Senior Dogs: Fresh Food vs Kibble Study

We’ve got some nice research on a group of senior dogs, showing striking differences between kibble and a fresh food (though cooked) diet. The research was done at Cornell and studied two groups of dogs, both of which started on typical extruded kibble (the very definition of “over processed!”) for 4 months.

Then, half the dogs were switched to a fresh “human grade” diet and compared to the control group that stayed on the kibble. The study went for one whole year. They measured “metabolomics” a buzz word I could live without. It means indicators of how efficient or messed up one’s metabolism is.

Wait. What’s metabolism?

Our vet school biochemistry professor was from Trinidad or some other Caribbean country, and left the class agog when he pronounced it “met a BOWL ism” on his first day lecturing. Wait, what’s he saying?

Giggles ensued once someone figured it out and it made the rounds.

MeTABolism is, per the dictionary: the chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life.”

Another way to say it: Metabolism is how cells convert nutrients into energy and building blocks to sustain life.

You might hear it broken down into protein, fat, or carbohydrate metabolism or hear it in the context of the tiny powerhouses in every cell called mitochondria.

Bottom line: what you feed (or eat) has a lot to do with how efficient this process of sustaining life is for your pets and you.

Ingredients Make a Yuge Difference!

(Sorry, couldn’t resist 😉 )

The two diets were wildly different in composition, as you’ll see if you view the study via this link.

I’ll just highlight those differences by listing the first several ingredients in each, using the “Salt Divide” as my breaking point, as everything following salt is pretty tiny. The control diet, like a lot of kibble products everywhere reads as follows:

Ground Corn, Chicken Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Rice Flour, Porcine Meat and Bone Meal, Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Poultry Fat Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols, Porcine Animal Fat Preserved with BHA and Citric Acid, Brewers Dried Yeast, Hydrolyzed Poultry By-Products Aggregate, Spray Dried Animal Blood Cells, Dried Egg Product, Dried Whey…

And the test diet, a commercial fresh (but cooked) offering lists the following before salt appears:

Chicken, Chicken Liver, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Chia Seeds, Tricalcium Phosphate, Salmon Oil, Potassium Chloride…

Whoa. That second one sounds pretty good for humans, doesn’t it? Real food, what a concept.

The kibble version also has an old alarming preservative in it called ethoxyquin, long known

to be a toxic one, while the fresh food? Preserved by refrigeration.

Macronutrients: Wildly Different as Well
Worth mentioning the protein, fat, and carb contents are miles apart as well, as this screen shot indicates:

Basically, this data shows how much metabolizable energy (ME) comes from protein, fat, and carbs by percentage.

If you’ve followed my bent or that of many others interested in obesity and insulin resistance, you’ll see the winning diet (“Test”) had 1/10^th the carbs as the kibble, almost twice the fat, and more protein.

And the fresh food had a whole lot less “energy” (read: calories that count) overall.

Both diets passed the AAFCO specs for dogs however, so neither group was starving.

Results: Both groups remained “systemically healthy” for the one year of the research. Body condition scores were stable in all. But, from an analysis of the research, results revealed that dogs fed the fresh food experienced a rapid and sustained metabolic shift after just one month, marked by lower levels of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) – harmful compounds linked to aging and chronic disease.

These dogs also showed reduced sucrose and 1,5-anhydroglucitol (a glycemic control biomarker), and notably lower concentrations of specific AGEs such as N6-carboxymethyllysine and pyrraline—highlighting the benefits of avoiding high-heat-processed diets.

Note: good results began after just one month on the fresh food. And the betterment was sustained.

More input from one of the board certified vet nutritionists involved with the study: fresh, minimally processed food shifted the dogs’ metabolism toward a beneficial alternative metabolic profile in the aging dog with markers for improved muscle and neurological health along with implications for improved antioxidant defense, and diminished AGE formation AGE’s? Bad news, as the prior quote shows. Lessening them is good.

