An Alliance with Food

Good health and good food are closely connected. ... It’s an alliance that has stood the test of time... Food choices are not about what we like but what the body needs....A trip to the local food market, a few months ago, opened my eyes to yet another nutritional WOW moment... I had stopped in for a couple of items, early one morning....  As I approached  the  check- out lane, there in front of me, lay a  lush forest of greenery, so pure in colour and fragrance ( with some  frozen fish), that I jokingly remarked to the customer,   “Where are the Twinkies”?...  He then began his story. He used to work in an animal clinic, in close connection with the doctors there. ... Many times, he remarked, an animal’s suffering or chronic condition could only be addressed with a prescription or a change of the animal’s commercial pet food. Sometimes, these medical anomalies were overwhelming, he added. ... I listened as he recounted the years of watching and working with dogs, cats and other creatures. ... Our conversation continued, outside.

As the owner of a reptile store, he talked about the serious afflictions that some breeds of dogs displayed, sometimes a characteristic of the breed or simply an expected outcome of ill health or the aging process. ... His thinking about pet health evolved. Could there be a better way? ...  Old patterns rarely resulted in new outcomes. ... Aging takes its toll on every living creature.....It is incumbent upon us to change our thinking and habits as we gain insights into and accommodate the new reality of ill health, injury and aging with our loved family pets and ourselves. ...  The ‘pet’ store owner’s recipe for  health success was simple and unadorned. ... His methods of blending and juicing these ‘super’ vegetables, to help restore good health to his pets, were inspiring....  His pets were now healthier and happier for the changes he had made. ... To his animals, he was a miracle worker. ...  I was moved by his story. ... It was simplicity at its best.

Remembering the pet food recall/crisis of a few years ago in Canada, the United States and beyond, it now seems prudent to reconsider our total reliance on an industry that we have trusted, implicitly, from the beginning, to feed our furry offspring. ....  My confidence in the pet food industry was shattered, back then, after it was revealed that a foreign 'plastic' material that mimicked a food substance was found in pet food, intentionally put there by a third party....The deaths  of cats, dogs and the disabling of many others destroyed the lives of pet owners. ...  We weeped at the scale of the tragedy. ... The bottom line had been the great motivator in this crime.

Several years ago, a routine blood test was taken for our 10 year old female retriever. ...The test revealed that she was dying and had only weeks to live...  ( either her body was killing off her red blood cells or she had leukemia).... I was numb.... The doctor immediately suspected the ‘painkiller’, she was taking,  was causing this ‘side effect’....  And it was!...  A similar drug was begun immediately.... A few months later, though, that drug was stopped. ...  Our dog had not displayed any pain...(What was I thinking?) ...  Both drugs were painkillers...  The second drug was killing pain; the initial one was killing our dog!! ... This newest lesson hit home in dramatic fashion. 

Drugs given to help/heal, initially, can, sometimes, become a lethal weapon, later.....When I believed our dog was dying, I began giving her Rooibos tea (in her food), a red hued African tea known for its superior cancer killing/antioxident properties. ...  (She had nothing to lose, I reasoned)...  Like the gentleman who took a forest home to his pets, I added Rooibos tea -(caffeine free)- to my dog’s diet whose false positive diagnosis opened up a new way of thinking, believing and doing....   She lived nearly two more years - drug free and with tea!