The Hokuō® Journal

A Guide to Fresh Ingredients in Your Dog's Food.- Written by Ann-Kristin Meyer, Owner of HundeFoderNørden Overview Processed Food and Lifestyle Diseases What is Processed Food Similarities Between Humans and Dogs in Nutrition How to Include Fresh Ingredients in Your Dog's Diet Recommended Ingredient Distribution How Much Fresh Food Should Be Included Processed Food and Lifestyle Diseases In the human world, there is no longer any doubt: A high intake of heavily processed food and a simultaneous avoidance of fresh, unprocessed foods in the diet are linked to an increased incidence of various lifestyle diseases, such as obesity, cancer, diabetes, and depression . In recent years, something has also started to happen in the field of dog nutrition research. More and more studies suggest that fresh, unprocessed food has a positive effect on a dog’s health and well-being, whereas heavily processed food appears to negatively affect a dog's health. What is Processed Food? Heavily processed food, or as it’s called in English, "ultra-processed food," is defined as dishes containing ingredients that you wouldn’t normally use in a regular kitchen. These include preservatives, flavor enhancers, colorants, sweeteners, and emulsifiers . These substances are added to heavily processed food to mimic the quality and sensory experience of minimally processed food. This is the definition of heavily processed FOOD. However, many of the additives mentioned in the definition can also be found in heavily processed dog food . And the vast majority of dog food available on supermarket shelves, pet stores, or veterinary clinics is heavily processed food. The Effect of Processed Food on Gut Microbiota Many different nutrition studies in the human field suggest that heavily processed food negatively affects the gut microbiota . The gut microbiota is the total amount of microorganisms living in the human gut. These include bacteria, fungi, and viruses, but bacteria make up the largest amount , and they are also the most studied among the gut's inhabitants. Although the gut microbiota doesn’t resemble the classic organs in our body, such as the liver, kidneys, and spleen, it behaves in a similar manner and can therefore be classified as an organ – a highly advanced one at that ! Foto: Rozanne Willems for Hokuō® Similarities Between Humans and Dogs in Nutrition Just like humans, more and more dogs are suffering from the above-mentioned lifestyle diseases . And just like us, many dogs consume a large portion of their daily diet in the form of heavily processed food . Many dogs are even fed exclusively with heavily processed food. Observing the same trends in dogs as in humans is not surprising. Different studies show that the way a dog’s gut microbiota responds to nutritional factors is comparable to the response seen in humans. Benefits of Fresh Ingredients Although many still claim that there are no studies indicating that fresh, minimally processed food, such as BARF (raw food) or homemade meals, is healthier for dogs than heavily processed food , this is simply not true. Particularly in recent years, several peer-reviewed studies have been published concluding that minimally processed food has a health-promoting effect, while heavily processed food has a detrimental effect on health. How to Include Fresh Ingredients in Your Dog's Diet The ingredients that should be included in your dog’s fresh food are meat, offal, meaty bones, eggs, fatty fish, vegetables, and possibly berries. Meat should ideally be muscle meat, as it has a very high protein quality. It can be given raw or cooked, e.g., boiled in a pot with some water. If the meat is cooked, it’s a good idea to include the cooking water in the feeding portion, as some nutrients leach into the water during cooking. "Remember, a little is better than nothing, so even small steps can make a big difference in your dog's health.” Recommended Ingredient Distribution The distribution of the individual ingredient groups is as follows: Two parts meat Two parts meaty bones One part offal One part fish One part egg Additionally, a little vegetable and possibly berries It is not necessary to include all ingredients every day. For example, you can give meat on two days of the week, meaty bones on another two days, and offal, fish, and eggs on each of the remaining days. Vegetables can be added as a topping every other day . Foto: Rozanne Willems for Hokuō® Buy Now Buy Now Buy Now How Much Fresh Food Should Be Included? Research suggests that about 20-25% fresh food is required to have a health-promoting effect. To ensure that the dog does not experience an energy deficit (calorie deficit), it’s important to know how much energy (calories) the dog consumes in the form of industrially produced food . This can be determined by measuring the dog’s daily ration and checking the packaging or the manufacturer’s website for calorie content. Summary By following the above guidelines and varying the ingredients well, the risk of nutrient deficiencies is very low, even if you replace 30-40% of the dog's processed food with fresh ingredients. Remember, a little is better than nothing, so even small steps can make a big difference in your dog's health. Sources: Coelho et al. 2018: Similarity of the dog and human gut microbiomes in gene content and response to diet Hemida et al. 2020: Puppyhood diet as a factor in the development of owner-reported allergy/atopy skin signs in adult dogs in Finland Hemida et al. 2021: Early Life Modifiable Exposures and Their Association with Owner Reported Inflammatory Bowel Disease Symptoms in Adult Dogs Hemida et al. 2023: Early life programming