Last fall, John and I signed up to do a wellness program that emphasized whole and holistic foods. It cut–for 30 days–anything processed or refined. By day three, I had terrible headaches and I was irritable. John felt nauseated. It passed, of course, but it definitely proved how we’ve come to rely on sugary, unhealthy foods… without even realizing it. But, food is an addiction, and after completing the program (and feeling awesome!) we both went back to eating pretty much how we always have.
Don’t get me wrong: We are largely healthy eaters. I say largely because, like last night, we eat yummy/terrible stuff like tortellini with garlic bread, a big glass of wine, and chocolate cake on occasion…
Anyways! While I work on my own eating habits, at least I know that my pets are eating well! Much better than I am, in fact!
This post is sponsored by Wellness® Natural Pet Food and the BlogPaws® Pet Influencer Network™. I am being compensated to help share Wellness Grain Free options, but we only share information we feel is relevant to our readers. Wellness is not responsible for the content of this article.
You might recall from our post introducing this food trial of the reinvented Wellness® Complete Health™ line that Emmett’s eating a grain-free formula for three months. When I last checked in, we had just started feeding it. Now that we’re into it, a few thoughts:
I am grateful that I’m able to provide Emmett with high-quality food. Honestly, at almost 13 with terminal cancer, the boy deserves the best. (And… maybe… some junky treats here and there, but that’s another story for another day.)
Here’s the deal with Complete Health: It’s a line that’s always been part of the Wellness brand, but they’ve recently launched this reinvented formula that gives us a grain-free option. I’ve been researching grain-free pretty hard core lately, in part because it’s such a big topic in human health, and in part because I wanted to know if this was the right option for Emmett.
What I’ve found is that most of the “common knowledge” about grain-free diets are misconceptions.
The first thing that’s super important to understand and, I think, is maybe the biggest misconception is that grain-free does not mean carb-free. And that’s OK! That’s good, actually! Carbs are important. Somehow in human health we’ve turned carbs into the bad guy, but that just isn’t true. And our dogs really do need carbs to thrive. The trick? It’s the quality of those carbs that matter. In the case of the whitefish recipe we’re feeding Em, the first carb source (after the protein source, which of course you want to be first) is potato. For some reason, potatoes have a bad reputation among human health, but they’re actually full of healthy stuff like fiber, potassium, vitamin C, and B-12. I love potatoes as a main carb source, and John and I strive to eat baked potatoes or roasted sweet potatoes regularly… though we don’t achieve it often enough, which is why I’m glad Emmett’s food provides a healthy carb source!
The second misconception is that grains are a leading culprit in food allergies. In fact, most food allergies in dogs are related to proteins, not grains. Unfortunately, because this is a popular myth, the real deal is often glossed over. When it comes down to swapping grains for higher-quality carbs, the real benefit is digestibility.
With the chemo that Emmett’s been on for the last two years, combined with a lifetime of culinary indiscretions, Emmett’s stomach can get a little… well… wonky. Off. I like that the grain-free formula makes digestion easier, plus Complete Health combines high-quality protein, prebiotics and probiotics to support healthy digestion, and vitamins A and E to support healthy immune system. All things a cancer dog needs!
As I was researching this, I found all kinds of websites that make claims like “grain-free cures cancer,” and while I understand the desire to wish and hope for a miracle cure to cancer, that just isn’t a reality. Maybe some day that’ll happen, but for now, the best way to take care of cancer is through an overall healthy lifestyle: lots of exercise (catered to his arthritis, of course), lots of sleep, lots and lots and lots of love, and lots of healthy food. After this first round of research, I still say the Wellness Complete Health fits that bill.
Maybe I can use the Complete Health recipe to inspire some healthy recipes for me and John…
Click here to learn more or to purchase at PetSmart! Psst… Before you do, visit www.5signsofwellness.com for $3.00 off your purchase!
What do you think about grain-free diets? Have you thought about trying one with your dog? What questions do you have about grain-free misconceptions and grain-free benefits?
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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Wellness® Natural Pet Food. The opinions and text are all mine.
I used to feed grain-free to my dogs but I after reading lots of dog food blogs and websites, I realized that grains aren’t bad if they are good kind of grains. The more important things in dog food are quality of the ingredients and amount of protein in the food. My rule of thumb is that a food should have meat as the first ingredient and contains close to or surpass 30% minimum of crud protein. I saw this recommendation from a vet site some where. Also someone once told me that the lest ingredient the better because it’s more wholesome in her opinion.
