The Vital Importance of Natural Nutrition, with guest Dr. Evelyn Kass, DVM

We all know that good nutrition is at the root of maintaining an optimal state of health,  but are you really aware of what is in your pet's food dish and what it may be doing to your pet's body?   During this episode of Your Vital Pet I will be talking with animal nutrition specialist, Dr Evelyn Kass, DVM about how vitally important a good, biologically appropriate diet really is for your companion dog or cat, and how food provides "information" that allows cells to communicate and carry out thousands of biological processes that are necessary to achieve and maintain optimal health.  We also discuss the "microbiome" that exists within animals and humans alike, and the important roles these beneficial bacteria play in the wellness of your pet.  This is a fascinating and highly informative show that you don't want to miss!

Transcript

spk_0:   0:22
welcome to your vital pet. I'm Greg Chill. For today we will be talking about the importance of natural nutrition and what you can do to make sure your vital companion is getting the nutrition she really needs. Virtually everyone who is pursuing a healthier path for their pet or, for that matter themselves will quickly learn how important good nutrition really is without a high quality diet comprise of biologically appropriate foods that are suited and match to the individual. The body will lack the tools and energies that needs to maintain optimal health, and the stage will already be set for chronic illness. Problem is, while most commercial foods are designed to address the general nutritional requirements of an entire population of dogs, cats and other animals, they do not and cannot address the special needs of each individual. And to make things worse, even some of the most expensive kibble and canned foods may contain ingredients that really aren't the best choices for animals. They're designed for legumes is one example, are often added to commercial cat and dog foods because they're high in protein and more affordable than meat. The problem with this is that dogs cats and other carnivores are naturally designed to derive their protein from meat, not leg ums, and they lacked a digestive chemistry's needed to effectively break down leg comes into useful protein. The result. Imbalances that may cause chronic diseases like obesity, skin and code issues, cardio myopathy or even cancer. Today's guest, Dr Evelyn Cast, is a holistic veterinarian. He uses food and nutritional support as medicine for her patients. After healing herself from the damage caused by two auto immune diseases. Using only diet and herbs, she realized the power of food to hell. Her passion for nutrition is letter to create a nutritional consulting business for pets. Her website, www dot pet nutrition dot com, provides information on choosing pet foods and optimize health through food choices. She explains the dangers of obesity and genetically modified foods. Her goal is to prevent many of the chronic conditions that now appear in our pets by providing information to help pet parents choose to proper food and supplements they're animals need for optimal health. She's currently on of advisory boards for animal essentials, one of the first veterinary herbal companies, as well as I on bio, a new generation soil deride pet supplement that promotes healthy digestion and an optimal got environment for dogs and cats. Dr. Evelyn, welcome to your vital pit.

spk_1:   3:03
I'm so excited to be here.

spk_0:   3:04
Yeah, it's great to have you here. We worked for a long time. And, you know, one of the conversations we've had in the past is and I don't think people are really aware of this. I mean, you've been a veterinarian for quite a while and you're obviously well versed in a lot of different aspects of veterinary medicine. However, there's a general lack of nutritional training in that school. Is that true?

spk_1:   3:26
That's very true, and it goes through to medical school as well. But I would say that in terms of my training of nutrition, we got the very basics of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. And of course, that went across all species. So ruminants and carnivores alike and a CZ faras had food nutrition. It came from the pet food companies, and that was really about it. It was very minimal. Number of ours was very small, especially in comparison to the four years that we were there. And I think that's unfortunately a general trend through all medical training,

spk_0:   4:00
right and, you know, toe, add upon that as if that's not enough injury, I'll have some or injury to the injuries is the American Association of Feet Control Officials, which is an association of state. Basically, if state feed control officials have gotten together over the years, mostly since 1958 I believe when the Africa guide was put out and the idea was to create guidelines by which pet food companies could follow basic guidelines for nutrition in dogs and cats, they call a maintenance schedules of the maintenance recipes and such. The problem is, is that it was done to cover so many different animals in just a basic way and in the because of the lack of training and insight in history in the past, especially, there's never been a set of standards that really are effective in addressing the individual needs of animals through the commercial channels. And so now we see this giant revolution is this health revolution in the pet industry that is centered around food, we're seeing all these new commercial recipes come out with natural ingredients, received raw food, you see home prepared cooked foods and everything else, and it kind of leaves me to believe that after you, oh really doesn't have us covered so well, as many people might think. They see you know, the little little chart guaranteed analysis and the panels on the side of a dock food. And they assume, for instance, that if it's 20% protein, the net protein must be available to their daughter or their cat, whoever they're feeding. And it's just not true,

