So we should all know that a ketogenic meal for your dog (and humans) may require the use of additional salt/sodium to maintain proper electrolyte balance. If you don’t already know this please read my other article found HERE.

A good quality salt is what you should be using, and here’s why.

Besides the many beneficial factors that a quality salt will contain such as vital trace minerals that standard table salt does not contain, read on for some other very important issues we should be aware of.

You may be tempted to throw caution to the wind and just grab the salt shaker that’s sitting in your cabinet that is filled with normal table salt. But, most table salts like Morton for example, perhaps one of the most widely known table salts out there adds iodine and dextrose (sugar), caking agents,  and some have been heat processed and stripped of vital trace minerals.

For obvious reasons we don’t want to be adding in sugar to our ketogenic diets for our dogs, albeit the dextrose is in trace amounts, but more importantly the iodine should also be a concern. Dogs have a safe maximum amount of iodine they should be consuming daily (min of .25mg and 2.75 mg MAX per 1kcal of food according to 2017 AAFCO standards for adult dog), so let’s say for example you were using standard table salt containing iodine, now depending on how much salt you’re adding, and any ADDITIONAL foods, supplements that you may be using that also contain iodine, it is possible to go over that SUL (safe upper limit). If you’re using kelp for example, that contains iodine, so everything needs to be accounted for in the daily diet to know just how much of any vitamin/mineral is being given in your dogs diet.

And it’s important to note that any dogs with thyroid issues should be getting even less iodine than what is mentioned above. Here’s an article from Dr.Jean Dodd’s on The Canine Thyroid Epidemic

So, something as simple as salt can have a substantial impact on the total overall daily diet! Everything you add to your dogs meal adds up and affects the big picture!