Best and Worst Diets ? News just evaluated 3. Essentially, U. S.
News did all the legwork so you don't have to mess around. The diet judges in question? News said in a press release.
- News & World Report, while Paleo and Whole30 are said to be the worst.
- With so many diet plans out there, each promising their own version of better health, weight loss, or both, itâ
The panel of experts included big names like Dr. Katz, MD, and Andrea N. Giancoli, RD. These experts reviewed each diet and rated it by the following seven categories: How easy it is to follow. Ability to produce short- term weight loss. Ability to produce long- term weight loss.
Five years ago, I published a list of 13 types of pet foods ranked from best to worst. That video remains one of the most popular here at Mercola. After an intense workout the best thing you could possibly do for yourself (other than slipping easily into your skinny jeans) is to provide your muscles with the.
Nutritional completeness. Safety. Potential for preventing and managing diabetes. Potential for preventing and managing heart disease. Here's what went down and how diets like Weight Watchers and Whole. The Best Overall.
The best diets overall were determined by the expert panelists; they commended . Many of these diets have also been backed up by significant studies and data. DASH: . Learn about the DASH diet. Mediterranean: Another returning veteran was the Harvard- recommended Mediterranean diet. MIND: The MIND diet combines the DASH and Mediterranean diet to hone in on brain health, so it's no wonder it came in third place. Best Weight- Loss Diet.
These diets were rated specifically on their short- and long- term weight- loss effectiveness. Equal weighting accepts both goals as worthy. These diets perform poorly because they are too restrictive and are not easily sustainable in the long term.
News & World Report's. From Worst to Best in a Heartbeat. For those of you who now know you're feeding your pet an unbalanced, homemade diet, there's an extremely quick and easy way to soar. A super-convenient, on-the-go lunch option, these thin slices of meat are easily stuffed between bread for a protein-packed.
From Best to Worst - My NEW Rankings of 1. Pet Foods. By Dr. Becker. Five years ago, I published a list of 1. That video remains one of the most popular here at Mercola Healthy Pets as well as on You.
Tube. There have been a few updates since I made that video, so I thought it was time to publish a new revised list. When Deciding What to Feed Your Pet, Remember: Your Dog or Cat Is a Carnivore. First and foremost, when you're deciding what to feed your dog or cat, it's important to remember that your pet is a carnivore. His genetic makeup and internal workings remain essentially the same as his wild carnivorous ancestors. Your dog or cat can't move his jaws from side- to- side, only up and down.
That's because carnivores grab their prey, tear it into chunks with their sharp, interlocking teeth, and gulp it down without chewing. Omnivorous mammals (for example, humans) have sharp teeth plus wide flat molars designed for chewing. Vegetarian animals have mouths full of wide, flat molars designed for excessive mastication (a lot of chewing). In fact ruminants, for example, cows, actually chew their food twice. All carnivores, including dogs and cats, have very short digestive tracts compared to vegetarian animals. This is because nature designed carnivores to be able to eat foods that are heavily contaminated with pathogens.
Wild dogs and cats don't remove the colon or other bacteria- laden body parts from prey animals before they eat them. So, their digestive tracts are designed to get food in and out very quickly to limit exposure to pathogens.
A carnivore's digestive system isn't designed to ferment foods like the GI tracts of vegetarian animals. Your Pet's Ancestral Diet. The ancestral diet of a carnivore includes lots of variety and seasonal variability because certain prey is more available at certain times of the year. Wild dogs and cats thrive by consuming fresh, living whole foods. The food is moisture- dense because prey animals are about 7. There are no obese rabbits or other small prey animals in the wild, which is why dogs and cats do best with a diet containing moderate to low amounts of high quality animal fat and a very low percentage of carbohydrates.
The only carbs wild cats consume are what is naturally found in the gastrointestinal tracts of their prey, plus the occasional nibble of grass which provides added fiber and enzymes. Wild dogs (including wolves) are scavenging carnivores, so their diets are more varied than wild cats. Like cats, they catch, kill, and consume whole prey, but they also eat carrion (dead animals). You'll never see a cat going anywhere near a dead animal as a food source. Wild dogs also eat poop, grass, berries, and other plant matter. In fact, research shows that up to 3.
Processed Pet Foods Have Created Generations of Nutritionally Deficient Dogs and Cats. Commercial pet food is a relatively recent development, having been around only about 1. During that time, major pet food companies have produced most of their products using a base of corn, wheat, or rice. However, they are now recognizing that feeding carnivores an abundance of grains causes cancer and creates fat, diabetic animals, so the industry is turning to grain- free dry foods. This move has re- ignited the popularity of kibble, but the problem is that biologically inappropriate levels of high- glycemic starches like potatoes and pea flour have taken the place of grains in dry pet food. Another recent development is the use of trendy sources of carbs in pet food, for example, lentils and garbanzo beans. However, in addition to increasing the carb content beyond what is species- appropriate, legumes contain lectins, which are molecules that can create GI inflammation and irritation.
