To listen to the pet food manufacturers tell us that to feed our pet their product and nothing else for the rest of their lives is not just ridiculous - it's scary. It is clearly dangerous to your pet's health.

So what can you do?

The best plan is to feed your pets fresh whole food.

WHY WHOLE FOODS?

As a nation, we eat poor-quality foods that have been stripped of nutrients. We do not consume enough fresh fruits and vegetables. Many of us get our whole grains from instant rice, refined wheat breads, pastas, and cereal. We eat a tremendous amount of prepackaged, pre-made meals. One-quarter of Americans eat at fast food restaurants each day. Americans are overfed and undernourished.

We eat plenty but we are still starving

The foods we eat are not providing our bodies with the nutrition it needs to survive and be healthy. We are starving our bodies and we are sick. We suffer from diabetes, heart attacks, obesity, and the list goes on and on.

Commercial pet food is even worse. Below is a list of ingredients for two different brands of very famous pet food companies. Decide for yourself if these seem like high quality products.

• 1. Water, meat by-products, chicken by-products, animal fat (preserved with BHA/BHT, natural flavors, sodium tripolyphosphate, calcium sulfate, potassium chloride, calcium carbonate, magnesium sulfate manganese sulfate, zinc sulfate guar gum, carrageenan, carob gum, taurine, (artificial vitamin supplements) D, E, B1, B6, K.

• 2. Ground yellow corn, brewer's rice, rice,chicken by-product, wheat flour, soybean meal, corn gluten meal, animal fat, soy flour, milk, ocean fish meal, soy protein isolate, animal liver flavor, wheat gluten, calcium carbonate, phosphoric acid salt choline chloride, potassium chloride, added color (red40, yellow5, blue2 and other color), meat (what type?-MY NOTATION), bone meal, calcium phosphate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, AND artificial vitamins as listed above.

There is good news

Given proper nutrition, the human body has an amazing ability to heal itself. If properly fed and given the right nutrients, the human body is designed to repair itself. To do so, we need to eat a healthier diet, exercise, and take high-quality supplements made from whole foods. Whole food supplements supply our bodies with nutrients we are not getting from our diet, all the vitamins, minerals, trace minerals, and phytonutrients that foods possess in a way that nature intended, in a whole food form.

Only whole food supplements complete the nutritional gap

Whole food supplements are made by concentrating foods for use in supplements. When processed correctly, they supply a multitude of the plant's components. Foods provide nutrients that work synergistically. They work together to provide you with optimal nutrition for good health.

These are some of the varieties of food that I feed my pets, along with the whole food supplements.

• White and dark Chicken meat, Carrots, Peas, Broccoli, and Squash
• Turkey, Carrots, Cauliflower, Spinach, and Parsely
• Lamb, Spinach, Broccoli, Zucchini, and Kale
• Pollock fish, Carrots, Broccoli, Squash and peas

UNDERSTANDING SUPPLEMENT LABELS

There are many different kinds of supplements on the market, and it can be very confusing to determine the true value of a supplement. Understanding the label will help you know if you are taking a quality supplement.

Where do the nutrients come from?

Look at the ingredients on the food label. Do you recognize any of them? Just like any other food label, the nutrients are listed in a particular order and some manufacturers put the source next to the nutrient. In a quality, wholesome product, you will recognize and be able to pronounce most of the ingredients on the label.

What is the importance of whole food ingredients?

Only whole food ingredients can provide you with all the nutrients contained within the food, rather than just isolated components. For example, in brand B (left) the sixth ingredient is dl-alpha tocopheryl acetate. This is not a food ingredient. It is an isolated component of the vitamin E complex. If you were to take a supplement with just dl-alpha tocopheryl, you would be missing at least five other important nutrients as well as hundreds of other nutrients that occur within the whole vitamin E complex. These nutrients are only available by consuming natural, whole food forms of vitamin E, such as wheat germ oil, pea vine, green leafy vegetables, nuts, sunflower seeds.

To be effective, don't I need to get at least 100% of the daily value?

We often think that more is better. However, when choosing supplements, quality is far more important than quantity. A small amount of a vitamin in whole food form is far more effective in the human body than a large dose of an isolated vitamin. This is because the isolated form is just a fraction of the whole and is missing important nutrients that the body needs. Taking more of the isolated form will not make up for its deficiencies.

The only supplements that contain the entire whole food complex are whole food supplements.

QUALITY OF INGREDIENTS

Just like any recipe, the quality of the ingredients you use affects the quality of the final product. Therefore, it's important to answer all these questions when evaluating a supplement and its effectiveness.

Where do the ingredients come from?

Manufacturers who grow many of their ingredients have the unique ability to control the quality of the ingredient from seed to supplement. Some manufacturers own certified organic farms to further enhance the quality of their ingredients.