by diet can play a role in risk reduction of otitis in dogs Jaffey et al. 2022: Effects of a whole food diet on immune function and inflammatory phenotype in healthy dogs: A randomized, open-labeled, cross-over clinical trial Kim et al. 2017: Differences in the gut microbiota of dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) fed a natural diet or a commercial feed revealed by the Illumina MiSeq platform Leverett et al. 2022: Fresh Food Consumption Increases Microbiome Diversity and Promotes Changes in Bacteria Composition on the Skin of Pet Dogs Compared to Dry Foods Raghavan et al. 2005: Evaluation of the effect of dietary vegetable consumption on reducing risk of transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder in ScottishTerriers Sandri et al. 2017: Raw meat based diet influences faecal microbiome and end products of fermentation in healthy dogs Sinkko et al. 2023: Distinct healthy and atopic canine gut microbiota is influenced by diet and antibiotics Vuori et al. 2023: The effect of puppyhood and adolescent diet on the incidence of chronic enteropathy in dogs later in life The Author: Ann-Kristin Meyer MSc in Animal Science from the University of Copenhagen , specializing in canine nutrition, Owner of HundeFoderNørden 

Why Choose Heart for Your Pets? When you own a typical cat (typical in the sense that most cats are difficult to feed) or an atypical dog (atypical in the sense that most dogs are very easy to feed), you know that there is one thing that most of the above cannot say "no" to - and that is heart. Whether raw, lightly cooked, freeze-dried, baked, or dehydrated - most dogs and even the pickiest cats love it! But heart is not only a true delicacy and thus a popular treat choice. The heart also contains some nutrients, or rather combinations and amounts of certain nutrients, that make it superior when compared to, for example, liver or regular muscle meat. This highlights the benefits of heart in pet food in comparison to other options. Heart as a Unique Source of Amino Acids The term "regular muscle meat" is chosen because the heart is actually also a muscle. And although many dog and cat owners would classify the heart as offal, it is nutritionally somewhere between muscle meat and offal - leaning slightly towards muscle meat. Overview Why Choose Heart for Your Pets? The Benefits of Heart In Pet Food for Amino Acids Taurine: Important for Cats and Dogs Risk of Taurine Deficiency in Dogs The Importance of Protein Digestibility The Benefits of Heart In Pet Food for Amino Acids The benefits of heart in pet food include its proteins with high biological value, similar to muscle meat. The biological value of a protein is determined by the protein's amino acid composition and how well it matches the dog's amino acid requirements. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, and although we often talk about the protein needs of dogs or cats, dogs and cats actually have an amino acid requirement. Dogs have an essential need for ten different amino acids, while cats have eleven. The essential amino acids cannot be produced by the dog or cat themselves, which is why they need to be supplied through their diet. If the dog or cat gets too little of one or more of these amino acids, this can eventually lead to various health deficiencies, including muscle wasting, a weakened immune system, hormonal and enzymatic disturbances, growth disorders in puppies and kittens, skin and coat problems, digestive issues, neurological problems, and reduced wound healing ability. Prolonged amino acid deficiency can even lead to fatal organ damage. The reason why the list of potential consequences of amino acid deficiency is so long is that amino acids are involved in a myriad of different metabolic processes and are part of many body tissues and substances circulating in the dog and cat's body. To get back to the issue of protein and amino acid requirements: A dog or cat can easily get sufficient amounts of protein but still get too little of one or more essential amino acids. An increased amount of another essential amino acid cannot compensate for the lack of another essential amino acid. Therefore, the dog or cat may develop the aforementioned deficiencies despite an adequate supply of protein. See Product See Product Taurine: Important for Cats and Dogs As already mentioned, cats - unlike most dogs - have an essential need for eleven amino acids, as they cannot produce the amino acid taurine themselves. Taurine's main role is to conjugate bile acids into bile salts to make them sufficiently water-soluble so they can dissolve in intestinal contents. This is important for fat digestion. Additionally, taurine plays an important role in, among other things, heart health, normal vision, reproduction, and cellular metabolism. Taurine deficiency in cats can lead to very serious health issues, including heart disease, blindness, and reproductive disorders. The heart contains significantly higher amounts of taurine than regular muscle meat and thus resembles offal like liver, which also contains large amounts of taurine. Therefore, the benefits of heart in pet food include being a good source of taurine. However, processing and storage are important factors. Taurine is sensitive to strong heat treatment over long periods, as can occur in the industrial production of pet food, treats, and snacks. Light and moisture will also affect taurine's nutritional value. To ensure that your cat (or dog) gets a taurine-rich snack, it is therefore a good idea to choose raw, lightly cooked, or freeze-dried heart, which is stored in a dark, dry, cool place for as short a time as possible.. "it