Dogs that exercise need to consume more antioxidants for optimum health, but which diet formulations are the best?

( Natural News ) Dogs are generally active creatures, which means their energy and strength get easily depleted. Good thing researchers found that additional antioxidants on dog diets can help them fight free radicals and avoid too much oxidative stress. To find out whether consuming more antioxidants has a positive effect on dogs, a team of researchers from the University of Illinois , visited American Foxhounds, a kennel located in Alabama, U.S. They took blood samples of the dogs to check the oxidative stress markers and other blood metabolites. The dogs were then divided into two groups where one was provided with a high-performance commercial diet while the other was given a test diet combined with additional antioxidants – vitamins C and E, and lutein – zinc, and taurine. The experiment was done in seven months; the animals were sent into a two- to five-hour hunting trips two or three times a week. One of the study authors, Kelly Swanson, said, “We think of it as unstructured endurance exercise. They’re not running the entire time. They might stop to sniff or go more slowly to pick up a scent.” Following the study, Swanson and the team found that there is a lower concentration of oxidative stress among dogs who were given the test diet. Moreover, they showed improvement in their performances compared to the group fed with a commercial diet. “It turns out, performance wasn’t affected by diet, but the test diet did improve indirect measures of oxidative stress. Therefore, improved performance may be expected with more strenuous exercise when metabolic demands are higher,” she added. Sponsored solution from CWC Labs: This heavy metals test kit allows you to test almost anything for 20+ heavy metals and nutritive minerals, including lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, aluminum and more. You can […]

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