For Health and Wellness - We Believe Appropriate Nutrition is the Foundation
At OUR PET PROJECT, we believe in real and natural food, not only for ourselves, but also for the four-legged members of our family.
We work hard to provide everyone in our home, including our canine and feline companions, with the best nutrition possible, and that nutrition comes from natural, minimally processed, and species-appropriate food.
Our cats are obligate carnivores, and our dogs are facultative carnivores.
While dogs can survive on a diet with some plant-based material, cats survive best on a diet of mostly meat, bone, and organs. They do not have a biological requirement for carbohydrates.
An obligate carnivore is an animal that must eat meat to survive because it requires certain nutrients, like specific fatty and amino acids, that are found only in animal flesh. They lack the physiology to digest plant matter efficiently. They cannot convert plant-based precursors into essential vitamins such as vitamin A. Cats, lions, tigers, dolphins, and eagles are examples of obligate carnivores.
Nutritional needs: They must consume animal products to obtain essential nutrients such as arachidonic acid, vitamin A (which they cannot convert from beta-carotene found in plants), taurine, and certain long-chain fatty acids.
Metabolism: Their metabolism is adapted to process fat and protein for energy rather than carbohydrates.
Digestive system: Their digestive tract is typically short and designed for quickly processing meat. Most carnivores cannot properly digest and extract nutrients from vegetation.
Behaviour: While they may occasionally ingest plant matter for reasons like aiding digestion, it is not a viable source of nutrition for them. A diet lacking meat, bone, and organs can lead to serious health problems and even death.
The Synergy of Whole Food
Nutritional synergy in whole foods refers to the idea that the combined effect of nutrients and other components in whole foods is greater than the sum of its parts.
Whole foods provide a natural 'matrix' where nutrients work together to improve absorption, enhance health benefits, and promote overall well-being, which is often more effective than what can be achieved with isolated nutrients from supplements.
BIG FOOD wants us to believe that processing items that could be conscrewed as 'food', and destroying most of its natural nutrition by grinding, mushing, and high heat, is ok. They tell us that a protein from corn, wheat, or soy is equivalent to a protein from animal flesh, bone, or organs.
Years ago, the Skept Vet wrote that it was ok to destroy natural nutrients by processing food - all you had to do was add them back at the end of the cycle. The 'natural nutrition thing' was all nonsense!
However, man-made vitamins and minerals are NOT the same as those obtained through natural and whole foods.
As an individual chemical structure, yes, they may be very similar, but it is the symbiosis of all the bits and pieces that provides the true nutritional value.
Examples include vitamin C helping iron absorption in plants or vitamin D working with healthy fats for transport.
How Nutritional Synergy Works
Enhanced absorption: Certain combinations improve the body's ability to absorb nutrients. For instance, vitamin C helps your body absorb non-heme iron from plant-based foods.
Increased bioavailability: The entire food matrix, including vitamins, minerals, fibre, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and bioactive compounds, works together to enhance the bioavailability of nutrients - the amount that the body can actually absorb and utilise.
Complementary effects: Different components of a whole food can work synergistically. They work together to produce greater benefits than a single isolated nutrient. For example, vitamins A, D, and K all require dietary fat to be transported effectively.
Synergistic compounds: Whole foods contain numerous compounds like phytochemicals and antioxidants that interact to create beneficial health effects, such as improving gut health or fighting disease.
Why Whole Foods Are Key
Replicating nature: Whole foods are a complete package, and their complex structure is difficult to replicate with supplements alone. The synergistic effect is a key reason to prioritize a diet rich in whole foods.
Beyond the numbers: The "numbers" on a nutrition label don't always tell the whole story because they don't account for the complex interactions happening within the food itself, and in the body.
A natural approach: Focusing on whole foods in their natural form is a simple way to harness food synergy and support overall health rather than relying on individual supplements alone.
The Power of Synergy and Bioavailability in the Whole Food Matrix, WholisticMatters.com
