DO WE NEED TO BE FEEDING ORGANIC FRUITS AND GRASS-FED MEAT TO HEAL OUR COMPANIONS?
Often when I speak with people to troubleshoot feeding issues, I find that most problems fall into one of three areas: underfeeding, overfeeding, or over-complicating.
Among the issues with over-complicating is settling only for organic produce and organic meat.
In the mainstream, in the rare instances that the cause of disease is mentioned, it is nearly always blaming toxins for disease: air pollution, water pollution, food additives, mold exposure, and it is almost never talking about what the actual cause of disease is – overworking our cells. So it is completely understandable that when we are faced with all of this information about toxins we naturally continue to focus on that even after we have understood that the true cause of disease is the suitability of the food rather than toxins.
The reality is, even if you ate perfectly for your species, but you ate excessive amounts, gorging yourself till discomfort on salad and fruits, you will create disease. No toxins are needed. When we overwork the cells we create excess waste and cellular debris which clogs the interstitial spaces and keeps the cells from operating properly.
On the flip side, if we eat the foods suited to our physiology which are easy to digest and easy to assimilate, and we eat them moderately then we will not create excess waste. Our elimination channels will be free-flowing and our interstitial spaces (areas around the cells) will remain clean (clean terrain = happy cells) the cells will operate normally and no disease symptoms will be present.
When we look at the suitability of food, the level of toxins present should be a factor that we look at, but it should not be the foremost factor. When feeding fruits the first thing we need to be looking for is ripeness. It’s far more important for fruit to be ripe than it is for it to be organic. Ripe fruit is easily digested and easily assimilated. The unripe fruit is acidic and difficult for the body to digest. This means when we consume unripe fruits we are putting a large burden on the body to process fruit not ready to be processed and eliminate all of the unusable material. Non-organic fruits that are ripe may have trace amounts of pesticides or herbicides which can lead to a general burden on the body but they are not overworking the cells, so those minor burdens from toxins are simply filtered out in the stomach and eliminated in the stool. As long as the elimination channels are moving as designed the toxins are not sitting around inside the body long enough to do any damage. Even at that, when we look at pesticides and herbicides we find that most are either water-soluble meaning they wash off in the rain and when we rinse our produce, or they are fat-soluble, meaning they break down in the sun. This means the herbicides and pesticides do a lot of damage to farmers spraying them but are very minute by the time they actually reach our refrigerator.
It would be nice to be able to have good quality, affordable, and readily available RIPE organic fruits but the reality is that rarely exists. Unless you are growing your own, organic fruits are going to be picked unripe so they can ship long distances. It is very rare to find good ripe organic fruit in most places.
For this reason, I do NOT feed organic fruits to myself or my dogs. Ripe is much, much more important than organic and the availability and affordability of ripe fruits mean we are shopping in the conventional section of the store. If I find some organic fruit that is actually ripe I will buy it if the price is not absurd, but 95% of the fruit I eat is non-organic and all of my dogs have always eaten non-organic as well. I look for locally grown whenever possible because that means it is being picked ripe. I will get it from farmer’s markets when available. I will also grow a lot of my own fruit in the summer. But the bulk of what we eat ourselves and what we feed is conventional produce, bought at the local grocery and discount stores. All of my dogs with cancer, dementia, seizures, and every other health issue have always been fed conventional produce AND conventional meat and healed everything because disease is not about the toxins, it’s about the burden of digesting and assimilating inappropriate substances for our physiology.
If you are currently stressing out about getting organic produce or grass-fed, organic meat, or any other marketing label, please don’t. This is focusing energy on the 1% instead of focusing on the most suitable foods for their physiology. The body can easily eliminate any trace amounts of toxins in the fruits and the meat, as long as it is given ripe fruits and suitable proteins with the fat removed. But if the body has to break down unripe fruits it is going to be overworked and not get as much nutrition from the fruits.
If you have a great source for local, organic, and RIPE produce and you can afford it, then go for it. But it’s not needed. Conventional fruits from your local grocery store and regular meat from the local store are all you need. Keep it simple, don’t overcomplicate things, and make your life more difficult then it needs to be.
