TOO MUCH SALT?
As I mentioned in previous articles when talking about inferior foods and treats, like Milk Bones, there is no need to add the kind of high levels of salt to a pet’s diet that commercial foods often do. It is important, as the caregiver of your pets, to read the ingredient panel on the back of your bag. There are many ways in which the pet industries design their packaging to lure you to buy their product. They want you to look at the pictures of meat, fish, vegetables, and fruits, like you would gladly put on your own dinner table. By reading the label, you can judge for yourself by counting the ingredients that are put in as fillers, or cheap proteins, before you even see a blueberry. Ingredient panels list what is mostly in the food in order of just how much. If they list chicken first that is one deception because they want to fool you into thinking that there is a whole lot of chicken in the bag, when essentially most of the chicken will be unusable. A whole protein like chicken, should be followed by chicken meal-and never chicken by-product meal. These companies are permitted to have multiple blueberries blasted across their bag, when the actual amount of blueberries in a forty-pound bag may equal the size of a single blueberry (Just an example of how you may be misled.)
The most conspicuous aspect of commercially inferior food (which you pay for them to advertise) is salt. The minimum amount of salt to maintain and support healthy growth and endurance, according to AAFCO, is at least 0.3%. Within a proper range, salt is beneficial to pets and people. However, some manufacturers increase the amount of salt because, just like salt enhances the taste of our food, it makes pet food more palatable. Salt is a natural preservative and aids in the prevention of bad mold and bacteria. According to one article I read by Joanne Keenan, “there are five benefits of salt in pet food. *Salt maintains the body’s fluids (blood) *Sodium ions are needed for muscle contraction and electrical impulses. *Prevents conditions such as gout. * Helps maintain normal blood pressure to the heart and kidneys.”
Besides tricking the pet food purchaser, you, with pictures of lovely vegetables, fruits, and proteins, they use various names for the salt that they add to the food ” like sodium chloride or iodized salt, or group it under ‘vitamins and minerals.’ They’ll use the names sea salt, brine, sodium propionate, sodium nitrite, sodium metabisulfite, sodium erythorbate, sodium benzoate or disodium EDTA.”
Too much salt can lead to dehydration, vomiting, diarrhea, and salt poisoning. Dogs and cats with kidney or heart problems should be restricted to their salt intake. It is not a good idea to give them pretzels, potato chips, crackers, cheese, or deli meats on a regular basis. I used to sprinkle my dogs’ food with parmesan cheese. Stopped. But I do put deli turkey or ham over Rosie’s heart pills (wrapped in a cold dense cat food pate) to entice her to eat. I even remarked taking a bit of ham myself this morning, how salty it tasted. Perhaps she would go for tripe instead. (Must try tomorrow.) I crush her nighttime pills and empty the capsule in her dish consisting of deli fresh, or canned food, with some freeze-dried raw and good quality dry. Once in a while when we have pizza I’ll give them a little crust. Everything in moderation is the key. I just learned doing this article, that salt, of which I use too much, is not good for osteoporosis, with which I was recently diagnosed. Doctor suggested a nutritionist appointment!
For some of us Fall is not our favorite season as it means getting kids back to school, decreases in sunlight, decorating for three holidays, more parties and expectations, Christmas just around the corner, more to the to-do list. We may not even realize that we are getting stressed. Take deep breaths, a quiet walk with your dog. Recognize what triggers your stress and don’t let yourself get overwhelmed.