Also the fillers… I think some grain-free foods bulk up the formula with yucky fillers, but this one doesn’t, thank goodness!
A great read – must get my dog adapting to this type of eating !
Thanks! Let us know how it goes!
My husband and I have been on a non-processed food diet for about 6 years now and we would never go back to our old eating habits again. But as you say, that’s a whole nuther story.
We have been feeding our dogs Wellness Complete since they came to live with us. Our lab mix tends to get a little chunky so we feed her the Healthy Weight and we are able to keep her weight steady.
I agree with Krazy4pets that not all grains are bad and we do allow for occasional treats in our human diets as well as those for our canines. What would life be without wine and chocolate or Milk Bones?
We use supplements in our human diets and add coconut oil and fish oil to our dogs diets.
Thanks for the informative article and good luck with “eating healthy”. It’s a difficult mind shift but once you get used to reading labels (on dog food also) and experience how good you do feel, it becomes a no brainer.
Thanks so much for the words of encouragement! 🙂 I suppose any meaningful change does take time…
My guys LOVE coconut oil, too! For some reason, Cooper’s become a bit obsessed. If we’re going to cook with it, we have to sneak the jar off the shelf and quietly open it or else he comes running (and drooling) for a spoonful! Silly pup!
Shadow is such a finicky eater at times that she makes me nuts. Since she has a sensitive tummy – and reflux – I have to be careful and consistent with her food and treats. Her kibble uses barley rather than white rice, which makes happy; her canned food has potatoes rather than grains.
Ducky is like Mikey the Life cereal kid – she’ll eat anything and pays for it with occasional IBD episodes. Luckily, though, they are not severe like they were in the beginning. Her food has white rice in it – which I hate – so I try to pick out most of it and put it back in the can. But it’s the only food that doesn’t aggravate her IBD, other than the prescription stuff. So I do what works.
Oh, my goodness. Emmett will eat ANYTHING, too. To prove my point, mere moments ago he ate some bug that was running across the kitchen floor. Who knows what it was. That’s partly why I’m so obsessive about picking healthy stuff for him… he’s not going to do it for himself, that’s for sure!
Ha ha, I know what you mean about the dogs eating better than us! After a lot of thought, we’ve got our dogs on a mostly raw diet, with natural supplements (i.e. coconut oil) and the occasional high-grade kibble (like, twice a week or so). It took me a while to finally realize that while there is, of course, a right practice and a wrong practice, there isn’t a single solution for everyone; you’ve got to do what’s right for you and your little ones, and it usually takes some sleuth work to figure out what it is!
I totally commiserate with your “eating healthy most of the time” thing; I made the decision this year to not buy any cookies, cakes, muffins (or pre-prepared foods in general) and to make them all at home instead (I was doing this before, but we would still buy those kinds of things on occasion) so I comfort myself with the thought that, at least, everything is homemade with ingredients that I’m aware of. But sugar…oh, sugar is definitely a difficult thing to eliminate…still working on that one…
YES! Sugar is soooo tough. It’s in everything, even things I never realized before. But, you’re right… making at home goes a long, long way. I need to get better about that, especially with things like condiments and bread.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience!!
It is so true sometimes we feed our dogs better than ourselves! Great post. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Sherry!
I will have to check this dog food brand out!
We’ve been impressed so far, Kylie! Let us know what you think once you do check it out!
Greetings! I’ve been following your web site for some time now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from Houston Tx! Just wanted to tell you keep up the fantastic work!
We try to eat healthy around here too, cutting out processed and refined foods (well, more like cutting back, not out!) but at the end of the day I think the dogs still do better.
I really do think that we have less digestive upsets since we’ve switched to grain free; that’s the biggest benefit I’ve noticed.
Exactly the same here… I’m so much more vigilant about THEIR eating habits than my own. 🙂 Ah, well. I’m so glad you’ve seen those improvements. Fewer digestive issues is a good thing!
With so much misinformation out there, it great to read something unbiased and real. Thanks
I couldn’t agree more! Getting them grain-free makes me want to grow my own food from our garage! LOL
It does give us a good satisfaction to see them happy and completely satisfied with what is best for them, ALL THE TIME 🙂