Variety is The Spice of Life

While watching the local news early this morning, Jim and I saw a segment on Vitamin D and foods that you can eat to increase your Vitamin D levels (featuring a nutritionist from Jewel-Osco, oddly).  This is a popular theme on news shows; I guess they have to talk about something.  Plus, it seems like every week, some scientist has come out with a study proving that we have to eat more of this, less of that, blah, blah, blah.  Watching the segment on Vitamin D, I remarked to Jim that I would love to see someone put together a spread of the ideal food to eat for an entire day that fits every single requirement.  I'm pretty sure it'd be impossible to do. 

What we can take away from these scientific studies then, is that variety is key to a healthy diet.  If you eat a (fresh) varied diet, over time, you're going to cover all of your bases.  But that got me to thinking (because this is a huge soap-box topic for me) that it is absolutely no different for our pets. 

I work part-time at a pet food store--high end, human-grade, quality food, of course--and it still never ceases to amaze me how people are content to feed their pets the exact same thing every meal of every day.  Not only is this booooooooring for the pet, but it also doesn't promote health.  (And I won't proselytize on kibble vs. raw, at least not today)  Think about it: each company has their own proprietary blend of vitamins and minerals that it uses in its products.  If, with every new bag of dog food (or even every meal--really, my pets typically get a different food at each meal) you used a different brand, and had a rotation of a minimum of three or four, every bag of food would afford your pet a different mix of vitamins and minerals, thus eliminating any long-term deficiencies. 

A healthy pet can typically handle food rotation.  (Don't try this on a dog with confirmed GI disease without talking with a vet knowledgeable in nutrition first)  We like variety in our foods; our pets  like variety in their foods.  We thrive on variety; our pets thrive on variety.  It's simple, it's easy, it makes sense.  So the next time you head to the pet food store to pick up a bag of food, try something different.  You'll be promoting health and making your pet happy all in one fell swoop.