Bottom Line: If you’re still using kibble as your basic pet food (but read the next piece, especially cat folks!), this is a clear indication that you’d not expect health to be enhanced by that food choice.

It’ll keep Sadie and Puff alive, but isn’t doing them any favors.

And, a big take away if you’re afeared of raw food: Even cooked food, with human quality ingredients
blows away the food like particles commonly sold in bags. And I get this, loud and clear, from years of hearing it in practice:

“Oh, Dr. Falconer, I’d love to do raw food but I’m working and lucky to get food on the table for my human family!”

So, be heartened: purchased fresh food, even if not raw, can make such a difference (and save money
on vet bills!) that it’s well worth the price.

Or, you can grab a book or two and make your own. Your animals will bow and graciously offer thanks, guaranteed.

But Cats and Kibble? Just “No!”

My “go to” source for what’s going on in the pet food world is Susan Thixton who, once again, digs into the trends for us. She presents the past year’s sales of kibble, and it’s a mixed picture (half the mix causing my eyebrows to furrow…)

First, The Good News

Several of the big name kibble makers for dogs lost sales. Purina, who totally covered up the vast swath of sickness and deaths their foods were causing in 2024 (even land fill dumped food killing wildlife!), dropped, though only by 1%. Clearly not enough of a slap to change their evil ways, but at least dog people are catching on.

Greater losses came to another pet food giant, Mars (yep, same outfit poisoning kids over Halloween but really every day). Their sales were down a whopping 10%.

The winner in the dog food sales losses was one I never heard of: KLN Family brands. Maybe you know them for their products, Tuffy’s and Nutrisource.

Cat Owners Brought the Bad News

Contrary to the hopeful drops in dry dog food sales, several cat kibble makers saw increased sales!

Purina (aka Nestle Purina), and Mars gained 3-4% selling food no cat should ever be offered.

Hills was up a whopping 10% and Royal Canin (Royal Felin?) even more at 15%.

Just let’s take a moment to bullet point the problems with kibble, in any species, shall we?

Kibble means:

Highly processed (high temps, high pressures) = dead food, lifeless.
Bottom of the barrel ingredients you’d never feed a human. Ever.
- Byproducts, meaning everything from spoiled food to dead, diseased animals, to the waste material on the slaughter house floor
- Euthanized animals (yep: pentobarbital residues found multiple times in various kibbles)
Preservatives
Slathered with grease to hide the off flavors. This could be restaurant grease after one too many sets of fries.

[True story: I worked a spell at Burger King as a high school kid. Fresh oil got used first for fish patties, probably a couple days at least. Then, it was moved to the next frier and used for a few more days for french fries, until it got gross and dark and was put out back in the alley for who knows who to collect.]

And, far from an isolated experience, I think every holistic vet colleague will share these stories with you: when ever a pet was changed from kibble to raw food, they literally shone with health!

Spark in their step, sweet breath, small stools with way less odor, and teeth that cleaned up and started to gleam, the way Nature intended.

I’ve written about this earlier, but it appears not enough cat owners (he said, euphemistically… we know who owns who, don’t we?) have read it.

It’s important to know who it is we’re feeding (a desert-origin water concentrating predator) and why kibble is such an insult to the species.

Here’s the article, and please share this issue widely to all who love this cool species: https://vitalanimal.com/no-kibble-for-kitty/.

Watch my latest episode and interview with Dr. Falconer on mRNA and samRNA vaccines in veterinary practice. Click on the image above.

For all content from Dr. Falconer, click here.
And, here are the archives for Dr. Falconer’s articles from The Tenpenny Report.

————————————————————————————————————

Like what you’re reading on The Tenpenny Report? Share this article with your friends. Help us grow.

Get more of Dr. Tenpenny’s voice of reason at her website.

Join our list here
Make a donation here (and thank you!)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

About Dr. Falconer

“After seven years in conventional vet medicine, I knew I had to leave. Unsure where I’d land, I abruptly left my practice and struck out. A leap, I call it now.

