Benefits of Going Raw
We all understand the basic concept of what raw means—food that has not been through a heat-altering process. All of the meat, produce and supplemental ingredients are in their basic raw form, as you would find in nature. There is no need to cook raw food. It is intended to be fed in its raw state. That is how your pets would eat in the wild and that is how they should eat at home.
Raw food is becoming extremely popular due to its ability to not only heal many ailments, but also create a nutritionally superior pet who thrives. The key component to raw food is the enzymes which assist in the digestive process and help with just about every metabolic process. Enzymes are denatured when exposed to heat over 47 °C (117 °F), so anything cooked above that temperature has little or no enzymes. There is also an abundance of micronutrients and phytochemicals that are key to the health of your pet.
There are two main reasons why raw food works. Firstly, the ingredients and secondly, the minimal processing. We use only high-quality, whole fresh foods. This is in comparison to kibble diets, which typically use meat meals that are basically meat in a powdered form made from rendered meat by-products (livestock, seafood, horses and other dead animals), cereals and grains, corn gluten feed, preservatives, stabilizers, gelling agents, synthetic vitamins and minerals, and palatability enhancers like yeast, fat, sweeteners or concentrated flavours. Kibble is turned into powder through long-standing high temperatures, eliminating all moisture. These pet food ingredients lack the micronutrients, enzymes, and phytochemicals that fresh food provides. Before a kibble company even starts the processing that involves high heat and extrusion, they are using ingredients that are overly processed and devoid of nutrients.
Natural, whole raw foods contain numerous substances — including enzymes and phytochemicals — that, according to modern science, are important for proper nutrition in humans and laboratory animals. This holds true for dogs and cats as well. Enzymes are specialized protein substances that are involved in all the pet's activities. Even thinking requires enzymes. Enzymes are deactivated or destroyed at temperatures above 48-77 °C (118-170 °F), hence the complete absence of enzymes in processed pet foods. This forces the pet's digestive enzymes to do all the work, and can put a strain on the pet’s ability to produce the necessary metabolic enzymes. Phytochemicals are specialized nutrients found in plants. The pet's body needs these nutrients to fully thrive, and just like enzymes, phytochemicals' nutritional impact is depleted when exposed to heat. Therefore, the only state in which both phytochemicals and enzymes can work to the best of their ability is raw.