Health, energy and lifespan of your dog all depend on two things. One is how well taken care of your pet is and the second directly related thing is the dog food you purchase. Not all dog foods contain the same ingredients. Knowing which ones have the correct vitamins and nutritional value for your dog will ensure that he is around for a long time.The Recall of Dog FoodThe dog food recall in 2007 that was the result of companies in China and the U.S. using melamine in their pet food products was directly responsible for the deaths of 2,200 dogs. This is a chemical that is used to manufacture plastic.About 800 tons of wheat gluten that contained this chemical was found in China. Not only was it found, but it had been mislabeled to avoid inspection.The melamine was added to boost the protein content of the gluten used in the dog food. The reason behind this was the cost. It was merely cheaper to use melamine than it was to add real protein.This is where a lot of companies cheat on the products being sold. Consumers read the label and think it contains a certain ingredient. In fact, they do not contain that product at all; they often contain ingredients that are dangerous and may even cause death as in the case of the tainted food.How Do You Know What Product to Buy?So how are you supposed to know if a dog food is good for your dog or not? This is not something you can tell by looking at the food. The ingredients used to make the food will be one way of discovering if the food has the right combination of nutrients to keep your dog healthy. This is found on the bag itself.Look for the first ingredient listed. The first ingredient is extremely important as this will be the ingredient that makes up the largest percentage of the dog food. If the first ingredient listed is an animal protein, such as chicken meal, you are on the right track. Keep in mind that if it says poultry protein, this is not the same thing.Do not buy food that has meat meal or meat by-products either. The protein required by dogs is not present in these ingredients. Nutritional value can be affected by using these products as well as soy, wheat and corn. Preservatives are another ingredient you should beware of in your dog’s food. There are certain ones that can be extremely hard on dogs. This is especially true if this is what the dogs eat for an extended time period.One of the things you will learn is to never take the word of the manufacturer when they label their food ‘complete and balanced’. Dogs can even look outwardly healthy unless examined by a veterinarian. This is when they will notice the coats that are not healthy looking and often dry or oily skin. In addition they may have excessive itching and ear infection. The ‘complete and balanced’ food they were eating contained corn as the main ingredient.This used to be hard to diagnose because the dogs would appear healthy and some even looked to be overfed. However, the reason for the constant problems with coats and ear infections was the grain diets they were consuming and the absence of meat. Combined with itchy, flaky skin and the overweight condition, the grain fed diets were not providing the proper nutrition.When purchasing a truly ‘balanced and nutritious’ food for your dog, meat-based is the choice. The meat is an essential part of the dog’s diet as long as it is the correct type.Dog food companies should stop worrying about making fancy commercials to try and get the public to buy their product. Instead, spending this money on quality ingredients will tell the public far more readily that this is a dog food that will be nutritious and beneficial for their dog. A fund for the owners of these animals was started in 2008. Documented proof of the owner’s expenses related to the tainted food can allow them to be reimbursed. What, however is supposed to happen for the families that lost beloved pets that were a part of the family for years?

There are quite a few different questions that people have about organic foods. Getting the answers can often help someone decide if they would like to take part in that process or not. Let’s explore some of the different questions out there that people may have an interest in learning about.What is considered to be an organic product?An organic food product is one that isn’t grown with the use of any types of chemicals. It is also grown on land that hasn’t been used with chemicals for at least the past five years. These foods are harvested by hand and they don’t contain any types of additives or preservatives.There are organic product that aren’t grown though but raised. This involves animals such as cattle, pigs, and goats. They are raised without any types of hormones or vaccinations given to them. They have a very specific diet too without any additives. As a result the dairy products and meat products you get from them are better for your overall health.Why do organic foods cost more?It is more expensive to create organic food locations due to the way in which they are harvested or the animals are raised. The amount of time involved with it increases the costs. Farmers don’t get any type of compensation when they are involved with organic farming. As a result the additional costs that they incur have to be covered by profits and that means charging more for what they sale.Can you taste a difference with organic foods?Most people say that they can’t taste any difference with organic foods than those traditionally grown. In blind studies where participants were given two foods to eat they couldn’t tell which was organic and which one wasn’t most of the time. You will hear rumors that organic fruits and vegetables taste waxy or like cardboard but this isn’t true. Some people think that organic meats have a better texture due to the reduced amount of fat on them.Do organic foods offer more nutritional value?There is no evidence to verify that organic foods offer more nutritional value. However, it isn’t what your body gets from it that matters but rather what it does without that offers the benefit. Without all of those toxins in your body you will feel better. Your body will be stronger and your immune system will be better able to fight anything your body comes into contact with.Who is in charge of determining organic food status?This all falls under the responsibilities of the FDA (Food & Drug Administration). They have a system in place for the types of labeling that can be placed on food products. They also have a system in place for inspecting and certifying locations as being able to offer their food as being organic in nature.Where can I find organic products?You will find that there are more locations out there offering organic products today than in the past. To find them locally you can ask around at your different grocery store locations. You can also visit various farm markets and ask about their food growing methods. There are labels on products that are organically grown so look for those labels.Why do organic foods look different?With organically grown fruits and vegetables you may find that they don’t look the same as those traditionally grown. They are likely to be smaller and even slightly different in shape. The coloring may be different as well. This is the result of grown methods but it doesn’t change the taste or the nutritional value.

