As a canine nutritionist, vegan and founder of Plant-Powered Dog, I get a lot of questions about whether dogs can really be healthy on a plant-based diet. You should see some of the Facebook posts I receive, which I won’t bother to repeat here (thank goodness for “delete” buttons :-)!

It never ceases to amaze me how people cling to the myth – and it is a myth – that dogs are carnivores. Especially when we live in a time where the future of our planet literally depends on the choices we make, continuing to promote the torture and slaughter of other animals and decimate our planet due to some false notion is, honestly, absurd. Even many vegans believe that dogs are carnivores who need animal products to thrive!

While I’ve addressed this elsewhere, in this article I want to once again set the record straight: Dogs are most definitely omnivores who can live long, healthy lives on a plant-based diet. In fact, many leading veterinarians believe that meat-based diets may be contributing to the dramatic rise in chronic diseases in dogs—including cancer—over the past few decades.

Let’s take a closer look and bust some myths about dogs and plant-based diets:
Dogs are carnivores!

The “dogs are carnivores” debate is about as polarizing as politics. But, it’s not “fake news” that dogs are most definitely omnivores. Dogs possess key metabolic traits that differentiate them from true carnivores, such as cats and wolves. Here are a few:

  • Dogs have evolved to digest starch, as indicated by an increased number of amylase (AMY2B) genes compared to their wolf ancestors.
  • Dogs can convert plant-based beta-carotene (also known as “provitamin A”) to Retinol, the pure form of vitamin A. Carnivores cannot make this conversion and must get Retinol from animal sources.
  • Dogs can convert linoleic acid (LA), an essential omega-6 fatty acid found in plant-based sources, to arachidonic acid (AA). Carnivores lack the enzymes to make this conversion.
  • Dogs have enzymes that aid them in producing the essential amino acid arginine. Cats lack these enzymes and even one meal without arginine can produce devastating consequences, including death.
  • Dogs can convert the essential amino acid tryptophan to niacin, as can humans. Cats cannot make this conversion and must consume preformed niacin from food or supplements.
  • Dogs can synthesize taurine, so it is not considered an essential amino acid, however, cats cannot due to the lack of enzymes necessary in this process. Therefore, taurine is an essential amino acid for cats.
Grains are bad for dogs!

First of all, you don’t have to feed grains to feed a plant-based diet to dogs. I’m always a bit perplexed when naysayers equate “plant-based” with “grain-based”. Newsflash: There are a wide variety of non-grain plants out there. Legumes, for example, are excellent foods for dogs, and include kidney beans, black beans, garbanzo beans (chickpeas) and lentils. Complex carbohydrates, such as sweet potatoes and butternut squash are also packed with nutrients, as are cruciferous veggies such as broccoli and green-leafy veggies such as kale, spinach and collard greens. And, by the way, whole grains such as brown rice and pseudo-grains such as quinoa, teff, amaranth and buckwheat are also packed with nutrients—and dogs can digest and utilize their nutrients just fine.

Dogs need meat to thrive!

Actually, as a canine nutritionist, I can assure you that what dogs need is nutrients, not animal flesh. In fact, the high-meat diets of recent decades may be a key to the rise in canine chronic diseases, including cancer, due to a scientific phenomenon known as bioaccumulation.

Chemical toxins in the environment increase (bio-accumulate) the higher up the food chain you go, so when dogs consume other animals, they also consume the toxins in those animals. The quality of food that makes it into the human food chain is riddled with problems, but the animals that become pet food are those considered unfit for human consumption. This means they may be sick, dying or have died before they reached the slaughterhouse. They may even have had cancer. Is it any wonder that cancer in dogs is skyrocketing when we are feeding them animals with cancer?

Removing animal products from your dog’s diet may lessen the number of toxins your dog is exposed to, while providing health-enhancing vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytochemicals, which can contribute to better overall health and longevity.

It’s “unnatural” to feed dogs a plant-based diet!

Does your dog live indoors? Walk on a leash? Drive in a car? Go to the vet? Sleep in your bed? Watch TV? You get my point. Modern companion dogs live completely “unnatural” lives, yet some people cling to diet as the one point of raising dogs “naturally”.

If feeding a “natural” diet to your dog is your thing, consider this…. Dogs are not wolves. They evolved in tandem to their best friends—humans—and the precursors to many modern breeds were raised in largely agrarian-based societies, where they chowed down on crops from the farming land they roamed and the plant-based foods their humans cultivated. Thousands of years ago meat was a luxury (there was not a fast-food joint on every corner back then) and was saved for special occasions—certainly not doled out to the family dog.

My dog can’t get enough protein on a plant-based diet!

There is a growing misconception that dogs require high amounts of animal protein to thrive. Happily, they don’t! Plant foods contain plenty of high-quality protein. Some popular sources include garbanzo beans, lentils, pinto beans, quinoa, buckwheat, gluten-free oats and organic soybeans.

Plant-based diets aren’t balanced!

I often hear people’s concerns about serving unbalanced plant-based diets to dogs, but almost never those same concerns when it comes to feeding raw, meat-based diets. Yet, scientific analyses have shown that the majority of home-prepared, raw meat and bone-based diets are deficient or contain excesses of key nutrients. The moral is that all diets must be properly balanced, whether they are meat-based or plant-based.

Can dogs really thrive on a plant-based diet?

Absolutely! Just remember that every dog is an individual and must receive a nutritious, balanced diet for his or her specific needs. Want more information on why, and how, to feed your dog a plant-based diet? Register for the first Plant-Powered Dog Food Summit, streaming free online March 12 – 19, 2019. And consider that one of the oldest living dogs on record, Bramble, was a vegan!