spk_1:   5:36
right? And that's that's only part of the problem. 20% protein for a carnivore is not enough. Anyway, in my mind, yes, you can keep them alive. But we're talking about trying to achieve optimal health or even good health. That's way too low. And yet that is within Africa guidelines, because they can survive eso. But I could survive on McDonald's, but we all know what that had. What happens there, you know. So you know there's there's so many challenges with af go, and I think that, you know, originally they were, as you say it was for multiple species. Nutrition was initially a CE faras. I understand more geared towards the room and is the food animal, but not necessarily in terms of health, it was more in terms of how quickly can we get them to grow and get them, you know, out market. And so you know, as far as our pets, Even with their guidelines, there are many, many nutrients that they do not know maximums. They don't know if there's a toxic level, and if so, where it is. They don't sometimes no even minimums and even certain things like your omega three fatty acids. Those were really important to manage inflammation in the body, and yet they have opted not to put that in as one of the requirements. And the reason is that they're not that stable in food. And so if you put them in the food at production, what you get by the time you feed is probably not gonna be the same. And, in fact, it may have turned into a toxic, ah form of that, I mean, or that fatty acids. So there are a lot of challenges in trying to make guidelines, especially for kibbles, that are designed to be on the shelf for a year and then opened, and in people's cover IDs for however long they happen to keep

spk_0:   7:35
them right. It was, you know, just another little piece of trivia here. In order to call a commercial pet food of maintenance recipe, the manufacturer has to has to show that they've been through a feeding trial that has been ordained by F go, so to speak. And that feeding trail. My understanding is comprised of X number of dogs for I think, 12 to 16 weeks on a specific diet and up to 25% or something like that can drop off the diet if they won't eat the food. But there is no criteria for those that stay on the diet and gain too much weight.

spk_1:   8:13
And and even what they're measuring is amazingly small. They're checking. I think they checked for, um to see if they become anemic, which means the red blood cells drop. Um, and they checked for one or two other parameters, but they're really not checking for even general health. You know, they get a physical exam, but there's not a guideline of what has to occur. What, what the doctor has to see on that physical exam? Just that it's been done, and they're not much different than the rest of the colony. That's really a very minimal guideline, and as you said they can. They can drop dogs out of that. I really think the number is very small. I believe it's 10 or less, which is not even a statistically significant number. But they can drop dogs off for any reason. It doesn't have to be because they won't eat. It could because they got sick. Um, and if something dies, they just have to say, Well, it wasn't related to the food. Well, you know something dies of heart disease. No, it's not related to the food, you know, We and I think it's a very, very expensive thing for a company to d'oh. So most companies actually don't do that. There are certain there are other ways that they can get their products half go certified as long as they meet those. As you said, those criteria of certain nutrients at certain levels there they can put it on the label that they're after a certified, and I think it's it's a nice minimum standard. It's nice to have that, but unfortunately that's it's not enough.

spk_0:   9:49
Yeah, absolutely. And, uh, it's not getting any better, accept that what I see is a mirror effect. I see a lot of people that are taking their own health, their own diet, their own nutrition, nutrition, further human families into their own hands. They're taking preventative medicine into their hands. They're becoming more informed, more aware of what they should be eating, what's appropriate, not just for a man or a woman or a child or an adult, but for the individual that's being fed on. What I'm seeing is a growing number of people want to do the same thing for their animals. You know, I think you remember the old days. First, it started with the old TV commercials that you should never change. The dogs die should be suitable for the course of its life, which is, you know, and then it. It kind of morphed into other things that you know. It's just amazing that's taken this long, I guess, for people to catch on that it's really kind of the same. It's feeding on human Children. They need quality, they need diversity. They need foods that are appropriate for them, not just appropriate for marketing purposes and what we think might be right for them. So you know the the requirement of consumer education, not the daughter. Can't, of course, but the pet owner to understand what they're animals really need in a natural realm, not just on a label that is really important, you know. And they need guidance from people like you to to make this happen, to find a hopeful way for their animals. Because my understanding is it's possible to create a balanced diet for your companion for your own kitchen. But it's not just a matter of throwing a couple of chicken legs together and maybe a handful of vegetables, right?