Fortunately for pet owners, dogs and cats are among the most resilient animals on the planet. They're able to survive when fed foods they were never designed to eat. However, degeneration does occur in these animals as a result of inappropriate nutrition. But because the changes are gradual and often hidden until a disease is full- blown, we've been able to deceive ourselves into believing that convenience pet foods are actually good for dogs and cats.
But in my opinion, we've created dozens of generations of nutritionally compromised animals that suffer from degenerative diseases linked to nutritional deficiencies. Processed Diets Can Also Contain Carcinogens. Not only are processed pet foods biologically inappropriate, they also contain added synthetic vitamins and minerals to meet basic nutritional requirements. The food is heated to very high temperatures, which at best denatures proteins and decreases nutrient value. At worst, it introduces carcinogens into your pet's body on a daily basis. Two potent cancer- causing substances are created when dry pet food is made by the extrusion process. When protein is extruded, carcinogenic heterocyclic amines are created.
The byproducts of extruded starches are acrylamides. Both are known to cause cancer in dogs and cats. This is quite disturbing when you consider the fact that most pets across the globe are eating dry food their entire lives, and the cancer rate is skyrocketing in companion animals. Feeding dogs and cats inappropriate ingredients for several generations has created significant metabolic and physiologic stress.
Convenience pet foods are the root cause of the inflammatory processes and degenerative diseases that plague today's dogs and cats. A biologically correct diet for a carnivore is high in moisture, high in protein, moderate in fat, and low in carbohydrates. The vast majority of pet foods on the market today are the opposite – low in moisture content, with low to moderate amounts of poor quality protein and fat, and high in starches or carbs. Feed Your Pet the Best Diet You Can Reasonably Afford. The goal in feeding your pet a diet she can truly thrive on is to mimic the ancestral diet of dogs and cats as closely as possible without breaking the bank. Now, I know some of you might be thinking .
Research shows that offering some healthy foods is better than offering no healthy food at all. I also have clients who can afford to feed their pet maybe 2 to 4 fresh food meals out of 1.
Others do a 5. 0/5. I recommend taking baby steps toward providing the best diet you can afford for your dog or cat. Updated List of Best- to- Worst Types of Pet Food.
Nutritionally balanced raw homemade diet. This is the best diet you can feed your dog or cat. It's very important not to wing it when preparing your pet's meals at home.
I say this because when pet food nutrition expert Steve Brown and I analyzed many of the homemade and prey model diets available, we learned they fall far short in trace minerals, antioxidants including nutrients like manganese, magnesium, vitamin E and D, copper, zinc, iron, choline, and essential fatty acids. Additionally, if the diet doesn't have a proper fat or calcium to phosphorus balance, it can actually cause a myriad of health problems, especially in growing animals. So, it's critically important that you know your homemade diet is balanced. The great thing about homemade raw diets is you get to handpick the ingredients. You know the quality of the meat you're using.
And if your dog is allergic to chicken, for example, you simply pick a different protein source. Another benefit is you can wash the veggies to your own satisfaction to remove any pesticide residue. Making your own pet food can provide peace of mind because it's becoming increasingly more difficult to find ethical pet food companies that use locally sourced or even US- grown ingredients. With homemade food, you're in complete control of every ingredient that enters your pet's body. And of course, raw food is just that. It's raw and unadulterated. It contains all of the enzymes and phytonutrients that are typically destroyed during food processing.
Homemade food also gives you the flexibility to include a lot of nutritional variety in your pet's diet. You can buy seasonal fruits and veggies on sale. You can use produce that comes from your local supermarket, your local farmer's market, or even from your own garden.
Nutritionally balanced cooked homemade diet. This option gives you all of the benefits of the homemade raw diet above, minus the benefits of the free enzymes and phytonutrients found in living foods. Interestingly, there are a few nutrients that are actually more bioavailable when cooked, for example, lycopene.
Reasons to cook your pet's meals include the fact that some animals prefer cooked over raw food, or warm food over chilled food. Also, some pet owners simply prefer to cook the food. And then, there are some medical conditions such as recent GI surgery or pancreatitis for which cooked food is just a better idea. Commercially available balanced raw food diet. Again, it's critically important that the diet be balanced. There are a lot of raw diets on the market these days that are nutritionally incomplete.
These foods should say right on the label, . Some big- box stores are now starting to carry a larger selection of frozen raw diets, and you can also find an excellent selection online. There are new raw diets coming on the market every month and vegetable, bone, and fat content vary widely between products.
For example, diets range from 0 to 4. This can impact the amount of synthetic vitamins and minerals that must be added to the diet to make it nutritionally complete. In addition, vegetable content impacts digestive and stool health. So if, for example, you have a dog who suffers from chronic constipation, you may want to choose a food with higher veggie content. Commercially available raw food diets also range from low fat to high fat. If you have an obese cat, you would want to select a low- fat diet, but if you have a highly active dog on the lean side who loses weight quickly, it would make sense to choose a higher fat food.
Ground bone, bone meal, or a bone meal equivalent is typically added to raw diets for mineral balance.