This article is just a summation and too the point summary profile of how processed dog food (even the expensive one from the vet) and high protein diet’s like the BARF diet, substantially increases your dog’s risk of getting cancer.

With a plant based diet, dogs are able to gain a much wider variety of nutrients in order to optimize their health. Dietary choices have a immense and direct correlation to health problems. Animal protein, both directly and indirectly contributes to increases to the risk for a wide variety of diseases, most notably, cancer, heart disease and failure, diabetes, dementia etc… The basis for this lies in effects in which animal proteins and fats have on the individual cells as well as the whole body interactions. First and most importantly, cancer causing chemicals are produced whenever any animal, bird or fish tissue are cooked. In dry food this is done due to the food being cooked a temperature in excess of 250 degrees Celsius in  part of the processing procedure. What happens is that HCA is formed on the meat. These HCAs are not found in the store but they are developed when the meat is cooked, baked, boiled, grill or fried. This is due to the relation of time and temperature it takes to cook the meat, these carcinogens form. The higher the temperature, the more they form. Sadly meat can’t be consumed raw due to all the infectious bacteria. Factory farm meat and most commercial meat we get from our super markets today including free range meats all contain several harmful bacteria, chemicals, growth hormones and anti-biotics that are extremely destructive to your dog’s health and vitality thereby increasing it’s risk of developing heart, kidney, liver and cancer problems by as much as 75% plus. Yes centuries ago, you dog ate raw meat, wild game, vegetables, fruits, seeds, grains and bugs. Even when they took down a kill, the first thing they went in to eat was the contents of the stomach from the herbivore/prey. However, in today’s globalisation and western diets we are forced to move away from meats, processed food and dry food and towards a plant based diet for our dogs in order to balance out their behaviours and increase their survival. Preservatives in particular in meat products have an array of cancer causing agents. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, in today’s lifestyle and evolutionary circumstances, the optimum amount of red meat you and you dog should consume is ZERO!

Vegetables do not form HCAs or any other carcinogens during cooking. Fresh fruit and vegetables are mostly made of fibre. Fibre gives food it’s bulk and helps to move toxins and HCAs faster through the digestive track. Fibre helps absorb and remove toxins and HCAs that have been introduced into the dog’s body through cooked tissue. Cancer is a big occurrence in dogs these days and is greatly feared just in humans because it slowly grows and progresses through the body. There are studies and studies and studies and studies and observations that links and prescribes the exact roles that the consumption of meat and dairy to the Initiation, Promotion and Final Spread of cancer.

Animal protein tends to increase cancer risk and there are multiple mechanisms and explanations for this effect. Chemicals play a crucial role in cancer formation, they have become an everyday part of our modern day world. Chemicals are present in pesticides, pollution and all kinds of industrial waste that is then fed to us through our water, food and products given to meat and dairy sources.

Here is the key point:
The body has a key defence that is able to inactivate all these chemicals and make them harmless,. This defence takes place  by an enzyme called Mixed Function Oxidase. When plant based protein is eaten, even if chemicals enter at the same time, this enzyme is able to inactivate them so that they become harmless. However, when animal based proteins such as meat or dairy is eaten, this defence mechanism turns against the dog’s system and converts these chemicals in carcinogens. These new dangerous substances then damage the genetic content of the dog’s cells. When this damaged DNA is replicated, which occurs when cells divide, cancer cell formation is the actual final result. It is the actual protein contained in the flesh from animals that causes our own self defence mechanisms to turn against us. To put it crudely “Karma is a bitch and she can be vicious and sneaky”. The anti-biotics, pesticides, hormones and all the other multitude of chemicals and toxins that our suppliers give farm animals to eat for your dog’s diet, are an additional problem. Pure animal protein itself, causes the body to rebel in the form of the dog’s defence system failing.

In a nut shell, a low animal diet represses cancer formation and promotion. In cancer progression, the cancer cells that have grown locally, continue to grow and eventually spread to the other organs and throughout the body. The dog’s body cannot continue to survive this final damage. The same push and pull effect applies in cancer progression, the dog’s animal based diet accelerates and promotes cancer progression, where a plant based diet slows down or reverses cancer progression.

The secret to a successful plant based diet for your dog:
Variety is key and lots of it simultaneously. Even though we do supply and sell an Organic, Chemical and Preservative free plant based dog food (has a 2 page list of ingredients), I still encourage client’s to here and there add table left overs or meals that are prescribed on my “Cooking meals to share with your dog series”. Example, I add ground up carrots or oats to the supplied Organic food we sell or even Avocado or banana. As is in our organic food which is important for your dog, be sure that there is Taurine and L-Carnintine added into your dog’s plant based diet if you are cooking it yourself.

The results speak for themselves: 

1. Dog’s that follow this plant based diet live a minimum of 30% longer. This means that an adult powerful breed dog like a Rottweiler or German Shepard male that would normally live to the age of 8 or 9, shall now have the capacity to live to the age of 13 -17 years of age.
2. The dogs no longer pass or burp fowl smelling odours or gas.
3. Dogs require drinking 8/10ths less water.
4. The dog’s hydration and cooling levels during the heat is far more adaptable and manageable.
5. The dogs are fitter and are able to walk much further distances.
6. The dog’s behavioural  conditions are a lot easier and manageable to direct and balance.
7. The dogs have whiter and stronger teeth and bones, as well as are significantly less susceptible to calcium deficiency disorders.
8. Puppies grow longer, taller, larger and more muscular than their parents.

Sources: Harvard School of Medicine, Nutrition and Public Health. China Study,  Cornell University, A Delicate Balance, Alicia Silverstone, The Kind Diet