spk_1:   11:32
Right. That's very true. Yeah, there are certain nutrients that we have to get from other places, and we can definitely. And I do create diets that are 100% balance using just food. But they have to be put together in a certain way so that there were getting all of those nutrients in the amounts that we need. So it is not difficulty in that. Once you have the recipe, throw things together, and if your dog is healthy enough and we could get into that a little bit later, I think raw is great. I don't think raw is for everybody. I think that some dogs are to their health is to compromise, to even really digest that. And cooking really does help with the digestion and makes it a little bit easier for them to absorb the nutrients and have fewer risks of secondary disease. But but to try and do it on your own and to try and sort through all of the conflicting information that is available on Google and everywhere else is really challenging?

spk_0:   12:42
Absolutely yes, so it is possible. But there's guidance required. Definitely. Yeah, What's missing? I mean, there's all these raw foods and natural diets that are commercially available and most of them to help it, you know, the they complete the cycle are better than other commercial foods. They have whole food ingredients and such. But what's missing is there. Is there something missing here?

spk_1:   13:04
Well, I think the challenge is that, you know, we moving to the natural side of things and using um less processing is definitely better. We know that processed food is not good for us. And yet we were just in this whole paradigm in this habit of feeding a kibble and not even thinking. Hey, that is really just a whole process. It's coming out of a bag. But what happens is when that food is, he has heated multiple times, and each time it's heated. There are toxins that are produced, and so going to a more natural, less processed food is most of the time going to be better. There are some. There are plenty of raw foods on the market that air really good, but they're not good for everybody. You know, they're, um, and and that's where I say Raw is great for some dogs, but it's not for everybody. And I think guidance is important there. I think some of these homemade natural diets that you see in the refrigerator, some of them are really good. But it gets really expensive to feed a dog, especially a big dog, what they really need, which is mostly meat. And so even those are often hi and fillers. A lot of the carbohydrates, the grains, the um, you're the legumes, as you mentioned earlier, potatoes sweet potatoes A little bit's fine, but you know when it when it becomes a major portion of the food is just not species appropriate,

spk_0:   14:38
right? Moderation remembers

spk_1:   14:39
absolutely of

spk_0:   14:40
your in our conversations in the past and on your website, you speak about food is information which fascinates me. And I'm gonna ask you what you mean about that after we take a quick commercial break. Did you know that a small dose of digestive enzymes added to your pet's food each day will greatly enhances digestion and assimilation of the vital nutrients he needs? The same pinch of flavorless powder will also ate and waste elimination, regardless of what you're feeding. Animal essentials. Plant enzymes and probiotic supplement contains all of the plant derived natural enzymes needed to help break down the proteins, Fats and carbohydrates of your pets die and informs his body can easily absorb. Cost is only pennies a day, and you see quick results. More vital energy, healthier skin and coat. Better form stool. Less flatulence and fresher breath are often seen when in just a couple of weeks, and because your pet will be utilizing the food she eats more efficiently, chances are you'll be feeding less, too. Goto animal essentials dot com and order a bottle today and use coupon code vital pet one That's vital. Pet one. That's one word all upper case to receive 25% off your first purchase. A check out Your furry companion will be happy you did before the break I brought up The concept of food is information you speak about. Food is information. What do you mean?

