Pet Health: nutrition and metabolic programming

There’s a big emphasis on early nutrition because it affects health throughout life. American and European researchers are stressing the association between early nutrition and health—called metabolic programming. Among the proven long-term benefits of metabolic programming are:

• immune system strength with fewer allergies and fewer infections,
• healthy bones and joints with less arthritis and hip dysplasia,
• healthy hearts,
• improved digestion, and
• improved cognitive ability.

To ensure your pet is as healthy and as smart as possible, feed it the best you can when it’s young. If possible, see that your pet’s mother receives a healthy diet when pregnant.

The healthiest food is not necessarily the most expensive and many “premium” store-bought foods are not highly nutritious. What we see on the package was written by advertisers, so discount the claims of "natural" and "100% complete" and look at the ingredients. The first ingredient should be meat or fish. Suspect subterfudge if ingredients are split into component parts, such as wheat flour and wheat gluten because this allows the company to weigh the wheat as two separate ingredients and list them lower than the meat. Often this means your pet gets more grain than meat although you may think there is lots of meat in the food. Read labels and you'll know what your pet is truly getting.

Once you begin reading about nutrition you might feel overwhelmed because there’s so much to learn, but don’t feel discouraged. You can trust some companies to make products that will be ideal for your pet. Among the most trustworthy pet nutrition companies are Azmira, Nordic Naturals, and Missing Link.

Share this post