corn is usually suggested as an ingredient to avoid because in most cases when a dog food company chooses to use corn, they are using the corn to substitute for meat in the formula- thus, by avoiding formulas with corn in them, you automatically avoid most of the really low-quality foods. Many foods that have practically no meat content use corn/soy as the protein source; other low-quality foods use corn gluten to pretend the food has protein in it. Corn protein is a low quality incomplete substance that should not be used as the source of protein for a dog. Dogs need meat.
we can discuss whether corn has any value at all to the dog if used correctly, below:
I recently came to the realization that I heavily jumped on the anti corn bandwagon without having an educated reason behind my decision. Lately I’ve heard people extoll tapioca, green peas, etc. but they struggle with explaining why these are better additives.
well, first of all, dogs are carnivores and their diets should be composed of meat, bones, and organs, not plants. If we choose to feed kibble, though, we do have to feed some kind of carbohydrate source, because you can’t get kibble to stick together without a starch component. Also feeding the dog SOME of its calories from plant sources vs. meat sources saves on costs, and some very active dogs do seem to benefit from the addition of some calories from grain/potatoes to their diet. So there are some valid reasons to add a limited amount of grain/carb source to the dog’s diet. This carb source should never be the base of the diet; the diet should be based on meat, not grain, not potatoes.
So if we want to select a carb source to add, which to choose? what factors to consider?
well, first we consider: can the dog digest it? then we consider: does it have a high glycemic index/glycemic load- because if it does, it can promote damage to the dog’s body and promote the development of diabetes. We might also want to consider whether it is inflammatory or not.
Dogs can’t chew grains up, but they are ground up into fine flours and cooked before being put into kibble, thus dogs should be able to at least partially digest most carb sources in kibble form. Rice is often said to be the easiest of grains for dogs to digest; most dogs also seem fine with oats. Many people report dogs fed kibbles with corn or legumes (peas) in them get very gassy, suggesting they have difficulty digesting these products. Some dogs also seem to struggle to digest potatoes. I haven’t heard anything about difficulty digesting tapioca or sweet potatoes.
So corn doesn’t seem to be a highly digestible carb, but in this respect it doesn’t seem to be any better than peas or potatoes. Rice is far superior on this factor.
glycemic index, corn is sort of “up there” with all the other carb options- tapioca has a much higher glycemic index, and peas a lower glycemic index, but on this factor, rice/corn/potatoes are all about the same. Glycemic load, corn/potatoes are better than rice, peas are even better, and tapioca is the worst by far.
Inflammatory index, sweet potatoes are the clear winner, being highly anti-inflammatory. Tapioca is the clear loser, being highly inflammatory, with corn also being highly inflammatory; rice and white potatoes are both moderately inflammatory, and peas are almost neutral.
So if you had to pick between kibbles, lets say they were all meat-based, high in protein from meat sources, and otherwise the same except carb source, which carb would you select? assuming your dog doesn’t have any obvious allergies to any particular foods. I personally like sweet potatoes, for their anti-inflammatory properties, and rice, which is a good basic easily digested carb. But there is little reason to prefer say white potatoes vs. corn (unless your dog tells you by his gassiness that he would rather not eat corn). Tapioca does not look like a good ingredient, overall, but most of the products that have tapioca in them have remarkably little tapioca- it’s a minor component that seems to be added mostly to bind the kibbles together. If a product appeared to have a fairly high tapioca content I’d avoid it.
Aside from the difficulty in digesting them (which your dog may tell you in no uncertain terms that he cannot), peas look very good on paper, but I avoid products with peas high up on the ingredient list- I think peas are becoming “the new corn”, with many companies using the low-quality protein in peas to substitute for more expensive meat.
But based on my experience, corn is junk. I won’t pay money for it.