spk_1:   16:12
You know, we have been using a very reductionist thinking in terms of nutrition. We think about the amount of protein, the number of grams we think about the specific vitamins and the specific Venera ls that are in the food. But what we're not understanding is the way they all interact. And it's not just interacting within the food. They're interacting with our body. Our gut microbiome is really one of the most important things for health maintenance, and the gut microbiome is that collection of bacteria, viruses, fungi. That caller got home when we're eating or we're giving our pets food. We're feeding that microbiome and the the components of the microbiome, the bacteria, the fungi in the viruses. They produce a lot of biochemicals. They produce some of our vitamins. They produce some hormones. They produce some of our neuro transmitters. So in fact, Ah, there's more serotonin, which is a neuro transmitter for calming. There's more of that meat in the gut than there is in the brain, but only if we're feeding the appropriate microbiome. So it's really information. It's it's telling our microbiome what to produce because we're selecting the right organisms. But there's other things. If if we don't have the appropriate combination of nutrients than some of our genes can't be expressed so it can. It can be information. In that way, it tells our genes which ones to be expressed in which ones not to, uh, we need some of those nutrients for enzyme and hormone activation even I mean, we needed for production, but we also need for activation. So the food is telling the body which way to go and what to focus on, and it can really help us to balance things out or unbalance it if we don't feed the right things.

spk_0:   18:19
So we're talking about a process that gut level that actually could have an influence on a lot more than most people think. It's not just about weight gain, weight loss, energy, the maintenance of the structural maintenance of organs but also the behavior of organs and the way they function. For instance, the brain and anxiety could be affected by food.

spk_1:   18:40
Absolutely, yeah. In fact, there's a lot of studies now on the human side looking at the gut microbiome and its connection with, ah, neurologic disease, whether it's anxiety or even some more severe neurological disease. There are connections with heart disease with, uh, just about every other bodily function with the type of microbiome that we have and even cancer. There are certain microbiome populations that are shown to be present moment much more often in patients with cancer. And you know, we don't know is this cause or effect? But it certainly seems to be if you can switch that microbiome, we can often recover from diseases. So there's even some work with fecal transplants where we take stool healthy, you know, stole from a healthy patient that has a nice, healthy microbiome. We implant that into somebody who has some serious disease, and we can reverse things in a matter of, you know, really, 1/2 an hour to an hour when those bacteria start to do what they're supposed to. D'oh! So is really incredible when we realized how important those microbes are to our health

spk_0:   19:56
way. Tend to look a holistic health in an outward fashion. Too much of a time when the reality is, is that nature and a natural balance exists within every living thing, too. And there's there's a universe, the microbiome and chemistries, and all the balances and checks that have to be maintained inside the body are often unseen. But they're just a CZ important, if not more so. I have to be taken into consideration. This microbiome that we're talking about is, you know, it's fascinating to meet. It also is also one of the more frightening aspects of what we see in the modern world. Because we're looking at a population of millions, trillions of different bacteria, that a pre existed man for millions of years, it's you can trace back to use these microbes in these use bacteria to the dinosaurs practically and and we know that by virtue of what has happened to the planet, what humanity has done to the planet and such that we probably broken that continuity, and we've broken that balance in a pretty significant way. And so it's time to put that back together, right?

spk_1:   21:02
That's absolutely true. And unfortunately, a lot of our environmental toxins are very toxic to our gut microbiome. And so, you know, we look at an ecosystem outside, you know, whether it's ah, woodland or, um, an ocean or whatever there's. There's an ecosystem that requires a certain amount of diversity to be resilient and because of some environmental toxins because of medications that we take, whether its antibiotics or even things like the anti inflammatories, the things like Motrin, Advil and aspirin. Uh, and houses are also another one that that really changed the environment and change the micro population in there. All of those things can have a significant effect, and we may not notice it right away. But especially over time, we can see some really chronic disease coming up from that, because because of the imbalance and rebalancing that is challenging, it can. A lot of it can be done with food and herbs that we really need to heal the God and that's my goal is always to start with the gut. It doesn't matter what symptoms people come in with their parents, it's you start with the gut and then we work our way out.

spk_0:   22:16
Yeah, I'm guessing that the eye on bio mom product cut supplement that you've been working with 15 to this conversation pretty well.

