Where’s the science behind Science Diet?

Since we have so many veterinarians out there who recommend Science diet to us, I took the liberty of looking through all of their foods and picked Hill’s 6 favorite ingredients:  whole grain corn, whole grain wheat, brewer’s rice, corn gluten meal, soybean meal and powdered cellulose.

Science, history and logic tells me that dogs are omnivores that primarily eat meat while cats are obligate carnivores and ONLY eat meat.  Take the evidence from pre-commercial pet food history when dogs were fed meat from table scraps and cats had to survive off of the pesky mice that they were kept around to hunt.  Or perhaps look at the digestive physiology of dogs and cats – both have very short digestive tracts meant to digest food that is easy to break down – not food that is full of starch, complex carbohydrates and fibre.  Both dogs and cats have teeth meant for ripping and tearing meat, not molars for grinding grasses and grains like a horse or cow.  How about the logic behind the fact that dogs and cats lack salivary amylase (an enzyme that breaks down carbohydrates) – they are not intentionally eating carbohydrate rich foods and therefore would not need to break down carbs before it reaches their digestive tract BUT they do produce pancreatic amylase to break down any carbs that would be found in their prey’s intestines.  We can also trace their lineage back to their ancestors – wolves and wildcats that hunt and eat other animals for meat.  Keeping these facts in mind, lets take a look at Hill’s favorite ingredients.

1. Whole grain corn:  “whole grain” does nothing but point out to us that they are in fact including grain.  Corn is only about 50% digestible for dogs (think about it… when you eat corn, don’t you usually see it come out the same way?) and when it’s one of the top ingredients, then nearly 50% of that food is wasted!  Corn is primarily carbohydrates and fibre – dogs are omnivores and though they primarily get energy from protein and fat, they do need some carbs.  But the amount of carbs in these foods is ridiculously high for a dog!  I already pointed out that our fuzzy companions do not have salivary amylase, so corn gets a late start in digestion and in combination with their short digestive tracts, our dogs and cats hardly get a chance to digest their food!  So all in all, save the corn for the chickens and cows or maybe as a future fuel source.
2. Whole grain wheat: Again, “whole grain” means nothing when it comes to dogs.  Just like in humans, there is strong suspicion that all dogs have some level of sensitivity to gluten.  Where does gluten come from?  Grains, and wheat is one of the worst.  I won’t go into all the details about gluten here (save that for a future post) but gluten causes inflammation in the intestines, which erodes the villi therefore harming your companion’s digestive system.  This erosion causes a whole host of problems from diarrhea, declining nutrient uptake, and bloat due to fermentation of undigested wheat. Again, let’s save this one for the chickens and cows.
3. Brewer’s rice: The small milled fragments of rice kernels that have been separated from the larger kernels of milled rice.  A by-product of rice milling that is missing many of the nutrients that whole rice contains. Yummy… rice hulls?  Yes, rice is much less inflammatory than other grains and whole grain brown rice is one of the better carbohydrate sources for cats and dogs, but rice hulls contain almost no nutrition and is primarily a filler.  Another terrible ingredient for cats and dogs.
4. Corn gluten meal: More corn?!?!  Corn gluten meal is the dried residue after the removal of the larger part of the starch and germ, and the separation of the bran by the process employed in the manufacturing of corn starch/syrup.  An inexpensive by-product of human food processing which contains some protein but serves mainly to bind food together. When it is one of the first ingredients, they likely added it as filler and to bump up the protein content with low quality, unavailable corn protein.  I don’t know why Hill’s seems to think they’re feeding chickens… but this is a terrible ingredient for dogs or cats!
5. Soybean meal: The product obtained by grinding the flakes which remain after removal of most of the oil from soybeans.  A poor quality protein filler used to boost the protein content of low quality pet foods. It has a biologic value of less than 50% of chicken meal meaning that though it may increase the protein content of the food, it is not premium or balanced protein but rather low quality, unavailable protein.
6. Powdered cellulose: Ah, this is my favorite ingredient.  Purified, mechanically disintegrated cellulose prepared by processing pulp from fibrous plant materials. Dried wood is the most common source for cellulose and it is cleaned, processed into a fine powder and used to add bulk and consistency to cheap pet foods. Your dog or cat may be chowing down on some lovely sawdust.  All these fantastic fillers means your dog or cat has to eat more food than he should be eating to get a minimum balance of nutrients and minerals from the relatively small amount of meat products in the food.  What does this lead to?  Constipation, obesity, nutrient deficiencies, massive stools, and buying excessive amounts of this expensive Science Diet food because your companion has to eat so darn much of it!

So get your dog or cat off of Science Diet and onto a more biologically appropriate, healthy and beneficial diet such as raw food, home cooked or a high quality kibble such as Orijen or Acana.  You will save money in the long run from less veterinary visits and spending less money of premium food opposed to expensive chicken feed but the best part is how healthy and happy your furkid will be 🙂