Healing Touch for Animals Program

Whole vegetables, fruits, and grains. Fresh, unprocessed food ingredients

    contain wholesome nutrients in all their naturally complex glory, with their fragile  

    vitamins, enzymes, and antioxidants intact. They are also less likely to be

    adulterated with impurities of any kind. 

 

  As few grains as possible (a whole-meat source should be one of
     the first two ingredients, preferably two of the top three) --
     watch for splitting, such as listing ground yellow corn and corn
     gluten meal as separate ingredients which together might add up to
     more than the first ingredient. Note that canned foods often have
     fewer grains than dry. Whole grains are best; avoid grain fragments (such as "corn 
Avoid foods that use corn gluten meal, a cheap waste product
     from the human food industry that provides incomplete protein for
     dogs. I consider this ingredient to be one of the hallmarks of
     poor quality foods. *Wheat gluten meal*, one of the ingredients
     that caused illness and death due to contamination in the recent
     Menu Foods recall, is similar -- a cheap source of poor quality
     protein used primarily by the lower-quality foods. *Rice protein
     concentrate*, which was also involved in the pet food recalls, is
     a little better quality than the other two, but still provides
     incomplete plant protein rather than the more desirable animal
     protein. *Soy protein* has the same problem. 

  No meat by-products or digest (meal is OK). There is some
     disagreement whether whole meat is preferable to meal. Meal has
     been rendered, but it is also dried, so if a meal is listed as the
     first ingredient, there is greater likelihood that the food
     contains more meat than grains. When whole meats such as chicken,
     lamb, turkey, etc. are listed as the first ingredient, there may
     actually be much less meat due to the weight of the moisture in
     the meat. Both whole meats and meals are considered acceptable as
     long as they are identified and not generic (e.g., *not* "meat
     meal" or "meat and bone meal"). By-products may be OK if the
     company specifies that they are human-grade organs such as liver
     and kidney, but otherwise they usually signify parts not
     considered fit for human consumption.