Carbohydrates
are energy producing nutrient. When digested, they are broken down into
glucose which provides energy to the dog. They are stored in the dog’s muscles
" glycogen".
Carbohydrates
also keep the proteins in check. All of the elements in the protein that aren’t
useful, are stored by your dog’s body as fat. This is called the protein
fraction. If it is too high, the degree of acid increases and your dog becomes
nervous and in the worst case uncontrollable, so it is a misconception that
grains are bad for dogs. On the contrary, they represent one of the best
sources of carbohydrates.
The
difficulty is that a dog can’t digest carbohydrates that are primarily of vegetable
origin, since dogs don’t have the enzymes needed to break down cellulose.
Consequently, a dog can’t get any nutrients from raw vegetables. That is also
the reason why wolves eat the stomach contents of their prey. These contain
grasses that are in seed form, or in other words, grains. These are in fact
pre-digested. We call these ‘unlocked’ grains and they are the best source of
carbohydrates for your dog.
Carbohydrates
from grains are not empty fillers as some suggest, scientifically this isn't
true. Unlocked grains that produce digestible high quality
Carbohydrates are a great source of energy and important to create full of
essential nutrients food for dogs unlike those in processed dry food 'Kibbles'.
Carbohydrates
that contain fiber also regulate the speed with which the food goes through the
digestive tract. Preferably not too fast, otherwise the stools become too
loose.
Did you
know?
In the
wild: Prey animals eat the grains and
vegetables raw, these are pre-digested in their stomachs. When the wolf eats
the stomach of the prey he can digest the grains and vegetables that are in the
stomach because they are pre-digested.
Not in the
wild: Unlocked grains means that the cereal
grain is cooked (replicating pre-digested grains in the prey stomach), so that
a large proportion of the vegetable proteins can be absorbed by the dog.
Cereals contain starch (carbohydrates), which is present in the core of the
cereal grains. during the production process of balanced dog food, by grinding
and heating, the starch from the cereal grain is 'opened up', i.e. made
available for digestion in the small intestine.
Example: We cannot eat a raw potato. it must be
steamed or cooked to make it digestible.