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Heeding customer concerns about their dog's urine being pink or red, Darwin's Pet Removes beets from their beef and lamb recipes.

One thing I love about Darwin's Pets is that they respond to their customers.  This morning, I received this email from Darwin's Pet.


Heeding customer concerns about their dog's urine being pink or red, Darwin's Pet Removes beets from their beef and lamb recipes.

Dear Darwin's Customer,

At Darwin’s Natural Pet Products, we continuously review our product formulation to comply with changing industry best practices, food standards, customer feedback and expert nutritional advice. As we often like to say, “Our meals are Inspired by Nature, Informed by Science”™.

Over the last couple of years, we have included beets as part of our beef and lamb meals for dogs.  Beets offer many nutritional benefits, however, some customers have raised concerns about their dog’s urine being pink or red. This is caused by a pigment in beets called Betacyanin.  While Betacyanin causes a change in the color of the urine, it poses no medical risk, and usually subsides in 12-24 hours.

However, rather than cause concern with customers, we have elected to update our meals by removing beets from them. These updated meals will start to ship the week of October 1st.

If you have any questions, please contact our Customer Service team by replying to this email or calling us at 877-738-6325.

Sincerely,


Benefits of Beets for Dogs

I'm anemic and since becoming a raw feeder, I've slowly transitioned to a pescatarian (I eat fish and other seafood, but no meat) so I often enjoy a meal of pickled beets to help with my anemia.  While some people believe that beets have no nutritional benefits for dogs, I discovered a list of benefits.

  • natural source of fiber
  • high in Vitamin C
  • The betaine offers cancer-fighting properties
  • source of magnesium
  • source of potassium
  • source of manganese
  • promotes a healthy immune system
  • promotes a healthy heart
  • promotes healthy blood sugar levels

But Beets are a High Glycemic Food

In the past, my concern about beets was that they are a high-glycemic food, rating at 64 on the index.  I can remember in many raw feeding groups seeing raw feeders lose their minds if they learned that beets were an ingredient in a dog's meal.  While beets are a high-glycemic food, they have a low glycemic load at 5.

What's the difference?

As I understand it, we want to avoid foods that increase our insulin levels because increased insulin levels promote weight gain and the risk of diabetes.  However, it's the GLYCEMIC LOAD that can lead to higher insulin levels, not the glycemic index.  Beets have a low glycemic load.

Long story short, beets don't make dogs fat.

Myths About Beets and Darwin's Pet Food

While dog food brands often add beet pulp, a by-product of sugar beets (not the beets used in Darwin's Pet Food), to their dry dog food, it's ultimately just a filler to provide fiber to help a dog's system processed an unnatural diet.  I've heard that the reason Darwin's adds beets to their food is to give the illusion of blood so that people really feel like their feeding raw –

Some people have the misconception that the reason Darwin's adds beets to their food is to give the illusion of blood so that people really feel like their feeding raw – ummm, this isn't necessary because they ARE feeding a raw food diet.

Darwin's Pet doesn't use tricks to fool its customers.  They don't have to because their food speaks for itself.

Why Remove the Beets from Darwin's Pet Food?

If I noticed that my dogs' urine was pink, I would immediately think they were peeing blood and I would freak out.  Darwin's is taking away that concern and listening to the feedback they are receiving from their customers.

Once again, I'm blown away by how amazing this brand is to its customers.

Will Darwin's Pet Replace the Beets?

Yes! Darwin's Pet has replaced the beets with cabbage.  Cabbage is great for digestive health and is filled with anti-oxidants.

How this Change Impacts My Dogs' Diet

Winter is around the corner and it's time for me to call Darwin's and start-up my monthly order of lamb.  Energetically, lamb is a hot food and my dogs do well on it during cold weather months (keep in mind that following the energetic temperatures of food isn't a requirement in raw feeding).

The removal of the beets from the lamb recipe may seem like a fantastic idea since I have two dogs that are on a diet.  No beets in the lamb recipe mean less sugar in their diet, right?  WRONG!  These aren't sugar beets, their regular beets, which are high in fiber, promote a healthy immune system, help regular blood sugar levels, and contain many nutrients.

So, ultimately, the change to Darwin's Pet's lamb recipe won't change my dogs' diet.  Their food is still very nutritious and meets AAFCO standards for what's healthy for our dogs.

While AAFCO is an organization that is headed by executives of the big dry dog food brands, these are the only industry-recognized standards to go by – there are none for raw dog food.  If a raw brand meets AAFCO standards by using all-natural ingredients, then I believe that their food is healthier because it lacks the synthetic (laboratory-created) ingredients used to make kibble.  These fake ingredients are difficult for dogs to digest, leading to many deficiencies.  On the other hand, a raw food diet that is all-natural is 100% easy to digest allowing dogs to absorb all of the nutrients.

Also, AAFCO standards take away one of the arguments vets have against raw feeding – that it's not balanced – making the diet more accessible to people new to raw feeding and struggling with their vet's negative sentiment over a biologically appropriate diet.

I'm excited to start their lamb order because my freezer is getting pretty bare at the moment.

Heeding customer concerns about their dog's urine being pink or red, Darwin's Pet Removes beets from their beef and lamb recipes.

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