by (( Nikki ))

Created on: November 22, 2009   Last Updated: November 23, 2009

Do you know what's truly tricky about myths? Some of them turn out to be half-truths. Take, for example, the debate about corn in dog food. Ground corn, corn meal, corn gluten meal, and the innocuous, yet synonymous, maize. A peek at the lists of the popular brands of dog foods demonstrates the pervasiveness of corn in our pets' food. If so many major manufacturers use corn, it can't be that bad. Or can it?

Before we look at the varieties of corn in commercial dog food, we need to note one very important thing about dogs. They're carnivores.

Dogs, classified as Canis lupis familiaris, are descendents of wolves. In short, dogs are carnivores just like wolves, complete with internal anatomy and physiology complementary to a meat-based diet. Food is meant to pass through a short digestive tract quickly, preventing bacteria from food colonizing in the stomach, but also preventing anything more than rudimentary digestion of vegetable matter. This is an important point to note - a dog's digestive tract is not meant to digest vegetables.

Now, let's look at that corn. How can a carnivore make use of a vegetable?

Ground whole corn. It's cheap, and it is the first ingredient in many low-quality dog foods. No form of corn should be the primary source of protein in a dog's diet due to the lack of bioavailability, so why is there whole ground corn in the dog food? Is it a good source of carbohydrate? It can be. The whole ground corn that is used for dog food may be low quality feed corn. Low quality feed corn is the refuse of the corn industry that couldn't be sold for human consumption. If the quality is high enough, however, the starchy part is somewhat usable for carbohydrates. Carnivores don't need more than 10% of their diet to be carbohydrates.

Another use of ground whole corn is to provide fiber. Otherwise known as filler. Will it hurt your dog? Not particularly, unless your dog has an allergy. But do you really want to pay to fertilize the lawn? Be wary of dog foods that list ground whole corn as the number 1 or 2 ingredient. You dog doesn't need such high levels of carbohydrates and fiber - you're wasting your money. That said, there is nothing particularly harmful about it.

Corn meal is a popular ingredient in commercial dog food as well. Is this a terrible thing? Not at all. Corn meal is simply dried and ground corn that has been further processed for digestibility. The primary purpose is again for carbohydrates. While some insist that whole corn is better than

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