A Word About Those Miserable Allergies

Don’t Forget to Check The Ingredients

Spring has sprung … in between snowstorms.

April showers bring May flowers, but allergies are at play all year round. As I listen to the sniffles and snorks of my daughters, I wanted to take the time to clear a few allergy myths and also relay a warning about pet foods and products and people allergies.

I’m going to start with the hidden dangers in pet foods and products for allergic children and adults first. I was reading a recent article by a mother who also is a veterinarian that really caught me by surprise. Dr. Goulart has a son who at a very early age was found to have severe food allergies to milk and peanuts, as well as mild reactions to eggs and tree nuts.

That’s not what caught my eye, though, as food allergies in children have increased by almost 50 percent in the past 40 years – meaning that if you have children, either your or someone else’s child is going to have food allergies severe enough to merit special instructions for the classroom and any event involving food.

What really stopped me short were all the other sources of potential allergen contact Dr. Goulart identified as potential hazards for her toddler son. Aside from the obvious points of exposure in specific foods and food products, she found that many dog and cat foods contain casein or whey protein – both forms of milk.

Casein and/or whey protein can be found in hot dogs, lunchmeats, baked goods and more, but a 2015 study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (human) found that in 452 dog foods and 295 cats foods, 86 percent contained at least one major allergen. And, close to 44 percent contained at least two major allergens.

So what do little kids like to do the most? One is help mommy feed the pets and the other is to taste the pet’s food. Dr. Goulart also looked at products on the shelf of her veterinary hospital and found dental rawhides with a concentrated whey coating. The takeaway message for parents of children with allergies is not to panic … just apply your label reading skills to the products used and consumed by household pets to help keep everyone safe.

Casein or whey are not bad food products and are reasonable ingredients to provide nutrition or taste to a product, just be aware if your family has allergy concerns.

Now for a quick debunking of a few persistent allergy myths:

• Grain-free foods are not hypoallergenic. The most common food ingredient to which a pet’s immune system can offense to and develop allergies from are the proteins.

• Grain-free foods are not appropriate for all dogs. Age, breed, underlying disease or a predisposition to obesity can make the high calorie, high fat and high protein composition of a grain-free food inappropriate for individual animals. Your veterinarian can guide you to good choices for your individual pet.

• By-products and fillers are not all bad. Every ingredient in a pet food is researched and is there for a specific reason or role. Some ingredients may play a dual role in providing nutrients as well as creating an enticing “mouth feel” or taste. By-products are simply the parts of animals or grains that are not consumed by humans. For example, if chicken drumsticks were undesirable, then they would be considered a by-product. Those by-product ingredients are an important source for carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals and other essential micro-nutrients.

Dr. Margot can be reached at parkhillvet.com