Can I Give My Dog People Food?

You've likely heard pet parents say it, or you may have even said it yourself! "I never give my dog any people food!" Many pet parents with this belief, wear it like a badge of honour and they do this because the big pet food companies have convinced us "people food" is bad for dogs and will somehow harm them. Rest assured, the more "people food" your dog has in their diet, the better their health will be! 👍

So then why all the fear mongering from big pet food companies? Why would they perpetuate a complete falsehood around "people food" as something that is hurting our animals? The answer is simple...money! It is always going to be about putting their profits above our pets and it does not serve their best interest to encourage you to feed your dog "people food" or as we like to call it real food! 😀

They make money when we rush out to the grocery store and buy our "dog food" that is filled with questionable, controversial and harmful ingredients. Those pellets of ick that are ultra-processed at extreme heat and have all the nutrients cooked out of whatever low quality ingredients they started with and then they add back in a bunch of synthetic vitamins in order to sustain life and finish it off with a good spraying of fat to make it somewhat palatable for our pets. That's what they want us to feed, so it only makes sense they would never encourage us to feed any real food! To ensure we stick to serving pellets of ick and avoid real food all together, the big pet food manufacturers started a heavily funded, real food/table scraps smear campaign back in the 1960's (1964 to be precise) warning pet parents of the dangers of feeding real food to make sure we were all scared to death to do it! 😳

60 years later and many pet parents are still extremely fearful about feeding their pets "people food". They're worried it is somehow bad for them. Rest assured, if real food was in fact harmful for our dogs, wolves and wild dogs would long be extinct! They regularly consume real food in nature and have for hundreds of years without any issue! 👍

The real food we're talking about sharing with your pup is food made by nature! We're not advocating feeding your pet Kraft Dinner and Doritos, that's not the "people food" we're talking about. We're talking about fresh produce, appropriate dairy products and quality proteins! We know by incorporating fresh, whole foods and less processed foods into our pet's bowls, we can improve their health! Think about it this way 👇

If you ate fast food seven days a week and wanted to improve your diet, you could replace one of the seven days with healthy home cooked food and you've immediately improved your diet! When you realize, that one day is the day you feel best throughout the week, you might start eating your own healthy home cooked food two days a week and you again have instantly improved your diet! Our pets are the same! When we feed them more fresh, whole foods and less processed foods, we are instantly improving their diet! Replacing 20% of an ultra-processed kibble with real food will automatically improve your pet's health! 💙

So how can we incorporate fresh food right from our own fridge into our pup's bowl? If you've never shared real food with your furry guy, be sure to introduce it gradually so as not to cause any upset tummies. If a furry tummy has only ever eaten an ultra-processed diet, their tummy knows exactly how to process that meal and the GI tract will be "off its game". We can keep the digestive system on its toes by always offering variety through a diverse diet! That way the GI tract (gastrointestinal tract) is always on its toes and ready for anything we throw at it! In other words, less or no upset tummies for the furry guys! 👍

So let's take a look at 5 Fridge Foods to Share With Your Floof 👇

🥚 Eggs 🥚

This is such an easy add to the bowl and provides huge benefits to the furry guys! Eggs are a whole food made by nature and just by adding an egg to a furry guy's meal, we can balance the meal because eggs literally provide everything we need to live! We want to make sure we're serving a size appropriate egg and we can always prepare eggs for the furry guys if you don't want to serve it raw. In fact there are some benefits to gently cooking our furry guys eggs! Whether you choose to prepare the eggs or serve them raw, your furry guy can eat the entire egg, shell and all with a huge boost to their health!

🍓 Berries 🍓

Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries all the berries you can think of offer great health benefits to our pups! Kitties too if they'll eat them! Berries are known for their antioxidant properties which is known to reduce many diseases, such as heart disease and certain cancers. Antioxidants scavenge free radicals from the body cells and prevent or reduce the damage caused by oxidation. Adding some berries to your floofs diet is always an instant diet improvement!

🥛 Dairy 🥛

Dairy products like yogurts or raw milks are excellent ways to increase calcium for strong bones and provide natural probiotics to improve gut health! Pasteurized milks, especially cow's milk is not what we want to add as our furry family members have trouble digesting it. Goat's Milk is more digestible than cow's milk and lacks the complex proteins that are often associated with digestive upset. Having fat molecules one-fifth the size of those in cow's milk makes goat's milk easily digestible and tolerable even for dogs who may have digestive issues. It's also a natural tummy tamer and an excellent choice for introducing new food to your pup! If you're going to share some yogurt with your furry family, be sure it never includes any artificial sweeteners.

🥦 Veggies 🥦

Veggies have proven their health benefits for us for as far back as we can remember! Well, the health benefits they offer us easily transfer over to our furry family members as well! When we offer our pets dark green leafy veggies like broccoli, it can reduce their risk of developing bladder cancer by 90%! That's huge just from adding some fresh veggies! By adding yellow or orange veggies like carrots, the chance of developing bladder cancer can be reduced by 70%! Those are substantial numbers when it comes to our floof's health and we can achieve it just by offering them some veggies we already have in our own fridge! If you find your furry family is not a fan of fresh, uncooked veggies, try serving them gently cooked, either steamed or lightly sautéed in some olive oil. Let them cool and serve! If you've got a true meatatarian on your hands, veggie supplements are always an option!

🥩 Fresh Meat 🥩

Many pet parents who have never served their furry family a fresh or raw diet often times are opposed to the idea of serving raw meat. It makes sense, we don't eat meat raw so how could they? Well, when was the last time you saw a wolf standing over the BBQ preparing his supper? It's a little cheeky but true! Our floofs ancestors have eaten raw meat and real food for centuries just like we talked about previously. The furry guys are built a little different than we are, digestively speaking. Our delicate little human digestive tracts are not designed to process raw meats. We don't have the same ability to digest raw meat quick enough to avoid the bacteria. Our furry guys are built to eat meat! They have a very quick digestive process in comparison to us and a highly acidic stomach that is designed to process raw meat and avoid bacteria. If you're preparing meat for yourself, a bit of that raw meat can absolutely go in your furry guy's bowl, no seasonings of course, but there's no need to take up grill space for the furry guys either, they're made to eat their meat raw!

So there you have it! There are five really easy ways to improve your pet's diet right from your own fridge! Be the mad scientist! Build the Buffet in the Bowl! Serve a diverse diet full of fresh, whole foods and instantly improve your pet's diet! Remember if you're feeding a dry diet, replacing 20% of the kibble with fresh, whole foods right from your own fridge will not only tickle your furry guy's tastebuds and have them begging for more, it will immediately improve their diet and their health which is exactly what we want! 💙