Two weeks ago we wrote about the use of preservatives in dog food and hopefully, we were able to shed some light on preservative alternatives. This week, we will discuss the use of sweeteners in dog food.
A canine’s taste systems are very similar to humans and dog’s do indeed have a taste for sweets! That said, in our opinion, there is really no reason to add sugar or sweetening to dog food, certainly not to food that makes up a majority of a dog’s daily diet. Historically, added sweeteners have been used more prevalently in cheaper, lower quality dog foods, no doubt to mask the fact that the food isn’t very good in taste (or nutrition).
Sweeteners are generally either high in calorie/low in nutrition (e.g. sugar) or, in the case of artificial sweeteners, well…artificial. Some argue that dogs can develop an addiction to sweets which can lead to health problems like diabetes as well as a more difficult transition when owners want to upgrade their pets to a better quality (and less sweet) food. The bottom line is that your dog doesn’t actually need added sweeteners in their food so why give it to them?
Just like in human diets, there are plenty of ways to provide added sweetness and also provide some nutritional benefit. Fruits, and some vegetables can provide natural sweetness along with anti-oxidants and other health benefits.
Healthful Sweeteners
When it comes to sweet ingredients in a dog food, we look for fruits like cherries, blueberries, cranberries, and apples, and less refined sugar products such as molasses or honey. Vegetables like carrots, peas, and tomatoes can provide added sweetness (and phtyo-nutrients) as well.
Empty Calories or Worse
The following ingredients are of dubious value (other than adding sweetness) and offer little or no nutritional value: sugar, corn syrup, sucrose, fructose, glucose, sorbitol, and ammoniated glycyrrhizin.
| Good | Bad |
| Cherries/Berries | Sugar, caramel, cane |
| Apple | Corn syrup |
| Carrots | Sucrose, fructose |
| Peas | Sorbitol |
| Honey /Molasses | Propylene Glycol |
The bottom line is that you can serve your dog healthy and tasty meals without added sugars or artificial sweeteners. Don’t waste the calories (or the chemicals) and choose foods with fruits and veggies instead.
Further food for thought? This post has me wondering how prevalent are the use of the lower quality sweeteners in commercially available dog food. For next week’s post, we will dive into our data and report what we find. Come back next week for the results.
We’re joining the Tasty Tuesday Blog Hop sponsored by Sugar, the Golden Retriever and Kolchak from Kol’s Notes:
