HPP vs Traditional Raw Food: Which Diet is Best for Your Dog’s Health?

Hi, this is Rita Hogan and welcome to the Dogs are Individuals podcast. I'm a clinical canine herbalist and I've been practicing for over 20 years. This podcast is all about your dog through an herbal lens. So let's get to it and dive right in.

Hello everyone, this is Rita Hogan, your host at the Dogs Are Individuals podcast. So, hey, I've been on the road a lot of you know that, that I have been doing a lot of traveling for the book tour. God, it has been a crazy ride. Definitely awesome. Have so many people that are so kind and giving and supporting. It's kind of. My mind's kind of blown, right? So much gratitude as far as I'm concerned. I have so much to be grateful for. And I love the plants are like facilitating so many things that is going on for other people, for myself, for dogs, even for, even for cats, right. Anytime someone gets introduced to plant medicine and gets kind of that feeling of revival in their cells on what's possible with plants, I get a little excited. So I'm super excited. I just, you know, my tour has a lot of sponsors and one of them is a sponsor here of the podcast podcast Green Juju. So thanks. A big thanks goes out to Green Juju. I heard it through a little grapevine that they are having freeze dried versions of blends coming out soon. I can't wait to share that with you. But they have refrigerated blends too. And one of the things I wanted to tell you about the refrigerated blends was that if you have a smaller dog and you can't use that, those blends in just a couple weeks, just let it thaw, put it in. What are those? Ice cube trays. Ice cube trays. And then use it as you need it and just let you know, the individual ice cube thaw, that really helps. And then you can avoid, you know, things go bad in the refrigerator. This is a whole food supplement, so just wanted to put that out there. You can also do that with their mushroom, fermented mushroom, which I absolutely positively love. And what's really cool about the fermented mushroom is the person that's growing those mushrooms grows them in, you know, in the forest. Right. And each batch is different from the first. You know, each batch can have a different level of constituents. And I can really get behind that because gut, the gut microbiome is all about diversity, okay? It's all about diversity. And it just blows my mind how you can have all of these diverse things. We have, we are so gifted that we have so many small awesome companies that are supporting the all natural dog world. It blows my mind. I just absolutely love it, you know, just absolutely love it. And I had someone write into the podcast asking about hpp, and that's high pressure pasteurization. So Green Juju, as one of our sponsors for the book tour and for this lovely little podcast, is an HPP product. Their dog food is hpp. They're both, they're freeze dried and they're raw. Now I had to do a deep dive into hpp and this is what I found. So HPP a long time ago did significantly reduce the nutrients in food, right? And hpp, it's high pressure pasteurization. Okay? High pressure pasteurization. And the technology has come a long way from what I can, you know, from what I found in my research. And a lot of people will think that when, like when HPP occurs that a ton of the nutrients will decrease. But in fact, when raw pet food goes through hpp, nutrients can actually increase. Now that kind of blew my mind, okay? That kind of blew my mind. And so I was looking at the different nutrients in dog food and what's going on there. And I think that weighing the pros and cons, what nutrients decrease, what nutrients increase? And I do know that vitamin B12 can decrease vitamin A, pantothenic acid and pyroxidin, right? That's P, Y, R, I, D, O, X, I, N, those nutrients can decrease, okay? But then you look at formulation and see how you can increase those nutrients across the board so that you can prepare for the decrease of those nutrients from hpp and the other nutrients in the food remain stable in what you call low, like lower pressure hpp. And when I interviewed Green Juju, their food scientist, Billy Hochman, he had a lot to say about that. And I find it very interesting and wanted to go through a few things with you about it. And I mean, I know a lot of you had questions and one of the questions is, you know, does HPP kill all the bacteria in the food? You know, including the commensal bacteria, which is the good bacteria. And you know, so you essentially have like a sterile food. Well, the answer is no. So from the studies that I've looked at, it shows that lactobacillus bacteria only slightly reduce in the food, meaning that they're still active. And also when they studied yogurt through hpp, the cultures were still active. And I think that that technology is getting better and better. Now if, if you are completely against high pressure pasteurization then, you know, the awesome thing is that there's so many wonderful little companies out there making great food. You know, you have foods like solutions, they don't use hpp. There's a lot of foods that don't use hpp. And if you want foods, they're like small batch. Their freeze dried is hpp, and obviously green juju's freeze dried is hpp. It just depends on what you're looking at in a food. I can tell you that my pugs each eat green juju and are doing fabulous. Their coats are beautiful, they have less graying, their eyes are bright. They're happy, they're healthy, and they're doing great. Another question that we got from the inquiry on HPP is, does HPP denature enzymes? Which does it decrease enzymes? Does it inactivate enzymes in the food? And that's a big one for me because I'm a big enzyme advocate and enzymes are so important in our dog's food. All right, so beyond important, and with the research from Steve's Real Food and the research that they've done through the HPP process, enzymes activity is not decreased in any significant way using HPP. So there's only a 10% reduction in enzyme activity from one study and no reduction from the second study. But so, I mean, I think that gives us an idea that yes, HPP does help kill some of the pathogenic bacteria, and that's the process that, you know, the FDA is happy about, but it doesn't kill everything. And enzymes are still active and there still is live cultures in those foods. And I think that's what's really important. Right. And again, if you're just not into hpp, right. I have two traditionally raw fed dogs, you know, animal parts and the whole thing. Gross but true. I just encourage you to, you know, feed with your heart. Feed where you need to feed, choose where