Hidden Sugars in canine supplements.

How much sugar does the average person consume on a daily basis? We are told up to 22 teaspoons. How much sugar does the average dog consume daily? You might be surprised. Over the past few years more and more sugar has been finding it’s way into processed pet foods, treats and incredibly so called 'canine health supplements' including the most popular ones for Joints and Digestion.

You probably won't be surprised about the sugar in dog treats but in Joint Supplements???

I was contacted by a lovely client lately asking about our Joint Care Plus range. She was already using another brand but had become increasingly worried about weight gain in her dog over a few months and on checking the ingredients found that the liquid joint supplement contained Fructose & Glucose as the first ingredient! Rightly, she was concerned by this.

Sugar isn't just called sugar it can be disguised by many other names syrups, dextrose, sucrose or fructose being just a couple.

SUGAR IS NASTY!

I won't get too high on my soap box about dog food in general and the hidden nasty ingredients....so I will just point out the form of sugar that is often found in these supplements and will keep your dog coming back for more, corn or sugar syrup.

So what is so wrong about feeding your dog sugar? Plenty. Just imagine what adding sugar to dog treats and dog supplements is doing to our precious pets. Dogs are becoming addicted to foods and treats. The end result is sickness that you may not see until it's too late and obesity. Supplements that contain Sugar have one sole purpose in ... to sweeten and make the product more attractive to your dogs. A couple of years ago I had a client with a Westie called Jack, He was prone to seizures, lethargy, skin allergies, and yeast infections. The only food substances consumed were a top brand, high sugar content kibble, dentastix and a joint supplement with high levels of Syrup.

Poor Jack was unable to extract any nutrition he was able to get from his diet and his cells were literally starving. The owner knew no better and TRUSTED the companies that were supplying the products, with their slick marketing.

They didn’t realize that Jacks diet was the root cause of all of his health problems. As we went over the ingredients on the packaging one by one, they became enlightened and quite upset. With the back up of a well clued up and frankly very blunt Vet who confirmed the seriousness of the situation, we weaned Jack off his diet of chemicals and he went through a period of withdrawal from the amount of sugar, corn syrup, and artificial ingredients in what he was eating. Jacks intake of bad sugars were depleting his body of Calcium, magnesium, potassium, and minerals it needed to metabolize the sugars he was consuming on a daily basis. This cycle of sickness placed a huge burden on his organs, bones, skin and teeth. After about six months on a sugar free diet and with our Joint Care Plus tablets (crushed and sprinkled onto his food) Jack was seizure free, looking great, and full of energy. Especially with working dogs, you might think giving them sugar is a good plan, they wont necessarily gain weight from it, but you don't know what is happening inside. Is there a safe amount of sugar that you can feed to your dogs? The answer is No.

Refined sugar in any form is not meant to be in a dog’s diet and this includes refined honey and inverted sugar syrups. Not only does sugar encourage hyperactivity and never ending hunger, it plays a huge role in diabetes, cancer, obesity and auto immune disease. Sugar cane, the plant that white sugar is refined from, is a healthy snack. When you refine the sugar cane into white sugar crystals and syrups, it turns sugar cane into a substance depleted of it’s life force, vitamins, enzymes, and minerals resulting in a toxic white mess.

So the next time you think about feeding your dog any treats or supplements with any kind of sugar, especially if it's listed as the first ingredient.... please don't do it!

I'm not going to tell you that our Joint supplements are the only ones that don't contain sugar, this isn't a hard sell for my own range of products as there are plenty out there so make sure you choose one of them that contains -

Glucosamine, Chondroitin, MSM and Manganese.

Ours also contain Curcumin which is know for it's anti inflammatorial properties also a huge benefit. Without the first 4 ingredients you may well be wasting your money over time.

Do the research and don't rely on a product label telling you something is healthy or veterinary approved...that's a whole other BLOG for another day :-)