Tag: supplements

A Dog-Gone Good Recipe

You’ve heard the phrase “you are what you eat,” but you may not realize that the same principle holds true for your pets. At the Paws & Claws Holistic Animal Hospital in Plano, Texas, the foundation of every health-care plan starts with a good natural diet. This is true whether a pet is sick and trying to recover from an illness, or the pet just needs to stay healthy in order to reduce the chance of developing serious diseases later in life. dogcookbook

As Gayle Pruitt states in her new book, The Dog-Gone Good Cookbook, cooking for your pet should be fun and easy as well as provide a nutritious diet for both you and your pet. Included in her book are over 100 balanced, delicious recipes that are gluten-, corn-, and soy-free, in an effort to minimize any food reactions and to maximize health.

Gayle has taken all the work out of cooking for your pet, as the book provides lists of foods that dogs should never have, lists of foods that you and your pet can experience together, as well as sections for equipment and supplies, techniques, staples, ingredients to keep on hand, and natural “doggie” supplements, such as probiotics and EFA’s. The book also contains recipes for your dog only that are both raw and cooked. The Dog-Gone Good Cookbook is a user-friendly and valuable resource for sharing a hearty meal with all of your family members, including the four-legged ones!

nellie  I enjoy cooking, but cooking for just me is not nearly as much fun as cooking for others. There’s nothing more fulfilling than sitting down and enjoying good, home-cooked food in the companionship of your family and friends. And if your roommate/ family/ best friend is your pup (like my dog, Nellie), The Dog-Gone Good Cookbook will be your new constant cooking guide. The cookbook offers over 100 delicious, healthy recipes that are wonderfully nutritious for both humans and canines.

Gayle’s background in nutrition gave her the knowledge that she needed to bring her dogs back to full health by feeding them high-quality, human-grade food with natural nutrients. Gayle is a certified nutritionist and chef. In her day job, she does nutritional research and develops recipes for businesses and food companies. She also does research on the ingredients in commercial dog foods and  made the decision to cook for herself and her dogs after seeing some scary ingredients in well-known commercial dog foods. Cooking delicious recipes that are nutritious as well as corn-, sugar-, soy-, and dairy-free, Gayle says that both her and her dogs’ health have improved “100%.”  Dog owners who are taking care to monitor their own nutritional needs need to be advised of the same type of needs that guide their pets to vigor and good health.

Today’s recipe from the cookbook is the Brined Chicken. Not only does brining draw out toxins from the chicken, but the brine is absorbed into the tissues, making the chicken more tender and juicy. The general guide-line is 1/4 cup kosher salt per 1 quart of water.

Ingredients:

  • 4 quarts water
  • 1 cup kosher salt
  • 1 whole chicken, rinsed
  • herbs of choice (Gayle recommends a teaspoon of tumeric, thyme, dill, etc.)

In a large pot, combine enough water with kosher salt to cover chicken; stir. Place the whole rinsed chicken in the pot and add herbs. Cover and place in refrigerator for at least 6 hours or overnight.

Wanted: Germs

 

The word “germ” brings to my mind a mental image of the bacteria/slugs on the toenail fungus commercials. Toe fungusYou know the one where they lift up the yellow, crackling toenail, jump inside, and join their other slimy friends for a germ party. Gross! The words germs, bacteria, and bugs have become synonymous with “yucky”, however, not all bugs deserve this bad rap! In fact, going on a germ-killing mission, using products that claim to eliminate “99.9% of germs” may disable your immune system from reaching its full potential.

Today’s fast-paced lifestyle keeps the entire family active, from 3 year-old kids who already know how to operate iPads, to hard-working adults. A strong immune system is absolutely necessary in order to fight off seasonal illnesses and maintain healthy energy levels. Typically, when you start to feel “run-down,” that is your immune system trying to tell you to take it easy. A major factor in the strength of your immune response starts in the digestive tract, where about 80% of the body’s immune cells reside. I always thought my immune system was in my lymph nodes since that is usually where I fell the first signs of getting sick. But, long before your immune system triggers a response in the lymph nodes, it is either being built up or destroyed in your gut. You support your crucial immune cells in the digestive system by consuming…bacteria! Not the toenail fungus, germy bacteria, but Probiotics, which are beneficial bacteria.

According to  pharmacist, author, and holistic health expert  Ross Pelton, a study indicated that people who ingested probiotics for three weeks were shown to have immune cells that were twice as effective as those who did not. The friendly bacteria help support the function of immune system cells by, among other things, crowding out unfriendly guests like bad bacteria. Probiotics also enhance digestion, which means the body better absorbs all the nutrients it needs from food and supplements. That alone equips the body to stay healthy and more efficiently fight off any bad bugs (call forth the slimy,green, toenail-bug mental picture) that come along.

“Due to overuse of antibiotics, stress, and other modern environmental and dietary issues, most people of all ages have a compromised probiotic population,” according to Dr. Fred Pescatore, author of the best seller Feed Your Kids Well. To maintain ideal health, the ratio of good to bad bacteria needs to stay at 85 to 15. However, this ratio is almost impossible to maintain without supplementing with a high-quality probiotic. Dr. Pescatore encourages his patients to look for a supplement that encapsulates both the probiotic and its nutritious culture medium, or its food, called the prebiotic. In other words, the good bugs need bugs!

“A probiotic alone will not necessarily be successful. The friendly bacteria need what is called prebiotic support,” explained Dr. Pescatore, who noted that  Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics, fit the bill. The probiotic formula is encapsulated with its culture medium, which provides the body with vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes, and pH-balancing organic acids. “This prebiotic support ensures that the probiotics take root and thrive in the digestive tract,” said Dr. Pescatore.

When relying on probiotics to help support immune response, it is vital to pick the right supplement. There are products that claim to contain “billions and billions” of bacteria, but, contrary to what many people believe, this is not necessarily a good thing. Providing too much of a single bacteria strain, can actually trigger an immune response that causes the body to treat the supplemented bacteria as a threat. Consumers should also look out for probiotic products that may have undergone manufacturing processes or shipping conditions that render them useless.

As healthy micro-ecology is restored, digestion improves and all the body’s organs and cells are able to receive nutrition more efficiently. That can have an incredible effect on whole health and energy helping the entire family to manage their demanding lifestyles.

 

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