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Optimum ConnectionsNews from Optimum Choices, LLCMarch 2004To receive this newsletter in your e-mail, click here. ContentsCurrent News Current News
We are now offering canine and feline massage sessions on Fridays at The Whole Cat & More store in Denver. Click here for more information. Optimum Choices is now offering HealthyPetNet premium food for those pet
owners who don't want to feed a raw diet and prefer the convenience of home delivery of a super
premium kibble developed by a holistic veterinarian. For more information, see:
www.HealthyPetNet.com/oc. Oil of the Month:
This month we highlight some of the personal care products from Young Living Essential Oils . We both use the AromaSilk shampoos and conditioners made by Young Living since they are free of chemicals and contain therapeutic-grade essential oils to enhance hair and scalp health. Most shampoos contain sodium lauryl sulfate or a similar ingredient which can be very drying and harsh on hair. This is an industrial, degreasing compound that is used to create a lot of lather when you shampoo. The shampoos from Young Living are free of sodium lauryl sulfate and other harsh chemicals as well as naturally nourishing to the hair and scalp. Since we started using these shampoos and conditioners, our hairdresser is amazed at how beautiful and silky our hair is as well as the good health of our scalp. The Young Living AromaSilk shampoo/conditioner sets come in three formulas depending on your hair type. There is Lemon Sage for deep cleansing, Lavender for creating volume and Rosewood for conditioning of dry hair. Russell uses the Lemon Sage to cleanse his naturally oily hair whereas Margaret uses Rosewood to moisturize her hair in this dry Colorado climate. A friend of ours was having problems with an itchy scalp while using a name brand shampoo from the grocery store. She switched to Young Living AromaSilk shampoo and her problems went away almost immediately. The ingredients of the Rosewood Moisturizing
AromaSilk shampoo
are: To order online, go to our online Young Living site and click on Product Catalog, Personal Care then Hair Care. How to read pet food labels
Do you know what's really in your pet's food and whether it is healthy for your dog or cat? Despite the pretty pictures on the bag and ads that show healthy pets romping around, not all commercial pet food is healthy for our pets. The pet food industry was developed to create a profit stream from the waste of the human food industry. Pet food may contain grains, fats and meat products that are unfit for human consumption and therefore are not healthy for our pets either. So what should you look for when reading the pet food label? Ingredients are listed in descending order by quantity. Since dogs and cats are carnivores, look for a food where the first ingredient is some type of meat such as: chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, etc. If the label says "chicken meal" and the manufacturer adheres to high quality standards, that is OK. The term "meal" means that the water has been removed, so "chicken meal" will contain more actual chicken than the ingredient "chicken". With some lower quality manufacturers, "chicken meal" could also mean that they have included lower quality parts of the chicken. So it is best to verify with the manufacturer what this means. If the manufacturer just lists "poultry" or "meat" instead of naming a specific animal, this indicates a lower quality food as they can use whatever particular meat is cheapest at the time of manufacture (and not necessarily the highest quality). Avoid foods that include by-products, such as "chicken by-products" or "meat by-products". By-products are the less digestible parts of the animal (that humans don't eat) such as "necks, feet, undeveloped eggs and intestines, exclusive of feathers". Your pet may not get enough protein from the food if it comes from by-products rather than meat. With many pet foods, you may see a grain listed first on the label such as corn or wheat. We recommend avoiding these foods since they don't contain enough animal protein for a carnivore. The manufacturer can count the protein in the grain towards the total protein content of the food but it is difficult for dogs and cats to digest. Also, the grains may be too moldy or rancid for humans to eat, therefore they end up in pet food. Even if a meat is listed first on a label, the food can still contain more grains than meat. There could be one meat listed first but then many listings for grains, so that the food actually contains a lot more grains than meat. Also, a manufacturer can manipulate the ingredients list to make it look like it contains more meat than it does. They may list a meat as the first ingredient because they have "split" the components of one grain into different descriptions. Perhaps the food contains more corn than meat but they can describe it as "ground yellow corn" and "corn gluten meal" and since it is split into two listings, it appears below the meat on the label. So unless you read the label carefully, you can be fooled. Another ingredient to watch out for is fat. Some commercial pet foods are made with used, rancid restaurant fats and overcooked animal fats that are sold cheaply to the pet food industry. If the label just says "animal fat", it could be very poor quality. Look for specific animal fats such as "chicken fat", "beef fat", "lamb fat", etc. And don't look for a low-fat diet for your pet like you might for yourself. Our pets, and especially our cats, need adequate levels of fat in their diets. If they are overweight, it makes more sense to cut down on their carbs rather than fat, since they are naturally carnivores (think "Atkins diet"). Also, look on the label for synthetic preservatives, such as BHA, BHT and ethoxyquine, which may be cancer causing. Natural preservatives such as Vitamin E (which may be listed as "tocopherols") won't preserve the food as long but are safer for your pet's health. For more details on the ingredients in pet foods, see this article from the Animal Protection Institute: What's Really in Pet Food. For information on some of the healthy pet foods that are available, see: http://www.optimumchoices.com/pet_food.htm. Upcoming ClassesFollowing is our schedule of upcoming classes. Click on the class listing for
more information. Book of the Month
The Holistic Dog Book: Canine Care for the 21st Century, by Denise Flaim ISBN: 0764517635 Click picture to order from Dogwise We have been searching the past couple of years for a comprehensive, up-to-date and accurate book on holistic health for dogs and have found it at last in this book. While there are other books available on holistic health for dogs and/or cats, we feel they all have some shortcomings such as not covering enough different topics in holistic health, not containing up to date information or containing information that is unbalanced or inaccurate. For instance, the classic book Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats includes far more grains in the recipes than is currently recommended by holistic vets. We recently found a book on holistic health for dogs that recommends a vegetarian diet, despite the fact that they are carnivores. There are also books that recommend specific diets or techniques without explaining the proper precautions or limitations of that technique. We feel this book is free of these shortcomings. For instance, it recommends a raw, grain-free diet, which is the current recommendation of most holistic vets, as well as explaining the precautions for doing a raw diet. It covers most of the major holistic topics including essential oils, homeopathy, herbal remedies, acupuncture, Chinese medicine, massage, Reiki, Bach flower remedies, vaccinations and positive training techniques. We especially like that the information is current. For instance, she covers the precautions of using essential oils with animals and quotes from Kristen Leigh Bell, author of Holistic Aromatherapy for Animals, the most authoritative book currently available on safe use of essential oil with animals. The section on homeopathy explains how classical homeopathy works and why using remedies for symptom suppression (as is commonly done) can be damaging to the health of the animal. For its size, this book contains a wealth of information, such as descriptions of each of the 38 Bach flower remedies. If you have a dog and can buy just one book on dog care, this is the book to
get. Contact Us
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For those of you in the Denver area, watch for us on TV this Sunday morning
(March 7th) at approximately 7:45 am. We will be on Channel 7's morning news
program for a few minutes, demonstrating canine massage.
AromaSilk
shampoo and conditioner