spk_1:   22:25
Absolutely. Yes. That is ah, fascinating product of some of the things that do cause damage to the gut. To really common ones are glyphosate, which is the active ingredient in round up and gluten, which is in wheat, barley and rye. And we talked about people with celiac or gluten sensitivities. Both of those things will cause damage to the gut wall and cause Ah ah, breakdown of the spaces between the cells in the God, which allows whatever's inside the gut that shouldn't be there to get into the body. So there should be a nice wall. There should be a, um, a barrier, because when we eat something, we're taking the outside and we're bringing it inside the body, right? The apple was on the tree. It was outside. It was in the outside environment. Now we're bringing it into the body, and if it's not supposed to be in our bloodstream, it's supposed to be in the gut where we can take all the nutrients that we need. So there are four or five different layers of protection there to keep that apple exactly where it should be until that's been broken down into nutrients that we can absorb. But that lining of the gut is kind of the bottom. We have the microbiome, we have a mucus lining, and then we have this interest Cellular junction that should be holding things together. Behind that is our immune system. 70% of our immune system lines the gut. And so if the gut is broken, if we have those leaks in there, then our entire immune system becomes inflamed. It becomes it goes on guard. And that's where we get these chronic inflammatory diseases. So what this product does, it is. It actually tightens up those junctions, but it can actually block the toxic effects of glyphosate and gluten. And we can see in electron microscopy pictures that the damage that would normally be done to those cells doesn't happen. And in fact, there are in better shape and tighter junctions than before. Um, and it also helps with interest cellular communication, and that's a little bit of ah, tricky thing. But, you know, we think about ourselves being all different separate, but the whole body is communicating. And, um, cancer, in a way, is a loss of that. Communication, you know, have this cells that are abnormal happening all the time in our body. But if there's communication, the body can recognize, those is abnormal and it kills them. And it tells the cell to self destruct, which is called apoptosis. And you were good. You know, we we go on to the next day, but when you have a cell that's not communicating with the outside world and it feels threatened, it feels like it's dying, right? What do you do for survival? You just reproduce and you keep reproducing, but it can't see what's around it, so it doesn't think it has any company. It doesn't think that it has to be part of the whole, because there's no communication. And so what this product does is it also helps to set up that communication and so it can help the body too reestablish and say, Hey, you're you're not healthy. You're not helping the hole. You need to go. And so it can help that that selling apoptosis start to happen on a natural course. So it's It's an incredible product. Um, I'm so excited about it, and I'm starting to see some results already with it. It's pretty new, So really excited about it.

spk_0:   26:02
Available on your website.

spk_1:   26:04
Ah, it is available. There should be a link on my website. Yes. And there you have it at the clinic where I work as well.

spk_0:   26:13
So this is a soil derived supplement. It

spk_1:   26:15
is. Yeah, it's it's in water. So it's ah ah. They've just re branded to eye on bio MIT was ah called Restore on the human side and Louis Pat on the the pet side. But the Children's they used to call dirt water, which I thought was really huge. Um, but that's kind of what it is. It's it's ancient soils, and it's some, uh, chemicals from the breakdown of organic matter that our body normally would get. But our soils are so depleted that we're not getting that from our normal foods. And so where this is the way that we can replace that and get things were starting to work again,

spk_0:   26:57
Yeah, it comes to mind, you know, some things that were really a necessity in life are so simple. We can't figure them out, huh? Yeah. I mean, we we look at, for instance, I travel. I traveled a lot of what we consider Third World countries, and I eat the food there every once in a while, I'll get digestive upset. Montezuma's revenge, if you will. Because my system cannot handle the mix of microbes that might be in foreign water. Because as an American, I'm always eating sterilized water, drinking, sterilized water, eating sterilized foodstuff with preservatives and stuff. It's grown in depleting soils and slacking the microbes and little crawly things that we seem so inherently terrified of. I can't support. You know that Bynum I own that exists within me, you know? So I go to these other countries. I watch everybody else enjoying the foods. I can't eat because I basically sterilized my system. It's my imbalance. It's not probably nothing to do with water of the food there, but it's my imbalance. Right. Unfortunately, we've been passing this on to our cups for many generations.

