The Dose Makes the Poison - Dr. Wysong

Pet food manufacturers have increasingly capitalized on marketable catch phrases of the day, e.g. "natural," "organic," "premium," "grain free," "no corn," etc. Such slogans are designed to convince people that if the special food bearing the special slogan is fed, there need be no worry about pet health. Unfortunately, even manufacturers do not seem to realize that so-called natural foods, premium foods, organic foods, and foods devoid of purportedly deleterious ingredients are ALL harmful if fed exclusively. The fundamental principle of toxicity is that the dose makes the poison. The fifteenth century Swiss alchemist and physician, Paracelsus, credited as being the father of toxicology, said "All things are poison and nothing is without poison, only the dose permits something not to be poisonous." Even things essential to life, such as water and oxygen, if in excess, can be harmful. One pet food, if fed exclusively, regardless of its merits, can be toxic. Although it's easy and convenient to just pour one food from one package day after day, don't fall into the poisonous trap. For optimal health, feed a variety of properly designed pet diets and supplements, and rotate with whole fresh foods. This obvious and simple point cannot be emphasized enough. It takes a little more effort and some thought to feed with the wisdom of variety, but a little pain now is so much better than the tragedy of expensive and painful disease later. A dog's or cat's body has great capacity to detoxify almost any substance in small enough doses. It can even detoxify large doses as long as the toxin is not dosed constantly. Additionally, almost any substance can be toxic at high enough dose given constantly. Even the most healthy food in the world is potentially toxic. The melamine disaster resulting from tainted Chinese ingredients should teach us a lesson. No one food can be trusted. The lesson is not that we need to analyze so-called complete and balanced foods for every conceivable toxin a practical impossibility it is that we must feed in variety and rotation. It is so incredibly sad that if people who had melamine tainted food had been feeding in this manner, thousands of dogs and cats might have been spared the tragedy.