Where I ended up, by happy circumstance, was holistic and later, homeopathic veterinary practice. It soon became apparent I couldn’t possibly keep up with all the sick patients wanting homeopathic care, so I took up blogging, podcasting and course creation, all fueled by my experiences and study.
Most apparent to me now, after over 40 years a vet, is that we are actually damaging our animals in the name of prevention. My life’s purpose has become teaching natural prevention, in line with timeless principles, so the outcome is wildly healthy, naturally disease-resistant Vital Animals. They are a joy to live with and an inspiration to others to take up the natural path. “
Links of value:

Vital Animal Podcast link is here: https://vitalanimal.com/podcast/
Substack here: https://vitalanimal.substack.com where I’m pretty busy.
People can get a free mini-library of courses and reports when they join my free Vital Animal Pack:
https://vitalanimal.com/join-vital-animal-pack

All comments and opinions shared by our interviewees are their own and may not reflect the opinions of Dr. Tenpenny or any of *The Tenpenny Companies* programs or subsidiaries. We are neither responsible nor liable for any discrepancies in our guest authors’ articles or video recording.

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DR. SHERRI TENPENNY

Doctor, Speaker, Educator, Consultant

DR. SHERRI TENPENNY

Doctor, Speaker, Educator, Consultant

Senior Dogs: Fresh Food vs Kibble Study

Wait. What’s metabolism?

Our vet school biochemistry professor was from Trinidad or some other Caribbean country, and left the class agog when he pronounced it “met a BOWL ism” on his first day lecturing. Wait, what’s he saying?

Giggles ensued once someone figured it out and it made the rounds.

MeTABolism is, per the dictionary: the chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life.”

Another way to say it: Metabolism is how cells convert nutrients into energy and building blocks to sustain life.

You might hear it broken down into protein, fat, or carbohydrate metabolism or hear it in the context of the tiny powerhouses in every cell called mitochondria.

Bottom line: what you feed (or eat) has a lot to do with how efficient this process of sustaining life is for your pets and you.

Ingredients Make a Yuge Difference!

(Sorry, couldn’t resist 😉 )

The two diets were wildly different in composition, as you’ll see if you view the study via this link.

I’ll just highlight those differences by listing the first several ingredients in each, using the “Salt Divide” as my breaking point, as everything following salt is pretty tiny. The control diet, like a lot of kibble products everywhere reads as follows:

And the test diet, a commercial fresh (but cooked) offering lists the following before salt appears:

Chicken, Chicken Liver, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Chia Seeds, Tricalcium Phosphate, Salmon Oil, Potassium Chloride…

Whoa. That second one sounds pretty good for humans, doesn’t it? Real food, what a concept.

The kibble version also has an old alarming preservative in it called ethoxyquin, long known

to be a toxic one, while the fresh food? Preserved by refrigeration.

Macronutrients: Wildly Different as WellWorth mentioning the protein, fat, and carb contents are miles apart as well, as this screen shot indicates:

Basically, this data shows how much metabolizable energy (ME) comes from protein, fat, and carbs by percentage.

If you’ve followed my bent or that of many others interested in obesity and insulin resistance, you’ll see the winning diet (“Test”) had 1/10th the carbs as the kibble, almost twice the fat, and more protein.

And the fresh food had a whole lot less “energy” (read: calories that count) overall.

Both diets passed the AAFCO specs for dogs however, so neither group was starving.

These dogs also showed reduced sucrose and 1,5-anhydroglucitol (a glycemic control biomarker), and notably lower concentrations of specific AGEs such as N6-carboxymethyllysine and pyrraline—highlighting the benefits of avoiding high-heat-processed diets.

Note: good results began after just one month on the fresh food. And the betterment was sustained.

Bottom Line: If you’re still using kibble as your basic pet food (but read the next piece, especially cat folks!), this is a clear indication that you’d not expect health to be enhanced by that food choice.

