Page 21 - Autumn 23

Despite all the research, science still hasn’t discovered all the many ways in which food works to keep us healthy. Take something called fisetin, which is a natural plant compound (polyphenol) found in a variety of vegetables including strawberries and apples. Studies have found that fisetin reduces the effect of senescent aka ‘zombie’ cells. Zombie cells are cells that refuse to die but which hang around the body releasing chemicals that can be harmful to nearby cells, affecting cell survival and reparative potential. The build-up of these zombie cells promotes ageing and age- related conditions, including cardiovascular disease. When senior citizen mice are given fisetin their health life span improves dramatically. There is hard research, too, showing that vegetables reduce the chances of cancer in dogs. A study involving Scottish Terriers, for example,
found that feeding any type of vegetable at least three times a week produced a 70 percent reduced risk for developing transitional cell carcinoma, otherwise known as TCC, a type of cancer often found in the urinary bladder and urethra of older, smaller dogs. Feed green vegetables and you reduce that risk by 90%
There is still much work to be done about what a healthy dog’s biome looks like, but what we do know is that canine diets that exclude fresh vegetables result in considerably less healthy microbiomes.
Among the most important compounds plants provide are the polyphenols, flavonoids, and other phytonutrients. In multiple studies, adding polyphenols to the diet has been shown to significantly reduce markers of oxidative stress.
Oxidative stress, to save you looking it up, reflects an imbalance between the systemic manifestation of reactive oxygen species and a biological system's ability to readily detoxify the reactive intermediates or to repair the resulting damage. What does it matter? It is suspected to play a huge (and not very positive) role in a wide range of diseases including strokes, heart attacks, age-related development of cancer, Alzheimer’s and more.
Some apiaceous vegetables (e.g., carrots, cilantro, parsnips, fennel, celery, parsley) contain polyacetylenes, an unusual class of organic compounds that has antibacterial, antifungal, and antimycobacterial benefits. They play a key role in detoxifying several cancer-causing substances, specifically mycotoxins (including aflatoxin B1).
I could go on about other beneficial things to be found in vegetables such as indole-3-carbinol, lutein, zeaxanthin, sulforaphanes and quercetin (considered nature’s Benadryl because it so good for dogs with allergies) but I feel I have made my point. Fresh vegetables can’t possibly do your dog any harm and there is plenty of evidence they will do him or her a great deal of good.
If you have any questions about our food or any other aspect of what we do or if you would like free samples or we can support you in some other way please don’t hesitate to contact me directly (js@jonathanself.com). Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your referrals and support.
Jonathan (Self) Founder
www.honeysrealdogfood.com Telephone 01672 620 260 Email: info@honeysrealdogfood.com