Dog nutrition

[Irene de Villiers]

Dogs on Holiday-UK wrote:
Hi Christine,

I changed the title/subject to be more appropriate.....

Unfortunately it is not so easy as there are vested interests in the
big cat/dog food manufacturers in USA (especially in my opinion, Hills
Science Diet and Iams) and they have devised a system which it seems to
me, effectively hides the research - very much to *their* benefit while
making them look good at the same time!!

Why hide the research?
I believe the answer lies in the research findings as compared with
their foods. Their foods are full of cheap junk instead of nutrients (in
my opinion).
Their foods are also the ones you can find at any vet clinic over all
other brands - and that also was no accident. It was part of the
agreement that 8 companies made with AVMA for supporting their food and
drug products in return for the companies working at state legislation
level to "get rid of the competition from alternative medicine" - a
long-term project since about 1996 if I remember rightly when it
started. [Details in the archives of the AVMA-antidote discussion list].
Suffice to say they have a vested interest in promoting their food as
edible. And the research as I read it, does not do that.

The system used to hide the research is this:
Iams, (cleverly in my opinion) "hosts" the annual feline and canine
international nutrition symposium - and they bind ALL the scientific
papers presented there, into one or more books, which they consider
edited by and copyright to Iams. They publish very few copies, so after
a short while they are hard to find - they are also pricey.
Not only that - Iams prominently displays on the cover that THEY host
the symposium, implying the contents of the book are appropriate to
their food - or have to do with their food etc - which would put off
many readers who might otherwise be interested in the research.
Inside the book, the original research is presented as is - which is
good. Except - there is no index, making the papers practically
unusable, certainly unsearchable, and the copyright keeps the data out
of PubMed, the National Library of Medicine on line.

So I see it as a very clever way to hide the research, and also to hide
how well their food does or does not comply with findings while looking
good for "hosting" the conferences.

So what you have to do to get up on the research, is to buy the books
despite the prominent "Iams" on the cover, (nice profit for them, grr)
and actually read them and make your own annotations or indexing so you
can find things in there again. Ideally we need them transposed onto
searchable medium but the copyright is an issue and as far as I know
nobody has done that. It would all need to be paraphrased. For much of
the feline research I have summarized it and presented it in emails on
my cat health discussion list, Catwell. I've not done the canine side.
The emails at Catwell are searchable, and the information is straight
from the research. Members are welcome to ask in what way things differ
for dogs as I do not know of an equivalent dog discussion list, but dog
nutrition has not been fully covered on Catwell to date.

So to look it up yourself, you need the books that start 1998 and later,
annually, titled:
"Recent Advances in Canine and Feline Nutrition"
Volume I, II etc
1998 (and subsequent years) "Iams Nutrition Symposium Proceedings".

Namaste,
Irene
--
Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."

[mary hughes]

Oh, lordy, Irene,

I had so hoped you were going to tell me that so-and so...had produced a book/study at such-and-such vet med school or the like.
I have no scientific background and am not sure what I can get out of these sort of studies, but I'm willing to see what it says.
I am curious though...if for example they say a dog needs 'x' on a daily basis...will the research explain where this would normally come from or just the amount to be added to a petfood?
I will try and see these studies but am concerned that this is likely to cloud my judgement, rather than clarify...this is likely to be a longterm project and I was rather hoping that you would be able to 'send' me somewhere.
Thanks though for that info and overview...I'm sure you're right about the agendas.

mary
Irene de Villiers wrote:
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[Ellen Madono]

Dear Mary,
You are so committed to knowing what is best for your dog. Go for it. Even without all the background, love and committment take us places we have never been before.
Blessings,
Ellen
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