If you’re reading this post then I’ll suppose you have at least a passing interest in the carbohydrate content of your dog’s food. Maybe it’s because your dog has diabetes, maybe it’s because you want to feed her a diet that’s consistent with her evolutionary heritage, or maybe you’re just worried about obesity. But you’re reading a blog post written by the founder of a company called KetoNatural Pet Foods, so carbs are probably on your radar.
If they are, you already know that you’re in something of a difficult spot. Because, incredibly, under the regulatory framework currently governing the sale of pet food in the United States, pet food companies do not have to disclose the carbohydrate contents of their products.
How did this absurd reality come to pass? Well, unlike fats, proteins, and all manner of vitamins and minerals, carbohydrates aren’t “essential” nutrients for dogs and cats. So carbs weren’t the focus way back when the relevant labeling regulations were originally written.
In the decades that followed, however, scientific experimentation gradually revealed the unhealthful consequences of chronic carbohydrate consumption. And as it did it became increasingly difficult to justify the fact that pet food brands could simply hide the carbohydrate contents of their products from consumers. But that didn’t matter too much, because it was good for business. After all, carbs are the cheapest source of calories, so pet food brands have a profit-based motivation to use them as copiously as they can get away with.
