Tollden Farms

There is a greater awareness among pet owners these days. The areas of health and nutrition are of utmost importance in caring for your companion animal.

Through evolution, the bodies of dogs and cats have superbly adapted to maintain health on the foods that were most easily available to them in the wild. These would have been raw foods, also known as a biological diet.

It goes without saying that the foods our pets’ bodies have evolved to thrive on throughout millions of years are not the processed, grain-based, commercial foods of the last fifty years.

Look inside your dog or cat’s mouth. Their teeth are designed for tearing into flesh, not tearing into kibble.

Natural, raw foods set up and maintain healthy, natural biochemical reactions. These biochemical reactions set up a natural line of defense - a healthy immune system - that continuousely fights off bacteria, viruses, and parasites.

So by restoring your pet to his natural, health-giving diet, you can restore the myriad natural biochemical reactions that give strength to his immune system. This is the “magic” that keeps pets who are fed natural diets free of many of today’s “inevitable” diseases.

History of Raw Food

From the beginning of human history, food has been considered the major factor in maintaining well-being and health. In 400 B.C., Hippocrates, the "father of Western medicine", recognized the relationship between health and food. He said, "Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food". His words have become the credo of modern dieticians and nutritionists. In recent decades, research has proven the truth of his words, raising nutrition science to a level equal with medicine.

So much so, that in 1980, the Japanese government decided to regulate the use of food for medicinal purposes, introducing the concept of functional foods. Later, researchers started to isolate some of the specific bioactive compounds in food, and the term "nutraceutical" was born. Food and diet play an important role in health. Every day, research in fields such as epidemiology and nutritional biochemistry teach us more about this relationship. Through scientific investigation and effective consumer communication, functional foods are becoming an important tool in promoting health.

According to Health Canada, a functional food is "consumed as part of a usual diet that is similar in appearance to, or may be, a conventional food, and is demonstrated to have physiological benefits and/or reduce the risk of chronic disease beyond basic nutritional functions."

Functional foods may come from plants or animals. Active ingredients effective in promoting human health include amino acids, fats, dietary fibres, antioxidants, pigments, vitamins and minerals.

If you follow the studies that document the stress put upon our digestive tracts when processed and refined foods are eaten, you will then realize how the body has to respond in a completely unnatural way to digest food matter that the body does not recognize.

Raw food is living food. It is food that has not been processed or heated above 118C (244F). It's food that contains the enzymes necessary for digestion as well as all the natural vitamins and minerals inherent in the specific vegetable or fruit. Raw food is probably the only basis for optimum nutrition. In an article in "Alive" magazine in May of 2000, nutritionist Dr. Paavo Airola stated that an optimum diet must be at least 75-per-cent to 95-per-cent raw. And that was a reference to human diets. That would leave little room to doubt that canines and felines should be consuming at least that much raw food.

Dr. Edward Howell, author of the definitive book "Enzyme Nutrition" blames the national state of disease on malnutrition due to the consumption of cooked and processed food. This food destroys all enzymes and therefore makes it impossible for the body to metabolize nutrients. More than anything, the raw food revolution is about enzymes.

There are three classes of enzymes: metabolic enzymes, which run our bodies; digestive enzymes, which digest our food; and food enzymes in the raw food itself, which start food digestion.

All of your pet's organs and tissues are run by metabolic "worker" enzymes. These enzymes take proteins and fats and structure them to make healthy bodies, keeping everything functioning in order. Dr. Howell says nothing must interfere with the body making enough metabolic enzymes. Good health depends on it. A shortage means trouble!