Holistic Nutrition - Working with Nature - To Promote Pet Health.
I have always believed that education, my own included, is something that evolves on a daily basis. We at Burns Pet Health continue with our own learning, bringing you only those products we believe are worthy of your pets. Year after year we see major advances in understanding the health of pets. We will always strive to bring you the best of the natural, holistic approach to diet. With the recommendations in this guide, it is not our intention to diagnose any physical or mental conditions, or to prescribe or promote any particular products for those conditions. This guide is not intended as a substitute for the advice and treatment of a licensed professional. We trust you to judge for yourself the value of what we have presented, and as people going back thousands of years have done, to live and learn by your own experience, your own wisdom, and the wisdom and experience of others.
Holistic Nutrition Working with Nature To Promote Pet Health. Principles of Burns Pet Health and Burns Holistic Nutrition.
• Nature Has Health-Promoting Power. The body has the power to maintain health and, when necessary, to heal itself. Diet, like any healer, should obey the principle: Do no harm. • Pet Health Is Holistic. Your pet is a complex interaction of mind, body and character (or spirit) functioning in the environment (which can greatly influence all of the other aspects). • Pet Health Deals Primarily With Causes, Not Symptoms. Symptoms express the body's attempt to heal. We should always seek the underlying cause of any symptom rather than simply suppress it. • Pet Health Means Empowering Pet Owners. Holistic practitioners should educate and motivate the pet owner to take responsibility for the pet's health by adopting healthy lifestyles, feeding good diets and providing a good social environment. • Prevention Is Always Better than Cure.
Early Warning Symptoms of Nutritional Imbalance The immune system is particularly vulnerable to nutritional imbalances and tends to show symptoms much earlier than, say, problems of the joints or major organs. The following symptoms are among the easiest to recognize:
• Itchy Skin • Eczema • Hot Spots • Hair Loss/ Shedding • Waxy Ears • Runny Eyes • Tooth Tartar • Bad Breath • Chewing Feet • Anal Gland Problems • Digestive Upsets • Body Odor • Eating Grass • Hyperactivity • Loss of Energy
Symptoms such as these, when they persist, may indicate that waste or toxic matter has been accumulating in the body and that the immune system is attempting to get rid of it. The important questions are, first, where does the toxic material come from, and second, how do we assist the body in ridding itself of the waste product and help it toward optimum health?
The answer to the first question — where does the toxic material come from — may involve, we believe, at least three factors related to diet: Too Much Food, Unhealthy or Non-Optimal Ingredients, and Harmful Formulations and Additives — or combinations of all three of these.
Too Much Food, in addition to the obvious problem of overfeeding total calories in relation to a pet's activity level and metabolism, often means too much of certain types of food: too much protein — too much fat — too much sugar — too much salt — all potentially compounding the problem of sheer overfeeding
Unhealthy or Non-Optimal Ingredients include derivatives and byproducts of animal origin, and even some derivatives of vegetable origin. Soya for protein. Beet pulp for fibre. Wheat because it's cheap. Sugar in the form of dextrose, fructose, sorghum, beet pulp and many other "hidden" sugars, all to make it taste good. Beef, pork, and dairy products.
Harmful Formulations and Additives include, potentially, over 8,000 non-food additives that government regulations still allow to be put into pet food. The most obvious of these are the chemical colorings, flavorings and preservatives. The problem in a lot of cases starts before the food even arrives at the manufacturer; for example, many protein sources such as chicken and lamb may be preserved with chemicals prior to this stage. Other examples of chemicals include the emulsifiers used to stabilize mixtures of water and oil to create a marketable appearance, such as "juicy chunks."
What Is a Good Diet? To assist the pet in reducing waste or toxic matter, we must make sure that the food is of high quality, easily digested and without added chemicals. A good diet's ingredients, fed in the correct quantities, help the body/mind function in a normal healthy way.
What Is a "Balanced" Diet? Most pet food companies advertise their products as being 'Complete and Balanced,' which in one sense is correct but in a deeper sense can be very misleading. It may mean that the food contains all the vitamins and minerals required to sustain life. But this can be true without reference to quality or digestibility. At The Burns Pet Health we believe that balance is achieved when the body works in harmony and when what is consumed is utilized in the best possible way to achieve health and vitality. This harmony can be termed metabolic balance, where every organ in the body functions at an optimum level for the benefit of the whole body. This state is the goal of Burns Holistic Nutrition.
These details were last updated on: 16 October 2007
