Dogs and Carbs

Interesting ...

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/23/science/la-sci-how-dogs-evolved-20130124
http://www.petmd.com/blogs/thedailyvet/pmahaney/2013/jan/genetic-markers-prove-dogs-can-digest-carbs-and-starches-29776

It makes complete sense and I've suspected something similar for years.

Interesting!

Co-incidentally, I have been looking through Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, written in the 1850's and in the bread section it was propounded that bread made from unrefined flour is better for us than that made from white flour. This was "proved" (my italics) by a scientist feeding one dog on white bread, and one dog on brown bread (whether exclusively was not revealed, but I would suspect it was). The dog fed on white bread died after 40 days, poor thing, but the dog on brown bread was still healthy (or so we were told).

Oh my word!
We all know white bread is not that good for us but it's so much yummier

Hmmmm.

Well, I disagree that dogs evolved directly from wolves - new research suggests that although they have the same ancestor, neither evolved directly from the other.

Also, although dogs can digest some grains/vegetables etc, that doesn't mean that they are good for them. In fact some of the worst allergies in dogs are caused by wheat and corn, and rice (for example) holds no nutritional value at all for a dog.

The study seems to suggest that up to 30% of a dog's diet can be grains/veggies - that, to me, would be quite horrific!

Oh, and I much prefer wholemeal bread to white any day!!!

White bread - yummy
Brown bread - gross and gives heartburn
Whole wheat bread - yummy, with cheese or jam .... nomnomnom.

Caryll, they meant the wolf ancestor not that dogs evolved from modern wolves. Carbs for humans also holds no nutritional value, it's just easy energy for our lazy modern metabolisms
On an aside: In South Africa our bread and mielie pap (maize porridge) has loads of added vitamins and minerals as it's the staple diet of the Banthu and Hotentot peoples respectively. For our traditional black population 'pap; makes up probably 90% of their diet.
Some dogs in the townships basically live on only pap, bread, rice, bones and maybe some table left overs.
Logically I have never understood that dogs can't digest carbs. If these township dogs get any dog food it's going to be the cheapest crap on offer. These dogs live and thrive in conditions and on food that would kill our pampered pooches.

Just because they can survive on that, doesn't mean it's right to feed!

Human beings can survive on E numbers & added vitamins/minerals, but that doesn't mean it's good for them!

It's a shame that they haven't referenced the study/scientific research, as I'd be very interested in reading it!

It may have been this one? http://www.nature.com/news/dog-s-dinner-was-key-to-domestication-1.12280

No, I mean the scientific report of the study, with the methodology.

Edit: Ah, wait! It has it on the reference list! Thanks!

Doesn't look like it's been released to databases just yet, but I'll put an alert out for it!

If you can't get it through your uni log-in, pm me and I can get it through work for you - but I won't be allowed to publish it on a public forum.

Thanks, I'm checking for it on the databases now. They're taking aaaaaages to load today!

They have it! Reading the PDF now!

I get far too excited about journal articles.

When its part of your job, the shine soon wears off - not

I love them! Everybody on my course gripes when they realise an assignment requires a minimum of, say, 10 peer-reviewed journals. I do cartwheels!

Forward it to me if you can please

Sorry, it's on the uni database, so you wouldn't be able to access the link. There's no way for me to copy/paste from it either, so I can't send it via PM. I'll see if I can take some screenshots later, if you like! Wouldn't be able to post it on the open forum, though.

Why hide knowledge grrrrr...