you need to choose. Some of you may make your own food, right? Some of you may cook and hopefully add enzymes because, you know, cooking denatures food, right? We need to add the enzymes back in and gently cooked. Also we need to add the enzymes back in. You know, goodness gracious is a wonderful supporter of the podcast. They make gently cooked food. And I remember I showed I told you about Figgy Nubbins, and she's been eating good gracious and doing very well. Or goodness gracious, not good gracious. Sorry. Oh, good gracious, Rita. But anyways, you know, I really wanted to give you my opinion on this. Another question that we came across Was the question of does HPP oxidize fats? You know, does it make them rancid? And fats only show oxidation at pressure hold times of greater than 20 minutes. Now, that isn't most of the foods on the market. Fat oxidation can occur at temperatures of 75 degrees or more during the HPP process. And raw pet foods have a hold pressure time of two minutes and a really much lower water temperature. So they experience minimal to no oxidation. And the fat profile remains, I mean, healthy, and the food is still raw. All right, now, like I said, HPP has come a long way, A long way. And I didn't know, I didn't realize a lot about it. I was, you know, it was something that I had to go look into and research and ask people questions, you know, because when people ask me, I really didn't know how to answer. Now I do. And another, you know, other people think that HPP lowers the dog food's digestibility, you know, and there is no difference HPP and non HPP raw dog foods. It does not mess with digestibility. So you don't need to worry about that. Now, again, there's different levels of hpp. So if you are concerned, you need to ask the supplier that you're using, what temperature does your HPP like? What temperature are you doing HPP at? Because you really, I mean, in my opinion, you need to stay below 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Some HPP protocols are up to almost 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Okay, you need to stay below 50, 45, 45, 45, 50. Okay, I know that green juju is at, I think around 41 degrees Fahrenheit. What it really comes down to is are you okay with it or you aren't okay with it? But if you aren't okay with it, I think you need to look at the science and how is it it's improved and you can make your decision there. Right? And you may be like, no, I'm not doing that at all. I am going to do a traditionally raw diet or I'm going to feed foods that have not incurred hpp. Right? And that's up to you. But I just wanted to give you my opinion of it. And I really think that when done correctly, HPP can provide a level or a spectrum of food safety for those of you that are concerned about it. And while still retaining the vitamins and nutrients that your dog needs. And good formulation is always important when we are looking at this. And it also reduces pathogenic bacteria when it's all said and done, we need to have open conversations and not be afraid to ask questions. Not be afraid to look at the science, not to be afraid to question the science. Right. And not get in arguments about what is better. You know, have open conversation about it. And I just wanted to explain a little bit about HPP and high pressure pasteurization. What I have found and you know, my bottom line is that it works for some of my dogs. And my other dogs get traditional raw because that's what they like. They're not interested in freeze dried dog food. They like traditional raw. And I like to make really control what ingredients go into my dog's bowl. Like, you know, again, Figgy Nubbins eats goodness gracious. Ronan eats green juju. We have one dog on solutions and then we have another two on just plain old prey model. So I got a mixed bag going on and then don't even get me started with the cats. So the cats eat better than I do. So anyways, I hope this helped a little and if you have any questions, let me know. And I really believe that there's just awesome dog foods out there and I'm very grateful for all of them and I hope that we can all improve the outcomes of our dog's health with the variety that is out there. So that's my two cents. And remember, I retain the right to change my mind. So until I see otherwise, I am not going to be speaking negatively against cold water, low temperature hpp if that's what you want to do. And if you are concerned about bacteria, it sounds to me like things are good. And I think that, you know, a dog's health really shows with the food in general. So we definitely don't live in a perfect world. And I think everyone is trying to do the best job that they can. And the people that I know in the all natural dog world have the best of intentions for all of our animals and that's what's very important to me. So that's my 2 cents on it. And thanks so much. I do want to just say a quick thank you to the sponsors of my podcast. I don't know if you know who they are, so I'm going to tell you. So one of my sponsors is Innovative Pet Lab. They have some great testing. I have a link on theherbaldog.com to their testing. They have a really great test that looks at inflammation in the gut and it can tell you if your dog's gut is inflamed. And I love that we have earthbuddy Pet. They used to sponsor this podcast. Lots of great products coming out of Earthbuddy. Sean at Earthbuddy is amazing. We have Dr. Ruth's. She is phenomenal. She's the original Crock Pot Vet. She is a sponsor of my podcast. We're going to be doing some stuff soon. I'm doing an energetics lesson on her conference on Wednesday. That's the day that this podcast comes out. And then we have Coco Therapy, Best Coconut Oil and MCT on the planet. Green Juju, of course, Real Mushrooms. Another sponsor of our podcast, Pawdega, which is a lovely online store that you can find so many good products@pawdega.com and I hope that. Oh, Anacel Biotech, which is. I've explained that before. It's the amnioregenerative medicine. Love, love, love that. Feline Essentials. That is the two Crazy Cat Ladies products. Love that. True Crazy Cat Ladies.com and I hope I didn't forget anybody else, goodness gracious. Who is also a sponsor of this podcast. So just wanted to thank all of those people because without them this would not be possible. Oh, and then we also have Rossom Pets and lastly Raw Pets. And that is in Tampa. Is also a sponsor of the book tour, so. Whoop whoop. Awesome. Check it out. Follow us@theherbaldog.com under Tour Stops. Hopefully I'll be able to meet you guys in person and talk in your local area.

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