is therefore a good idea to choose raw, lightly cooked, or freeze-dried heart, which is stored in a dark, dry, cool place for as short a time as possible" Ann-Kristin Meyer Risk of Taurine Deficiency in Dogs The attentive reader may have noticed that the above section says "unlike most dogs." Dogs, as a rule, do not have an essential need for taurine, as they can produce taurine from the sulfur-containing amino acids methionine and cysteine. Methionine is one of the essential amino acids that the dog must obtain through its diet. Under the right conditions, the risk of taurine deficiency in a dog will be negligible. However, there are several factors that can increase the risk of taurine deficiency and thus also the risk of developing, among other things, heart disease. An increased risk of taurine deficiency can arise, for example, when the dog's diet contains too little methionine, cysteine, and/or taurine. Protein digestibility in the dog's food is too low. The dog's diet contains too much fiber. Animal vs. Plant Protein Methionine, cysteine, and taurine occur in greater amounts in animal protein. If the dog's protein needs are mainly met through plant protein, it may be that the dog's methionine needs are met, but there are not enough amounts of methionine left to synthesize cysteine and taurine. It is important to note that the dog's need to produce taurine itself will be greater when the taurine content in the food is low. A dog that mainly gets its protein needs met through animal protein will therefore have a lower taurine synthesis requirement than a dog that mainly consumes plant proteins - simply because animal protein contains significantly higher amounts of taurine than plant protein. Additionally, the amino acid methionine is very heat-sensitive, and its biological availability and thus also the availability for taurine synthesis are significantly reduced when the food is heat-treated. If the dog only eats heavily heat-treated food, it may very well be that the dog's methionine supply is insufficient to also produce adequate amounts of cysteine and taurine. The Importance of Protein Digestibility Protein digestibility in the diet is also of great importance. Industrial processing of food can significantly reduce protein digestibility. Strong heat treatment (at high temperatures over a long period) will affect the protein structure, making it less available to the dog's body. Additionally, the processing of protein-rich feed materials together with starch-rich feed materials will lead to the production of AGEs (advanced glycation end products), which are the name for reaction products from the so-called Maillard reaction, when amino acids react with sugar molecules. AGEs are difficult to digest, and the undigested AGEs will pass further into the colon, where they promote the growth of taurine-degrading bacteria. This will result in a reduced amount of taurine available for absorption and reuse in the body. Fiber and Taurine Absorption AGEs are not the only factors that can reduce taurine absorption. Large amounts of fiber in the dog's diet can reduce taurine availability for the body, as some of them can bind to bile salts, making them unavailable for absorption. Dogs are quite efficient at recycling taurine after it has done its job and helped with fat digestion. However, this absorption cannot occur once the fibers have bound to the bile salts. In that case, these are excreted along with the dog's feces. Overweight dogs undergoing weight loss or dogs with very low metabolism and thus significantly lower energy needs than the average dog are often fed high-fiber diets, and therefore have an increased risk of taurine deficiency. Supplementing with Heart If you have an overweight dog or a dog with low metabolism, or if you feed your dog heavily processed food or food that contains large amounts of plant protein, it may make sense to supplement the dog's diet with taurine-rich heart as a treat. The benefits of heart in pet food are clear in these scenarios, where it can help ensure sufficient taurine intake. Why Heart Instead of Liver? But why is it specifically the heart, and not, for example, liver, which is also rich in taurine, that can be used to supplement the diet of dogs and cats? It is because the heart, unlike the liver, contains significantly smaller amounts of some other nutrients, which can lead to health problems if consumed in excessive amounts. Here we are talking about the mineral copper and vitamin A. To avoid overdosing on these nutrients, it is therefore better to choose heart as a supplement rather than liver. This further emphasizes the benefits of heart in pet food . Note: Limitations on the Use of Heart Heart - like offal - is rich in purines, which is why it is not suitable as a supplementary feed for dogs with a defect in uric acid metabolism or dogs that are medicated with allopurinol. The Author: Ann-Kristin Meyer M.Sc. in Animal Science from the University of Copenhagen, specializing in dog nutrition, Owner of HundeFoderNørden

