I was recently reading the label on a can of dog food I occasionally give my dogs. It's a "premium" wet food — something I keep on hand for when I don't have time to prep them real food. But when I actually examined the ingredients, I found a lot of stuff I wouldn't eat myself. Namely seed oils. Why the hell are seed oils in dog food? It genuinely perplexed me.
A few years ago I was suffering from a chronic cough I couldn't shake. It would last for months, disappear, then come back — usually around January. My doctor told me it was allergies and prescribed all manner of pharmaceuticals. None of them worked. I'd just cough until it slowly faded on its own.
Two years ago the cough persisted for over four months, then slowly turned into asthma. I was terrified. I couldn't breathe, and as an athlete, it was utterly demoralizing. I ended up on oral and inhaled steroids for a month — and if you've ever been on steroids, you know what they do to your body. My doctor shrugged and said, "Well, looks like you have asthma now." I was, again,
perplexed.
I didn't give up. I sought out an allergist who tested me for allergies, assessed my lung capacity, and then asked me something no one had thought to ask before — what I was eating. He diagnosed me with GERD, better known as acid reflux, and explained it can cause every symptom I'd been living with for years, including the asthma. He reached for his prescription pad. I decided to reach for my
kitchen instead.
I cut out everything — coffee, sugar, dairy, chocolate. Everything that makes life worth living. But within two weeks my cough was completely gone. I dropped almost 20 pounds. My joints stopped aching. I haven't coughed in over two years.
That moment changed how I think about food — not just for myself, but for my dogs. If my chronic conditions could reverse so quickly with a simple diet change, my pups deserved the same chance. The same seed oils sitting in that "premium" can of dog food are the same inflammatory culprits I'd just removed from my own life. Why would I feed them what I'd just proven was hurting
me?
So I started cooking for them. It's become something I genuinely enjoy — a small, quiet way of returning the love they give me so freely. Their energy levels, coats, and dental health have all improved dramatically. Like the morning walk, it's become a moment of presence. A ritual. A small act of love in the middle of an ordinary day.
— R
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