Processing and pea-based dog foods: Maximizing starch resistance to improve obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular health and intestinal health

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Obesity, diabetes, intestinal health and cardiovascular disease are known to be strongly linked in humans. Diet therapy is used for treatment and prevention of these diseases, but exactly how diet helps is not clear. Furthermore, the effect of diet on these diseases is poorly studied in dogs. We predict that using peas in dog food will increase feelings of fullness, improve weight control and decrease diabetes as well as promoting cardiovascular and intestinal health in dogs compared to foods prepared with corn, rice or barley. Our objective is to develop a value-added dog food with proven health benefits using Saskatchewan pea-producers and a local dog food company as partners who will take this product to market. Dog food is most commonly sold in a kibble (extruded) form and the extrusion process could either enhance or negate health benefits of resistant pea starches, depending on conditions used. Therefore, the proposed study will first investigate different pea varieties, effects of particle size and extrusion conditions to enhance resistant starch content tested using in vitro starch digestibility tests. We predict that once suitable particle size and extrusion conditions are found, the pea-based extruded dog foods will have better content of resistant starches than other carbohydrate sources, resulting in glucose absorption largely from the upper gut, slow rise of glucose in the blood and improved intestinal health. Next, the effect that different carbohydrate sources and processing methods have on diabetes and cardiovascular function in laboratory dogs after a single feeding will be examined. Finally, the pea-based diet will be compared to the most rapidly digestible diet in a longer-term controlled laboratory trial to evaluate effects on weight control, obesity, diabetes, fecal output, cardiovascular health and intestinal health. Dogs will be first fed controlled amounts of the fastest digestible carbohydrate diet for 4 weeks, then allowed to become obese (3-6 months excess feeding), followed by 4 weeks of feeding on the pea-based diet. Thus, this project will help tap into new North American markets for Canadian products by providing evidence of health benefits of a better dog food.