Stock, bone broth, bone broth for your pet – beloved by many names. What these terms have in common is that they describe the liquid left after slow-cooking bones from various animals, such as chicken, beef, lamb, or turkey in a bit of water, optionally with some vegetables. The liquid that remains, however, is much more than just cooking water. It is filled with nutrients that, through slow cooking, are released from the bone tissue. Together with nutrients like glucosamine and chondroitin, which are structural elements of cartilage and thus very important for joint health, collagen is perhaps the most important nutrient that concentrates in the broth after several hours – or even days – on the stove. Table of Content Collagen as an important structural protein Collagen and gut health The Importance of the Gut Barrier for Your Dog's Health Protecting Your Dog from Leaky Gut Syndrome Collagen as an important structural protein Collagen is a structural protein that many people know from beauty products for humans, as it provides elasticity to both connective tissue and skin. But collagen also has another very important function. It supports muscles, bones, tendons, and joints – much like the load-bearing walls of a house. If these aren't stable enough, the entire house collapses. Collagen is extremely important for the musculoskeletal system to function as it should. And this is precisely why many dog owners have taken an interest in bone broth for your pet . The liquid is ideal as a daily supplement to supply your dog with an extra portion of collagen, glucosamine, and chondroitin, all three of which can have health-promoting effects for the dog's musculoskeletal system. Photo by: Rozanne Willems for Hokuō® Collagen and gut health But collagen can do more than just stabilize the musculoskeletal system and make connective tissue and skin elastic. Collagen is an important player when it comes to your dog's gut health! Collagen is, as already mentioned, a protein made up of many different amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, and the sequence of different amino acids, or – in other words – the amino acid profile is unique to each type of protein. The protein collagen mainly consists of the amino acids glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline but also contains significant amounts of other amino acids, including glutamine and arginine. Before I can explain why these amino acids – and therefore collagen – can be beneficial for your dog's gut, some background information is necessary. Photo by: Rozanne Willems for Hokuō® See Product See Product See Product See Product See Product See Product See Product See Product See Product See Product The Importance of the Gut Barrier for Your Dog's Health Dogs live in a dangerous world – full of bacteria, viruses, toxins, and other elements that can make them sick if they enter the body. To prevent this, the dog is protected externally by the skin barrier and internally by the gut barrier. The skin and gut are potential entry points for foreign particles and microorganisms. Just as the skin can be damaged and become permeable to potentially harmful substances/organisms, the gut barrier can also develop "holes" and provide a direct route for foreign particles into the dog's bloodstream. The condition where the gut barrier has holes is also known as "leaky gut." "Leaky gut" can have many different consequences, including immune reactions such as allergies and food sensitivities, inflammation throughout the body, gastrointestinal diseases, skin diseases, a weakened immune system, and behavioral changes. The list is long and clearly shows how important an intact gut barrier is. Photo by: Hokuō® Protecting Your Dog from Leaky Gut Syndrome One of the causes of “leaky gut” is a deficiency in the amino acid glutamine, which is one of the main nutrients responsible for maintaining the intestinal barrier. And glutamine is precisely one of the amino acids found in the protein collagen. Providing the dog with glutamine through the diet, for example in the form of bone broth, can therefore reduce the permeability of the intestinal wall to unwanted foreign particles and thereby prevent the above-mentioned harmful health consequences. However, it is not only glutamine that can have a positive effect on gut health. A study with mice suffering from colitis, a chronic inflammation of the intestines, showed that the amino acids glycine and prolyl-hydroxyproline, when administered orally, can have an anti-inflammatory effect on the intestines. Both amino acids are major components of collagen. The amino acid arginine, which is also a component of collagen, may likewise have an anti-inflammatory effect. A scientific study with mice suffering from asthma showed that arginine, given orally, had an anti-inflammatory effect on the airways and reduced the symptoms of the asthma condition. Another study with rats suggests that arginine may have an anti-inflammatory effect in overweight individuals who suffer from obesity-related inflammatory conditions. Bone broth has the potential to do much more than – thanks to its good taste – camouflage various supplements and encourage picky dogs to consume sufficient amounts of food. This is why bone broth has its justification as a regular supplement to a dog’s diet. Photo by: Rozanne Willems for Hokuō® See Product See Product See Product See Product See Product See Product See Product See Product See Product See Product Sources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25884286/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6021736/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4040816/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27749689/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31076401/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5350494/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4454082/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4377861/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4899898/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5356289/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6891674/  The Author: Ann-Kristin Meyer MSc in Animal Science from the University of Copenhagen , specializing in canine nutrition, Owner of HundeFoderNørden