spk_1:   28:00
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And And you know there is. There is something to clean water, right? I mean, we don't get these epidemics We don't have thousands of people dying of diarrheal diseases, but there has to be a balance somewhere. We have to get back to nature and start, you know, start playing in the dirt against

spk_0:   28:21
your instead of trying to kill everything. That

spk_1:   28:24
way, we need

spk_0:   28:25
to learn how to coexist. Yes, you know, nature has set up a certain way. It's it's a balancing act. Everything is a balancing act. We're out of balance and they behave against it just to satisfy our convenience. Satisfy our urge for convenience is throwing things even more out of whack island. We need to get back closer to nature for sure. You know, I believe that the animals in our own, they hope us down that path. They show us nature. They force us. You know, when we listen to shows like your vital pet or we we listen to doctors like you. We realized that we have to understand not just more about what works inside of the animal's body that we're taking care of, but works outside of that body that's supposed to work in concert with everything ballistic healing, holistic medicine is it encompasses everything environment, the food, the water, the air. Everything that effects life is part of the holistic system.

spk_1:   29:24
Absolutely yes.

spk_0:   29:26
Tell us about your service. Is everyone

spk_1:   29:29
Well, I I actually teach people how to use food as medicine to heal their pets or to keep them healthy. So I do die individual individualized diet formulations. Those air usually done either for a healthy pet where somebody contacts me online or I do work in a clinic 1 to 2 days a week, and it might be a patient that I've seen there, and then I will do it diet formulation for them. But other times I'll do a full consul with a willo review their medical records. I'll talk to the owners. I'll find out what kind of lifestyle they have and will. We'll talk about how to clean up the environment, how to improve the lifestyle, and we'll get a diet that is set just for that pet to help alleviate some of the symptoms or signs that they're having. And this could be anything from obesity thio, allergies to even cancer, and we can definitely slow down cancer. Some of them we can stop and reverse, but we, the patients that I have treated for cancer. We can get those short remissions or the extended life span, but we're not getting any of the toxic side effects that you would normally get with the chemotherapy and the other medications that normally go along with it. So, uh, I think the time frame is similar, at least the patients that I've dealt with, whether it's chemotherapy or the nutritional round. But the animals are definitely much happier and healthier. Um, and then people can come see me at my clinic, and I also do give talks on nutrition and hope to give a full day presentation for your pretty soon in Phoenix on weight loss for dogs.

spk_0:   31:08
Let me know about that. I'd love to go, but thank you for sure. Website is www dot packed nutrition dr dot com Cat and people can find everything they need to contact you and get started on a new path for their other animals. Do you work with anything but dogs and cast you work with birds or any exotics or anything?

spk_1:   31:30
No, just the dogs and cats that sze diverse enough

spk_0:   31:34
all right? I mean, it boggles my mind when I think about the training that veterinarians. I'm not a veterinarian myself. I'm a novelist. But you know, the concept of having to learn the body systems of so many different species, you know, is it just boggles my mind. I mean,

spk_1:   31:51
well, there's definitely a challenge, but you also are learning about all kinds of different plants, and you know where they live and what's the best way to grow them. And, you know, there's there's a lot there, too, so I definitely have a lot of respect for your knowledge as well. And I appreciate all the help that you've given me over the years.

spk_0:   32:09
Well, likewise, when you know we're all doing the same thing, it's all it's about connecting the dots. It's about bringing everything together, you know, to me, herbal medicine, the greatest power of herbal medicine isn't in realizing and exploiting the chemistry's of plants. But understanding and honoring two connection that they offered to us to the rest of the world and the rules that they play in healing everything that is here was understanding the source and respecting the source is really, really important.

spk_1:   32:42
It is very important, and I think that's one of the big things that we need to start looking at what they were choosing food for ourselves or food for our pets or herbs or any other natural product is where did it come from? How is it produced? Because, you know, we're doing so much damage with some of the ways that we're growing our food right now. We need to to really look at that. And if we can change that, we can get healthier foods that will make us all healthier. And as you said, we're all connected. We you know, if we can grow the food and a healthy way that's healthy for the Earth, it's also healthy for us. And we can get this cycle kind of turning in the other direction.

spk_0:   33:18
Dr. Evelyn, thank you very much for coming on the show today. I hope you'll come back very soon.

spk_1:   33:23
Thank you, Greg. I would love to. It's just been great.

spk_0:   33:26
Great best of luck in everything.

spk_1:   33:28
Thanks so much.

spk_0:   33:29
Thank you. And thank you to all of our listeners is sure to tune in and subscribe to your vital pet on your favorite podcast browser. You don't want to miss what's coming next. Thistles. Greg, chill for talk to you soon