Nightly meal preparation for Michele Martin goes something like this: lamb – cooked mid-rare, sliced, and piled atop cooked quinoa, locally grown bok choy, and carrots. But a feast of such proportions rarely makes it to the table, and for good reason: Martin concocts hearty, home-cooked servings like this one for her boxer Bella, just a few months ago an emaciated rescue that she scooped up in a Walgreens parking lot.
“She was in the back of a pick-up truck and was so skinny, it was frightful,” says Martin, who recently started Marathon Paws, her own canine fitness company. “She was a quiet dog when I took her in and no … she can run and run and run and is so social and happy and almost at the perfect weight. Her muscle tone is fabulous.” But don’t expect to find Kibbles stocked in the cabinet for this well kept pooch – like her owner, Bella gets her fair share of organic fruits, vegetables, and meat from local farmer’s markets. And when it’s snack time, the healthy pooch downs dehydrated duck, turkey, rabbit, and chicken strips from a local dog bakery in Boston.
For the former corporate administrative and marketing professional turned canine athletic director, shying away from commercial pet food was a natural progression. “In my life I have been a vegan, a macrobiotic and now an omnivore with a preference for local organic. I am sensitive to gluten and knowing that wheat is a common allergen in dogs and seeing how often it is used as a cheap filler, I realized a long time ago that the majority of commercial foods are junk food,” says Martin. “The food recalls and subsequent issues in China just show how corrupt the industry is.”
It has been a tough year for upscale and run-of-the-mill pet foods alike, the kind you’ll find peddled everywhere from your local grocer to the Petco by the mall. Thousands of dogs and cats reportedly fell ill after contaminated wheat gluten from China found its way into numerous pet food brands this year. Officials recalled the tainted products in March and determined that melamine, an industrial chemical, was illegally added to the wheat gluten in the foods, making them appear to contain more protein than they actually did. But now that the widespread panic has been replaced with caution and companies are taking greater strides to keep your pet safe, is it again okay to believe what your mother and grandmother – and maybe even your own vet – have always taught you? Should we still keep our roast chicken dinners, heaping sides of potatoes and corn included, on our own plate and shell out big bucks for pet-friendly diets?
Not necessarily, says Dr. Marty Goldstein, a New York based holistic veterinarian with a client list that includes Oprah Winfrey’s dog Sophie, who is currently grappling with kidney disease. “Real food promotes real health,” says Goldstein, known publicly as Dr. Marty. “By feeding [your pets] a varied diet of fresh, real foods, you are covering the entire spectrum of naturally occurring nutrients.” And though it might seem like the commercial food you serve your pet is equivalent to your healthy grilled chicken salad dinner, Goldstein says that more often than not, it just isn’t so. “I believe that commercial pet foods can sustain life, but I do not believe they promote health,” he explains. “Most commercial pet foods are primarily grains and other forms of carbohydrates, yet dogs and cats have no dietary requirement for carbohydrates.”
Goldstein instead recommends feeding your pooch a well-balanced diet of meat (cooked or raw) – and a small amount of vegetables to sustain health and overall well being. “I’ve seen dogs with horrible inflammatory bowel disease wasting away and headed for euthanasia become symptom free once they got on real food, especially grain-free diets of real food,” muses Goldstein. “Older, arthritic dogs often get a new lease on life when they start getting real food again, especially if it’s grain-free.” Based on the guidance of the holistic vet, Oprah now prepares a mixed diet that includes chicken, beef, lamb, brown rice, potatoes and carrots for her dogs.
Lucky for us, there are a few key options if you’d like to commit to this route, depending on the amount of time you have. Raw food diets that recommend dinners of uncooked bones and chicken legs are a good choice – if you’ve got extra time to do the figurative “hunting,” that is. Otherwise, go ahead and make an extra portion of that steak dinner you’ve been planning.
The choice was clear for Martin after she saw her now-deceased dog Lucky, who had been diagnosed with cancer of the heart and lungs, improve dramatically after switching to a home cooked diet. “I saw an increase in energy and vitality,” she says. “The grey in her hair began to disappear and was replaced by a vibrant reddish tone that others noticed and commented on.” And so for Bella, Martin is using a home cooked diet to keep her dog as healthy and happy as possible. “Look at kids who eat crap food and can’t concentrate in school, and are always tired and acting up,” she says. “It’s the same. You get out what you put in.”
For the Best that Pet Lifestyle has to offer follow Wendy and Lucky Diamond on Facebook, Twitter, and right here at AnimalFair.com!