When are ingredients processed?

When you buy a tomato, you inspect it for quality. You wouldn't knowingly buy one that was mushy and bruised. This same principle holds true for when ingredients are prime for harvest. Different foods reach their peak nutrient value during different times within the growing season. Pea vine, for example, is at its peak during the flowering stage.

Once harvested, food begins to lose its value. It is perishable like the tomato. If there is a delay of hours, days, or months from when an ingredient is harvested to when it's processed, many of its very delicate phytonutrients are lost.

Are the ingredient's vital factors retained?

Each ingredient has its own set of rules in relation to how to best extract and package its vital life. The manufacturing process needs to retain the vital nutrients within the ingredients. Too much heat will destroy enzymes and phytonutrients. The manufacturer should use a low-temperature, high-vacuum process to make sure that the ingredient's nutrients are preserved.

The Key Is High-Quality Ingredients

Nutritional scientists are continually discovering what we at Standard Process have taught and practiced since 1929: Micronutrients, both known and unknown, found only in whole foods are more essential to health than selected vitamins and minerals taken away from their complete food matrix.

Our product formulas contain unique combinations of whole foods (whole plants, animal tissue extracts and concentrates, and botanicals), which contain essential vitamins, phytonutrients, and minerals to provide optimal health for your patients. Ingredients are selected for their specific supportive effects in metabolism.

Whole Plants

Plants like pea vine, beets, buckwheat, and alfalfa provide vitamins and phytonutrients.

Animal Tissue Extracts and Concentrates

The animal tissues in our products (Protomorphogen™ and Cytosol™ brand extracts and whole desiccates) provide many essential nutritional compounds, including amino acid and enzyme complexes and essential fatty acids to support the corresponding tissues in humans.

Botanicals

Botanicals provide important factors that contribute additional organ and glandular support by complementing the vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and tissue concentrates found in foods. For example, silymarin found in Silybum marianum has been shown to provide significant hepatic protection and support.

ORGANIC FARMING METHODS

We keep detailed records of our farming practices, and annually monitor our farmland and processing facility to ensure that only the highest quality farming techniques are practiced.

Farming Techniques

Seeds

All of the seeds that we use are untreated and free of genetically modified organisms (GMO). We use certified organic seeds when available.

Irrigation

Irrigation water is supplied from a naturally occurring artesian flowage over 500 feet below the farm's surface.

Weed Control

Organic weed control standards are strictly adhered to at the Standard Process Farm. The main methods of weed management include:

• Cultivating
• Mowing
• Hand weeding
• Cover crops - used for weed prevention and as a source of nitrogen and organic matter
• Crop flamer - used to eliminate the last flush of weeds before vegetable emergence

Eco-sensitive Processing

After the nutrients have been extracted from the raw materials, the majority of biodegradable by-products are returned to the fields in a monitored, land-spreading program.

Environmental Buffers

Our farm is surrounded on all sides by environmental buffers to minimize the impact of non-agricultural land and chemical inputs from traditional farming practices.

EXCLUSIVE MANUFACTURING PROCESSES

Because preserving the whole food complex is a top priority when manufacturing our supplements, we carefully follow time-proven formulas based on Dr. Lee's philosophies to manufacture our whole food supplements. Our manufacturing process, from raw materials to finished product, takes an average of six weeks.

In order to produce the highest quality whole food supplements, Standard Process utilizes Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), which were drafted by the Food and Drug Administration specifically for the dietary supplement industry.

We use the following precision-engineered processes to preserve the nutrients of the raw materials.

Grinding

Immediatly after harvest, whole foods grown on our certified organic farmland, such as Brussels sprouts, are ground for further processing.

Juice Extraction

To capture the nutrients from raw materials (such as buckwheat, alfalfa, and pea vine), the juice is pressed from the plants and separated from the pulp. The result is a concentrated product containing both fat- and water-soluble nutrients.

Separation Process

Selected animal tissues used to make our Protomorphogen™ and Cytosol™ extracts are ground to create a liquid slurry. The slurry is subjected to our proprietary multistep separation methods. Animal tissues are obtained exclusively from USDA-certified facilities.

Low-Temperature, High-Vacuum Dryers

Raw materials are slowly dried in low-temperature, high-vacuum dryers to preserve their nutrients.

Mixing

Dried materials are measured and mixed with the utmost precision.

Binding

After mixing, our fluid bed granulator is used to add natural binding ingredients, such as honey and arabic gum to the product batch for tableting. Other binders we use include cellulose and calcium stearate. Cellulose is often used to give body to the powders. When needed, calcium stearate, derived from vegetable sources, is used to help product flow into the tablet and capsule machines. No artificial flavoring is ever used.