Grain-Free Dog Foods: Do They Matter?

Owners want the very best for their furry friends, especially when it comes to their health, diet and general wellbeing. Food is vital to take care of your dog, ensuring they get all the nutrients and goodness they need to be fit and healthy. However, it can be confusing to find the right food to give your pooch a healthy and long-lasting life.

Pero is here to help as we discover grain-free dog foods to see if they truly matter. This blog will give you an insight into going grain-free to see if it’s best for your furry friend.

Grain-free dry dog food

Grain-free dry dog food or grain-free wet dog food has a lot of confusion surrounding it and conflict. Grain-free is thought to be better for pooches but it’s unclear why. See if grain-free dog food works for your furry friend and how it can help dogs, particularly those with sensitive stomachs and allergies.

Why are grains used in dog food?

Grains are tiny hard seed crops that are used as feed for both animals and humans. Usually, they are seeds of grasses but there are a couple of different ones from multi-leaf plants. When it comes to grains, it’s often referring to cereals which are one of the several families of grains. These families are:

• Cereals: Warm-season and cool-season. These are corn, sorghum, millet, wheat, oats, rice and barley.
• Pulses or legumes: These are members of the pea family which include lentils, chickpeas, peanuts and soy.
• Pseudocereal grains: These include buckwheat, chia, quinoa, and amaranth.
• Oilseed grains: These include rapeseed, hemp, flax, and sunflower.

It is best to always check food and treats for your furry friend for the above ingredients, especially if they have stomach issues and allergies.

Grains found in dry dog food

The majority of traditional dry dog foods require high levels of carbohydrates for them to be formed into a stable biscuit, ensuring that it doesn’t crumble. A simple, cheap and readily available source of carbohydrates is traditionally wheat. Wheat can cause numerous health issues in dogs and is a potential allergen which is what progressive dog foods avoid with hypoallergenic ingredients.

Wheat can usually be replaced with soy or corn or both. These substitutes are still grains and have a high carbohydrate content. This means that all of these ingredients are packed full of sugars that are unhealthy.

Why switch to grain-free dry dog food or wet food?

There are numerous reasons why your dog may benefit from grain-free dry dog food or grain-free wet dog food.

Dogs can’t fully digest grain

Creating dry dog food requires at least 35% carbohydrates. Dogs are carnivorous animals and evolved eating meat and bones. Due to this, biologically, dogs aren’t adapted to digest large amounts of carbohydrates. They do produce little amylase which breaks down carbohydrates, but it doesn’t give it in sufficient amounts to fully digest and absorb the food.

High carbohydrates and sugars

The basis of grains is simple sugar molecules. They are present in highly processed carbohydrate-rich biscuits that are digested and can raise dogs' blood sugar levels in an unnatural and dangerous way. This puts stress on the pancreas and your pooch struggles to produce enough insulin to bring blood sugar levels back to safer and healthier levels.

Problems grains cause

Grains can present a few problems in dogs and can lead to health concerns and issues.

Leaky gut

Lectins found in grains are linked with Intestinal Permeability (Leaky Gut). This leads to bacteria crossing through the gut wall into the bloodstream. These bacteria belong in the gut where one of their roles is to play an active role in a dog’s immune system, producing certain vitamins and acting as an additional layer to the gut. They gatekeep outside a dog's gut wall and can even produce mucus to trap viruses and prevent them from entering the bloodstream. If they are let into a dog’s bloodstream through a leaky gut, bacteria can create nasty inflammation. They bounce into artery walls and create damage and inflammation.

Flatulence

When dogs eat grains, it can cause flatulence. In large quantities, the fermentation of grains and starch-rich foods can lead to bloating. This causes a dog’s stomach to be uncomfortably swollen. Bacteria that like sugars mix with partially digested carbohydrate-rich foods and produce bi-products like methane or hydrogen. This fills your dog with uncomfortable gas. Also, the wheat can cause irritation and inflammation inside your dog which causes swelling too.

Behavioural issues

Grain consumption can also affect your dog’s behaviour, particularly in the cases of leaky gut as this travels into the brain and causes inflammation. This disrupts mood, focus and ability to learn. It is also the case because of the sugar intake which raises your dog’s blood sugar and stimulation to the brain. Sugar is unnatural to dogs and causes hyperactive behaviour. After this hyperactivity, dogs can experience a slump and feel lethargic.

Benefits of grain-free food

Grain-free dry dog food or wet food is perfect for intolerances, food sensitivities and allergies. An intolerance is the inability to digest something due to its texture, composition or lack of enzymes to break it down. Sensitivities are when the immune system mistakes a particular food for a bacteria or virus and produces a non-specific inflammatory waterfall to attract defensive blood cells into the area. While an allergy is a specific immune response to proteins mounting an antibody response. It can only take a small amount of exposure to get a large immune response with effects such as inflammation of the skin.

Grain-free wet dog food or dry is easier to digest for these dogs with intolerances, sensitivities and allergies. It takes out the huge amount of starch that needs to be broken down, which typically causes inflammation. It reduces the negative effects that grains can cause as it excludes all grains, allowing your pooch to be fit and healthy.

It can also reduce bloating, therefore leading to less flatulence which causes discomfort in dogs. Your furry friend can also be less at risk of inflammation when having a grain-free diet. Their behaviour can improve and be more balanced while energy levels can be balanced too.

Grain-free dry dog food can be the best option for those pooches that are prone to experiencing leaky gut, flatulence or whose behaviour seems to be affected by processed and sugary foods. It can allow dogs to have a balance in their health and well-being while providing them with all the good ingredients needed for a healthy lifestyle. Grain-free can also help those with allergies as grains are most commonly an allergen for dogs.

To see if going grain-free is best for your furry friend, why not check out our hypoallergenic dog food blog?