Why Chia seed isn’t optimal to be using for beef recipes:

 

Let’s review the facts:

Beef is high in saturated fats and low in unsaturated fats, which makes beef LOW in meeting minimum requirements for LA, linoleic acid requirements for dogs. And, according to renowned animal nutritionist Steve Brown, “ lack of LA presents health problems rather quickly, often showing first in the skin and coat” and “make the dog sluggish, or eventually kill the dog.”

And although chia seed does contain some linoleic acid, we can’t use enough of it to meet our minimum LA requirement without our omega 6/3 ratio being compromised at a terribly unhealthy level in a beef based recipe. And “the balance of omega 6/3 has the potential to affect the health of every cell and organ in the body”*, so it’s important that it is balanced properly in a dog’s diet. And, not to mention, we’d also be adding a lot more calories to the diet using that much chia seed to try and provide enough LA. It simply does not work. In fact, in Steve Brown’s book*, it clearly states to NOT use chia seed in beef based recipes.

And although chia does provide fiber to the diet, which may or may not be needed when a dog is first starting a Raw High fat diet to help “bind” the stool if the dog is experiencing loose poops upon starting Keto, we can easily fix this by using other sources of fiber such as psyllium husk powder for example, which doesn’t negatively affect the omega 6/3 ratio of the Raw meal like Chia seed does. And it’s also important, especially if the dog is coming from a cereal/kibble based diet, that we are using a quality probiotic to help repair the gut microbiome.

Chia seed would actually in fact be better suited for a poultry based recipe since poultry is higher in Polyunsaturated fats.

Instead, if we use hempseed in a beef based recipe, we can “kill two birds with one stone” so to speak.

Hempseed is better suited for use in beef recipes. It helps our omega 6/3 ratio much better than trying to use chia seed, plus it adds much needed La, linolenic Acid that Chia seed will not provide unless we were to try and use copious amounts of it, but as mentioned above wouldn’t work anyway because now were detrimentally causing issues with our omega 6/3 ratio of the meal.

Hempseed also contains GLA (gamma-Linolenic acid), which although is a “conditionally essentially” fatty acid- which means a “healthy” dog can make enough to meet it’s needs, BUT stressed, hardworking, or sick dogs may not be able to make enough of their own GLA and may require a dietary source of it.

So, I know everyone will ask. “well, how much hempseed do I need to use!”
That will depend on your exact recipe, there is no universal answer. You can’t dose “1 tablespoon per “XX” lbs. of your dog’s body weight” for example. That is not an exact enough for what we need to accomplish. That’s like cooking using a “pinch” or a “palm ful”. It’s not exact by any means, and certainly not specific enough when trying to ensure your dog’s nutritional needs are properly met.

You must learn how to balance the omegas. I would suggest Steve browns book- unlocking the canine ancestral diet, I have an amazon link to it on my page here

For more information on nutritional requirements of the ketogenic diets for dogs, visit my page here

Looking for custom tailored ketogenic meal plans for your dog? click here!

 

 

*cited from Steve Brown’s unlocking the canine ancestral diet