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Hi There, Some good stuff on this website! I have been feeding raw and organic for 30 years to the animals in my care, without drigs or vaccines, and was the head Nutritionist for several RAW websites back in the day. Some of the ‘Old Gals’ will remember me…My last companion dog that has passed, was a German S. who passed away calmly at 19 years old, not a single, health issue through her entire life, until she started to slow down 6 months prior.
I’d like to comment lightly on one thing here…I am an organic/Biodynamic farmer and if you had seen what I have seen over the last 40 years with the cancer tumours, toxins, and disease on/in the animals/beef that people send in and others eat today, you would never touch it…these abused animals are taken into the slaughter houses and the products from them are in all, your grocery store shelves…this, and our love for animals, and other reasons is why, we do what we do in a healthier and in as non-stressed way as possible…people who eat our food tell us they feel ‘clean’ after eating it…I just wanted people to hear that side of the story on organic…so much more to say about that, your veggies and so on but thought I’d keep it short…My fave quote is ‘If it’s not in your soil, it’s not in your food’… Love what your doing, Kind Regards, ASMP
These are valid points you make and there are many factors economically, social, humanitarian, and otherwise that we should consider. We should all support better quality practices in everything in life that is within our scope. But speaking strictly from a healing dogs perspective, we want to make it clear that even if you cannot afford organic, which let’s face it, most people can barely afford to feed themselves organic, let alone a dog eat 3 or 4 pounds of meat a day, that you can still heal your dog. The higher quality food we can get the greater nutritional value, but in terms of healing, if you cannot feed organic, or you can only afford some things in organic then your companion will still heal. I hope one day the only thing offered in the stores is organic and humanely raised animals.
Thank you for getting back to meLauren! You know, another idea for people who cannot afford organic, might be something like this…Whenever I know, I’m going to be eating/using, something on a regular basis, I check it out.
If your buying locally, (naturally ripe) that’s easy to do. Who grows/raises, what you are eating or feeding on a regular basis?
For example, if I’m buying lettuce every week, don’t I deserve the best quality seeds and care etc. for the same price?
Where is it from, who grows that brand etc.
I will contact that grower, and I will ask questions,..and I will go and visit, the farm. Sounds hard? Not so if your buying local. However, even if it is not local, one can call and ask questions. Make your list of questions ahead of time…mind you, as a farmer, I know, what to ask…I know, where to look…I’m pretty sure you can do that too. If they don’t like your questions, and if they don’t allow farm visits, don’t buy from them, trust another farmer…they have something to hide….thanks for listening and sending good thoughts to All.
How do I know what food amount is enough? At the moment I can eat all the fruits and green leafs around me but I try to keep a limit. From fruits I totally don’t feel any limits. I see some “health experts” recommend calorie counting even on raw food but I find that whole practice wrong and obviously it’s impossible to have as much calories from raw than from cooked food. Thank you for reply.
Hi Cecilia, While I don’t recommend becoming obsessed with calories, it is good to periodically check that you are eating enough calories to meet your bodies needs. The issue with calories is that every individual will have different needs based on their sex, activity levels, state of digestion and how efficiently their body assimilates food and other factors. Calories should be treated as a general guideline. For women we should be consuming a minimum of 1300 calories and men a minimum of 1800 calories per day. As a 5′ 3″ woman I consume between 1450 and 2000 calories every day. When I am particularly active I will consume 2500 calories or even as much as 3000 calories, but my average days is around 1500-1600 calories.
It can be easy to under eat if we are eating lots of watery fruits which fill our bellies quickly. It can be easy to overeat if we are eating lots of nuts, seeds and avocados. Balance is the key. We should be eating some watery fruits, some denser fruits and lots of leafy greens. We should be eating small amounts of nuts, seeds and vegetables. You can use an app like https://cronometer.com/ to check that you are within a reasonable range for calories. Eat when hungry, eat until full and satisfied and maybe once a week or so plug your meals into cronometer to make sure you are within the 1400 to 2000 calorie range. As long as you are in that range most of the time you will be fine. But if you find that you are consistently under 1200 calories then you need to make adjustments to not lose your muscle mass. While rare, it is possible for people to under eat chronically and starve themselves, so if you find you are losing weight or lack energy its always good to just check in on the calories to make sure you are in the right range.