers are willing to buy top dollar food and splurge in expensive toys, orthopedic bedding and even cute costumes for all year round and special holidays. Pet products are forecast to rise steadily at a rate of 4 percent annually.
If you read my Dog Food Labels and Organic Dog Food articles, you probably realized that there are all sorts of dry kibbles in the market out there. There are some really poor quality filler dog foods as well as good ingredients formulas ranging from premium, super premium and even fancy ultra premium labels to choose from.
Natural organic pet foods has rapidly gain popularity so as grain-free dog food. As we are moving towards the healthier selections, we are finally able to identify the listed ingredients and read the simple label. Despite all these key elements to a better dog health that we care the most, the manufacturer often left out the one important Digestive Enzymes that helps the absorption of nutrients.
Well balanced raw food diet, primary protein is the best way to feed the canine but it is very time consuming and could be very expensive. I have done that myself for a few years to feed 3 German Shepard and finally gave up and resorted to grain-free kibbles.
The cleaning and cutting up of the raw meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds are so much hassles and not only that, you do need a big freezer to store the meat when it is on sales to cut the cost down. So, the entire process consumed a lot of my time from the point of sourcing to feeding. Unless you have one precious dog as a companion and it can eat what you eat on that day’s menu, in my opinion, it is worthwhile to just spend a little more for a better dog food with the essential supplement.
If we are not providing the enzyme rich raw nutrients to the canine, the process dog food is hard on the digestive tract because it is considered as energetically dead food. Thus, making it difficult for the dog stomach to break it down and absorb it. No doubt, any dog food will keep your pet alive like any empty calories but, in a long run, it will affect the health, vitality, strength and quality life of your best pal.
In relevance to the above, we are now concluded that lacking of enzyme equal to insufficient nutrients due to poor absorption. The digestive system needs to work extra hard to compensate the weak link, straining the small intestine and pancreas and will eventually wear them out quickly. Nutrients deficiency will lead to chronic disease and old age issues just like we are.
Digestive enzyme will help the digestive tract immensely but supplementing the depleted internal storage. There are 3 main categories in the digestive enzyme that should consist in the supplement we are looking for.
- Proteases to digest protein into bioavailable amino acids
- Lipases for fats and convert it into fatty acids and glycerol
- Amylases to break down carbohydrates to simple sugar
Enzyme should be regarded as important as vitamins and minerals to all living creatures. As we aged, enzyme production depleted and so, supplementing this vital nutrient will potentially improve the quality of their lifespan.