What's In Kibble
A "Tongue-in-Cheek" Look at Kibble For Humans
Imagine that someone developed and marketed a "complete and balanced" diet for humans. This special food is claimed to contain everything necessary to provide optimal health for the lifetime of a human being. It supplies all the recommended daily amounts of protein, fats, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins and minerals, for every person irrespective of size or individuality. There are different diets for the various developmental stages in life - infant, youth, adult, and senior, and there are even specialty diets for sports enthusiasts! This food can be popped into the blender and made into mush for babies and delivers premium nutrition right through to old age.
The manufacturer claims you should never eat any other foods as it will unbalance this special diet formulated for the human species. And after all, they know how best to feed humans. It's technology that shouldn't be tampered with by those without proper education on nutrition. To provide you with a sense of security, they back up their claims with multitudes of research on human dietary needs, which are conducted in a laboratory. No need to take into account mankind's nutritional evolution or physiological requirements because the valid scientific evidence proves differently. Every package displays a guaranteed analysis, so a quick glance will show you that it contains everything you and your family need for a healthy and long life - with each serving you eat!
To compensate for any nutrient losses during processing, the manufacturers add an array of synthetic vitamins and minerals. To make the diet more colorful, FD & C Red No. 40 is added to the formula along with a potent sweetener called ammoniated glycyrrhizin. BHA and propyl gallate are also added. Not to worry, though, you'll appreciate these last ingredients so you can store this diet in the cupboard with confidence, for a very long time. Go ahead and unplug the refrigerator. You won't need it any longer! If you question the other ingredients listed on the package, relax! They come from quality sources. They're just given different names to keep marketing interesting for consumers. If it claims to be meat meal it must mean meat, right? And you know it's got plenty of nutritious vegetables and grains because they're visible all over the glossy package.
This inexpensive product has been shaped and baked into crunchy bite-sized morsels to help keep teeth free from plaque. Just think of the money you'll save going to the dentist! You can buy this "complete and balanced diet" for less than half the price you usually pay for "real" food and best of all, virtually no preparation is required! All you have to do is pour it into a bowl and serve up some tap water on the side to help you digest your meal.
For extra appeal or finicky kids, you can add one cup of hot water to every three cups of food. Mix and let stand for a few minutes. This new food makes its own delicious gravy. However, the label indicates once water has been added to this food, it should be completely eaten within a three-hour period. This is to avoid food poisoning due to bacteria. But really, it's a safe way to eat. As a matter of fact, this special food is claimed to be devoid of any bacteria so there's absolutely no chance for food poisoning as long as you follow the directions!
What if you had no choice whether you wanted to eat it or not. What if the decision was up to someone else that insisted this was the only diet you could eat. Despite the fact that all your human instincts were screaming to not eat the stuff you had nothing else to choose from. Not one single option. So, you eat. But after eating this food for some time, you find you're not as frisky as you used to be even though your friends still tell you how great you look. Your hair is shiny and your nails are strong, but you've developed this annoying itch between your toes and a red rash has appeared on your belly that won't seem to go away.
Eventually, you forget what real food tastes like. You've become a modern day "food consumer" and no longer remember the connection between 'just food' and 'food quality'. You've forgotten to question the quality and cost of ingredients in this special human food. How fresh is it? How pure is it? Is it free of dangerous chemicals? Did the processing affect the quality or nutritional value? Well, what the heck, the food may not be all that great or healthy, but it's cheap enough so you can indulge in other human wants and needs.
Think about eating this food for a lifetime. Could you do it? Could you feed your family this food? Not likely! Not only would you crave the taste of other foods, but also, common sense would tell you something was missing in your diet! No fresh vegetables or fruit, no meat and none of those scrumptious snacks you've come to enjoy while watching the T.V at night. It wouldn't take long before most people would be desperately searching for a salad, a barbecued steak or anything that was different!
Although many people have come to accept kibble pet food as being a normal and natural way to feed pets, in fact, it is not. It is simply what consumers have been led to believe. Nothing manufactured into a "crunchy morsel" can rival the wholesome foods manufactured for eons by nature. Heat processed commercial diets or cooked foods are missing something that is unequivocally the most important nutrient of all. When it's there you know it and feel it in resulting good health and so do dogs! This essential factor is only found in fresh, uncooked whole foods. It's called life! Raw food is a vital thing. A living force in and of itself. Almost everyone knows that raw food is abundant in unaltered vitamins and minerals. Raw foods stimulate metabolism and renewal of the body's organs. Raw foods contain substances that help fight disease and they contain enzymes that are essential for all body systems. These enzymes play an integral role in the anti-aging process.
Raw fresh food rather than cooked food keeps the body vibrantly healthy at nearly any age. The living testimony of humans and dogs that thrive on fresh foods should be enough to convince even the most skeptical that a diet of cooked or heat processed foods could never keep anyone in best health for a lifetime. The good news is that pet owner are finally making positive changes toward a healthier alternative.