It’ll keep Sadie and Puff alive, but isn’t doing them any favors.

And, a big take away if you’re afeared of raw food: Even *cooked* food, with human quality ingredients blows away the food like particles commonly sold in bags. And I get this, loud and clear, from years of hearing it in practice:

“Oh, Dr. Falconer, I’d love to do raw food but I’m working and lucky to get food on the table for my human family!”

So, be heartened: purchased fresh food, even if not raw, can make such a difference (and save money on vet bills!) that it’s well worth the price.

Or, you can grab a book or two and make your own. Your animals will bow and graciously offer thanks, guaranteed.

But Cats and Kibble? Just “No!”

My “go to” source for what’s going on in the pet food world is Susan Thixton who, once again, digs into the trends for us. She presents the past year’s sales of kibble, and it’s a mixed picture (half the mix causing my eyebrows to furrow…)

First, The Good News

Greater losses came to another pet food giant, Mars (yep, same outfit poisoning kids over Halloween but really every day). Their sales were down a whopping 10%.

The winner in the dog food sales losses was one I never heard of: KLN Family brands. Maybe you know them for their products, Tuffy’s and Nutrisource.

Cat Owners Brought the Bad News

Contrary to the hopeful drops in dry dog food sales, several cat kibble makers saw increased sales!

Purina (aka Nestle Purina), and Mars gained 3-4% selling food no cat should ever be offered.

Hills was up a whopping 10% and Royal Canin (Royal Felin?) even more at 15%.

Just let’s take a moment to bullet point the problems with kibble, in any species, shall we?

Kibble means:

Highly processed (high temps, high pressures) = dead food, lifeless.

Bottom of the barrel ingredients you’d never feed a human. Ever.

Byproducts, meaning everything from spoiled food to dead, diseased animals, to the waste material on the slaughter house floor

Euthanized animals (yep: pentobarbital residues found multiple times in various kibbles)

Preservatives

Slathered with grease to hide the off flavors. This could be restaurant grease after one too many sets of fries.

And, far from an isolated experience, I think every holistic vet colleague will share these stories with you: when ever a pet was changed from kibble to raw food, they literally shone with health!

Spark in their step, sweet breath, small stools with way less odor, and teeth that cleaned up and started to gleam, the way Nature intended.

I’ve written about this earlier, but it appears not enough cat owners (he said, euphemistically… we know who owns who, don’t we?) have read it.

It’s important to know who it is we’re feeding (a desert-origin water concentrating predator) and why kibble is such an insult to the species.

Here’s the article, and please share this issue widely to all who love this cool species: https://vitalanimal.com/no-kibble-for-kitty/.

Watch my latest episode and interview with Dr. Falconer on mRNA and samRNA vaccines in veterinary practice. Click on the image above.

For all content from Dr. Falconer, click here.And, here are the archives for Dr. Falconer’s articles from The Tenpenny Report.

————————————————————————————————————

Like what you’re reading on The Tenpenny Report? Share this article with your friends. Help us grow.

Get more of Dr. Tenpenny’s voice of reason at her website.

Join our list hereMake a donation here (and thank you!)

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Macronutrients: Wildly Different as Well
Worth mentioning the protein, fat, and carb contents are miles apart as well, as this screen shot indicates:

If you’ve followed my bent or that of many others interested in obesity and insulin resistance, you’ll see the winning diet (“Test”) had 1/10^th the carbs as the kibble, almost twice the fat, and more protein.

And, a big take away if you’re afeared of raw food: Even cooked food, with human quality ingredients
blows away the food like particles commonly sold in bags. And I get this, loud and clear, from years of hearing it in practice:

So, be heartened: purchased fresh food, even if not raw, can make such a difference (and save money
on vet bills!) that it’s well worth the price.

For all content from Dr. Falconer, click here.
And, here are the archives for Dr. Falconer’s articles from The Tenpenny Report.

Join our list here
Make a donation here (and thank you!)