[Spy Car]

@aimee, labeling the obvious as “propaganda” and horse manure is….

Dogs were not shaped by evolution to consume carbohydrates. That’s a fact.

Dogs have no capacity to produce salivary amylase (the enzyme necessary to digest starches/sugars/carbohydrates) all omnivores possess. When omnivores chew plant matter those salivary enzymes start working to digest the food.

This doesn’t/can’t happen with dogs, as they lack the capacity.

Dogs, in a trait that is unevenly distributed in the population, have acquired a capacity to produce amylase in their pancreas. This aided them, as opposed to their wolf species-mates (who have less capacity) in surviving as opportunistic carnivores in a relationship with humans.

But producing pancreatic amylase is not the optimal or normal condition for dogs and –as mentioned–the capacity is highly variable.

To take a marginal capacity (that is a dog’s ability to produce enough pancreatic amylase) a push it to the maximum by feeding dogs highly unnatural carbohydrate-rich cereal-based diets puts tremendous strain on that organ. It is an assault on the pancreas. It sets up a dog to be sick.

Often the precipitating event that leads to pancreatitis is the consumption (by a sickened dog) of a high-fat meal that it is unaccustomed to eating. This happens because the pancreas becomes conditioned to spilling the “wrong” digestive enzymes to metabolize fat and in the confusion, those “wrong” enzymes instead attack the tissues of the pancreas causing damage.

Fat gets “blamed” for pancreatitis and the stressed and ill effects of a high-carb diet in sickening the pancreas is ignored. Dogs who eat a high-fat diet as a matter of course (and as intended my nature) do not work their pancreases overtime. Nor do they confuse the pancreas with which digestive enzymes to release. As a result, pancreatitis is very rare among those dogs and not-at-all uncommon in dogs fed high-carb kibble diets.

The pancreas has two functions.

One is to release digestive enzymes, and high-carb diets clearly undermine pancreatic health through a demand for excessive levels of pancreatic enzymes and causing a predisposition for pancreatitis.

The other is to regulate blood sugars. Again, an unnatural high-carb causes wild swings in a bogs blood sugar levels. Boom and bust. The pancreas has to work overtime in an attempt to control for a diet that isn’t species appropriate. This also takes a toll on pancreatic health.

Such a diet sets up a dog for pancreatic problems.

In contrast, fat metabolism keeps a dog’s blood sugars extremely even. They produce steady glucose supplies easily and on demand in a slow and steady fashion that places no strain on the pancreas. This promotes good pancreatic health.

So with both pancreatic functions, the “endocrine function” that regulates blood sugars) and the “exocrine function” (that produces digestive enzymes) fat metabolism works with nature to promote pancreatic health and high vitality.

In contrast, a high-carb diet taxes the pancreas by requiring it to produce excessive (and wholly unnatural) amounts of pancreatic amylase due to feeding a modern processed cereal-based food. Then the stress on the pancreas is compounded on the exocrine by the wild ride of trying to control blood sugars.

Those assaults on pancreatic health set up high-carb eating dogs to be sick. Not “propaganda,” but an honest evaluation of dog physiology. The junk-food diet is at the root of the problem. That’s what happens when species inappropriate food is marketed for dogs.

Bill