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Originally Posted by Nancy1999  One of the reasons I found a new major was I like things a little more black and white then they are in the field of nutrition. It's a very grey area with so many experts arguing. How do you define health, absence of disease or longevity? Diets just don't make much of a difference compared to other factors, like genetics. The main characteristic that indicated an unhealthy diet was if the diet contained too many calories, proper weight is the most important indicator of overall health. Some scientists believe that testing clone pups would give us better information on nutrition because you could take out some of the genetic component. However, there are many groups that are against this and see it as inhumane.
I don't believe that you can evaluate a food solely on how well you dog does, that one piece of the puzzle, I mean you can see if he's not vomiting, if has excessive gas, or gaining too much weight and if his hair looks healthy, and if he's not itching and has enough energy, but you really can't see how the internal organs are doing and I believe there is a difference between surviving and thriving, and I want to choose a food based upon many factors, but I expect my dogs would do well on a variety of different foods, it's just as they are getting older, I think diet plays an even more important part in there overall health. |
I really wish dogs could talk and tell us how they're feeling, but since they can't... If a dog is healthy, happy, and energetic, doesn't itch, has a beautiful coat and the underlying skin is healthy, has a healthy weight, no excess gas, AND has good results when blood tests are run, isn't that the best we can expect?
Using cloned dogs in food trials is something I've never heard of before, and I wouldn't have any objections from a moral standpoint, so long as they are treated like regular dogs, not harmed in any way, and taken off the diet immediately if their health starts to deteriorate. A cloned dog is like an identical twin--each has its own personality. There is nothing inhumane about it unless you treat them inhumanely.
Thanks for the interesting discussion!