How do living foods cure cancer? Well, technically they don’t. But they can supply the ingredients for natural healing.The theory behind eating raw living foods as a natural approach to curing cancer is very simple. Living foods provide the body what it needs to heal itself. In other words, it’s not the food itself that does the healing. The right food, however, can provide the body’s immune system with the materials it requires to reverse disease naturally.There is a reason why you can find so many healing testimonials on the Internet about people who adopted a living food diet and saw their cancer go away. It has to do with the fact that there is a huge grassroots effort, made up of thousands of individuals, who discovered the truth about living food for themselves. After discovering it they just had to share it with the world.Conventional medicine has a very poor track record for treating cancer. The routine treatment options, which includes things like drugs, surgery and chemo, are highly toxic to the body in themselves. Patients who undergo them routinely die of those treatments, not the cancer that motivated them to submit to the harsh procedures in the first place.Choosing to eat the right plant-based diet offers a “nutritional option” for defeating cancer among those who do not wish to go the conventional medical route. When individuals choose to use diet as a tool for defeating cancer they discover that a cancer fighting diet is as much about avoiding toxic food as it is about ingesting the right food.Many of the staple foods within a Standard American Diet are harmful to our health. Acquiring a disease such as cancer often motivates individuals to eliminate favorite types of foods that they would’ve never considered avoiding prior to getting a cancer diagnosis.Take standard dairy products, for example. They’re almost as harmful as cooked meat is to the body. Yet when living food advocates say this, most people are astounded. “Dairy is bad?” they ask. “How can that be? Don’t we all need calcium in our body from dairy in order to have strong bones and teeth?”Such questions are a monument to the marketing success of the dairy industry. The fact, however, is that standard dairy products are potentially very harmful to one’s health.The human body cannot readily process the calcium taken into it from dairy products. In addition, according to some researchers, the body often draws upon its existing calcium reserves in order to digest most commercially produced dairy products … resulting in a net LOSS of calcium.The human digestive process ends up excreting more calcium from the body than is taken in by the dairy food products one consumes. In other words, the body often ends up losing more calcium (via bodily excretions) than it takes in, resulting in a “negative” calcium effect whenever dairy products are consumed.If this is true then it means just the opposite of what commercial advertisers want you to believe … that you need processed dairy products in order to feed the body calcium. Thus, calcium depletion can occur as a result of consuming dairy products.Have you ever heard this before?Living food advocates often illustrate this by pointing to the fact that Americans are among the highest (if not THE highest) dairy consumers in the world … yet they suffer among the highest rates of osteoporosis in the world. If drinking milk and consuming other dairy products builds strong bones and teeth then that shouldn’t be the case.Replacing dairy with plant-based sources for calcium, such as green leafy vegetables, is one example of how living foods give the body what it’s been starving for – vital nutrients, enzymes, vitamins and minerals. These allow the body to do what it naturally wants to do, which is fight diseases.On reason why there are still so many skeptics in this area, including many physicians, is that most people in our culture right now simply do not want to eat a diet that primarily consists of living foods. As a result, they’ve never witnessed or personally experienced the nearly incredible natural healing power of the body to reverse disease after its put on the right kind of diet. But those of us in the living food movement are working to change that.