The importance of gut health for your dog
At Healthy Active Pet we are passionate about helping pets be in their best health possible and our raw and air dried dog food is FULL of nutrition and health benefits to help your dog live a long an healthy life
And the health of the gut is paramount to any effort at improving overall heath. A New Zealand study published in 2017 found a clear link between gut microbiome diversity with intestinal health.
The study also found that kibble fed dogs had increased levels of bacteria associated with diarrhoea and irritable bowel, whereas the raw fed dogs in the study experienced greater gut microbiome diversity and improved nutrient digestibility.
The makeup of the microbiome is critically important to overall health, given that as much as 70-80% of the immune system cells are thought to reside in the gut.
In this sense, the health of the gut and the health of the immune system are really one and the same; without a healthy gut it is virtually impossible to have a healthy immune system.
Despite all of this, so much of the commercial pet food is brimming with heavily refined carbohydrates, poor quality and degraded meat meals, oxidised fats, synthetic vitamins and cheap, poorly absorbed minerals.
This food is dehydrating and doesn’t promote health; it promotes inflammation, gut dysbiosis, and the very ailments we seek to prevent.
And one of the best ways to promote gut health is a species appropriate diet.
A species appropriate diet is a diet that is well suited to the metabolic capabilities of your dog’s particular digestive system.
Luckily you can easily replicate a species appropriate diet using the recipes in our recipe books and whole foods that you buy from the supermarket or grocer and would eat yourself.
We’ve chosen a variety of lean proteins, healthy fats, nutritious fruits and vegetables across a rainbow of colours, as well as herbs and superfoods to fill nutritional gaps and add functional nutrition benefits.
These foods are easily digested with highly bioavailable, organic nutrients, pre and probiotic benefits, digestive enzymes, phytonutrients and antioxidants – all of which play an important role in the truth to the adage that food truly is medicine.
Come and check out our Ultimate Raw Feeding Recipe Book here
