Many dog food brands claim their food is the best and healthiest, but this is not usually true. It can be hard to know what benefits our dogs when many different ingredients are on dog food labels. Let’s learn about palm fruit oil and its better oil version.
Palm oil that you find in commercial dog food is a highly processed form. The chemical reaction when you make palm fruit oil for commercial dog food makes it unhealthy. The oil will contain free radicals, which are bad for your dog’s health. There are better ways to add Vitamin A, E, and beta carotene into dog food. However, If the dog food brand adds in the unprocessed super healthy version called red palm oil, it would be much better for a dog’s health.
If your dog food label says red palm oil, you have the most wonderful dog food you could ever imagine; however, I highly doubt this. I’d be astonished if any dog food brands would use the red palm oil form.
Now we know that palm oil isn’t actually that healthy for dogs compared to its better form of the oil called red palm oil.
Let’s learn about this super healthy oil.
About Red Palm Oil
Unrefined cold-pressed red palm oil is super nutritious and can have tremendous health effects on a dog’s heart, brain, and coat.
It’s packed with the entire eight components of Vitamin E., unlike many supplements and processed palm oil.
Red palm oil has all of the tocopherol and tocotrienol family, creating vitamin E into its most nutritious form.
Red palm oil also has beta carotene and vitamin A
All eight components are found in red palm oil, which is so healthy.
- Alpha-tocopherol
- Beta-tocopherol
- Gamma-tocopherol
- Delta-tocopherol
- Alpha-tocotrienol
- Beta-tocotrienol
- Gamma-tocotrienol
- Delta-tocotrienol
Health Benefits of Red Palm Oil For Dogs
- Boost immune system
- Brain Health
- Cell and repair regeneration
- Coat and skin health
- Eye Health
- Fights cancer
- Lower stress
- Maintain blood pressure
- Reduce cholesterol
- Reduce inflammation
Homemade Dog Foods and Red Palm Oil
Making homemade meals for your dog could add a tiny drop of red palm oil. I can’t express enough concern that it must only be the smallest drop. Anything more is too rich for a dog’s tummy and bad for your dog’s health.
Excessive consumption can cause diarrhoea and sickness. Diarrhoea and nausea can then lead to dehydration which can be fatal.
However, that tiny drop will have the nutrition of the purest, healthiest ingredients.
Unhealthy Commercial Dog Food Ingredients
There are other ingredients in dog food you should watch out for when reading the labels.
Wheat: Check to see if your dog has wheat in its food and, if so, how much. Wheat is not a natural food for dogs, and many are allergic to it. A possibility is that your dog could have allergies to wheat. The most prominent symptom of wheat allergies for a dog is skin problems.
Bone Meal: These is bones grounded up of any animal to provide poor-quality calcium.
Derivatives: Can be any part of any animal, including beak, bones, or feet added. Sometimes it can state the type of animal. However, it will still be any part of that specific animal—class as poor quality nutrition.
Vegetable Derivatives: Vegetables from many possible vegetable sources. These can be either good or bad—generally, it’s human vegetable preparation waste.
Fat: Animal fat is often sprayed on dog food to make it tastier and more appealing. The fat comes from the cooking process of the animal, and when it’s heated to a very high temperature, and as the grease floats to the top, it’s gathered up for use. Dogs need fat in their diet—however, it’s questionable if this is the best option.
Healthy Commercial Dog Food Ingredients
If your dog’s food has any of the below ingredients listed, then the food is of good quality.
Vegetables are the purest of good quality vegetables needed in a dog’s diet.
Botanicals, Herbs or Plants: These are added health enhancements for your dog. If this is listed on the label, it means excellent quality dog food with your dog’s health at the forefront of their company.
Pure Meat: Meat taken from a specific animal. Such as beef, chicken, or duck. The best quality dog foods have pure or fresh meat on the back.
Palm Oil and the Environmental Effects
Palm oil is pretty much in everything, from items such as toothpaste, dog food, doughnuts, makeup, bread, shampoo, chocolate, and biodiesel fuel.
Since the ’90s, the use of palm oil has exploded. It’s cheap to make and quick to process. However, it’s unfortunate that thousands of acres of forest are constantly ruined, and tons of carbon pollution is released into the atmosphere, killing endangered wildlife like the Orangutans in Indonesia.
Palm oil has many names, such as vegetable oil, palmitic acid or palm oleic acid. Find the complete palm oil names list here.
Perhaps making the healthy, unprocessed version called red palm oil will be less desirable, more expensive and harder to produce, thus protecting the forests, atmosphere and poor wildlife that gets in the way!
Check this youtube video confirming these very worrying facts.
Summary
Palm oil is not toxic in the correct doses, but when it is processed for commercial foods, it creates an unhealthy version. The best form of palm oil is red palm oil. It is very nutritious! However, I have not found any dog food brands that use red palm oil. If you make homemade dog food, try adding a tiny drop into their food; dogs’ benefits are immense.
