Quote:
Originally Posted by
Darthtang AW 
from a diet standpoint my comment is correct. unless you have some scientific proof they were eating kibble and cooked food regularly thousands of years ago. how long is a dogs digestive system compared to that of a humans. not equal at al. therefore the dog has not evolved domestically to properly digest all the nutrients out of cooked food. there system is not meant to process such high quantities of corn and other such fillers placed in dog foods today. Heck...even a human system can not process corn fully yet. and we have been eating far longer.
darth (muchless sawdust) Tang
Kibble - yes, much less than 100 years. I recall my first dog, Lucky, was fed canned dog food that consisted primarily of parts of animals that couldn't be sold for human consumption. Kibble is a very recent development. As omnivores, dogs have fairly lengthy small intestines (compared to complete carnivores), so they can probably deal with whatever they consume. Omnivores and carnivores do not digest corn fully because their digestive tracts are too short and they lack the enzymes to digest the cellulose in the cell walls of the corn kernels. The problem with corn syrup sweeteners isn't the digestive part of the process, but the cell absorption step. Glucose absorption into body cells is under the control of insulin, so it is closely regulated. On the other hand, fructose (corn sweetener) enters cells without any control mechanism, so cells become swamped with the stuff, and lack the metabolic mechanisms to deal with so large a load, so it stores the energy. This is why fructose sweeteners are associated with obesity. But it has nothing to do with the digestive tract itself.
