“You don’t need a silver fork to eat good food.” – Paul Prudhomme
Are you curious about the ingredients that we use in our Kabo recipes? Each and every ingredient is carefully selected for a particular reason and function, in order to contribute to our goal of making the healthiest possible food for your dog.
Today’s ingredient feature is a little fishy…… it’s salmon! Salmon is a great superfood that is not only tasty to dogs but is also packed with some great nutrients.
Tantalizing to the taste buds
Palatability is the nutrition term used to describe how much a dog likes the taste of their food. Salmon just so happens to be one of the most palatable foods to dogs. A study by researchers Folador et al. even showed that salmon is more palatable to dogs than other sources of fish such as pollock and fish meal.
Fabulous fatty acids
One of the biggest health factors associated with salmon is its abundance of omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3 fatty acids come from a class of polyunsaturated lipids that are extremely important for metabolism and daily physiological processes. Specifically the omega 3s eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) have been shown to improve cognitive function, especially in association with conditions like alzhimers and depression. These fatty acids are also involved in maintaining general cardiovascular function and are also important for proper fetal development, including neuronal, retinal, and immune function.
Some studies have even shown that fatty acids, in combination with chemotherapy drugs can improve canine recovery from chemo resistant lymphoma. From one 2015 study, the researchers found that there were 2 types of cells (OSW T-cell and 17-71 B-cell lymphoid-tumor cells) that were less sensitive to the chemotherapy drugs than the other cells. The addition of stearidonic acid (fatty acid that is abundant in fish) to the chemo drugs greatly promoted the antitumor action in both of these cells. It was determined that the stearidonic acid bound and inhibited the drug transporters on the cancer cells. This increased the sensitivity of the cancer cells to the chemotherapy drugs.
Destined to be digested
Dogs get the most out of their food when it comes to salmon. It is a highly digestible ingredient and allows dogs to absorb all of the best nutrients.
It’s no secret that salmon is packed with protein (20g per 100g!) but that protein is also very digestible when compared to other types of protein. A 2017 study showed that when compared to chicken meat and poultry meal, salmon came out on top when it comes to protein digestibility. Digestibility for salmon meal was 91.3%, where chicken meat and poultry meal was 80.9%, 88.2% digestible.
Which Kabo recipes include salmon?
Folador, J. F., L. K. Karr-Lilienthal, C. M. Parsons, L. L. Bauer, P. L. Utterback, C. S. Schasteen, P. J. Bechtel, and G. C. Fahey Jr. "Fish meals, fish components, and fish protein hydrolysates as potential ingredients in pet foods." Journal of animal science 84, no. 10 (2006): 2752-2765.
Bhatt DL, Steg PG, Miller M, Brinton EA, Jacobson TA, Ketchum SB, Doyle RT, Juliano RA, Jiao L, Granowitz C, Tardif JC, Ballantyne CM (January 3, 2019). "Cardiovascular Risk Reduction with Icosapent Ethyl for Hypertriglyceridemia". New England Journal of Medicine. 380: 11–22.
Grey A, Bolland M (March 2014). "Clinical trial evidence and use of fish oil supplements". JAMA Internal Medicine. 174 (3): 460–2.
Pan A, Chen M, Chowdhury R, et al. (December 2012). "α-Linolenic acid and risk of cardiovascular disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis". Am. J. Clin. Nutr. (Systematic review). 96 (6): 1262–73. doi:10.3945/ajcn.112.044040. PMC 3497923. PMID 23076616.
Swanson, Danielle, Robert Block, and Shaker A. Mousa. "Omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA: health benefits throughout life." Advances in nutrition 3, no. 1 (2012): 1-7.
Pondugula, Satyanarayana R., Glennie Ferniany, Farah Ashraf, Kodye L. Abbott, Bruce F. Smith, Elaine S. Coleman, Mahmoud Mansour et al. "Stearidonic acid, a plant-based dietary fatty acid, enhances the chemosensitivity of canine lymphoid tumor cells." Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 460, no. 4 (2015): 1002-1007.
Tjernsbekk, M. T., A‐H. Tauson, O. F. Kraugerud, and Ø. Ahlstrøm. "Raw mechanically separated chicken meat and salmon protein hydrolysate as protein sources in extruded dog food: effect on protein and amino acid digestibility." Journal of animal physiology and animal nutrition 101, no. 5 (2017): e323-e331.
