Under the banner of hypoallergenic
Allergy is slowly but steadily coming, scientists say. And more and more often it manifests itself as allergic reactions to food. And there is also an individual intolerance to components of a non-antigenic nature. The selection of food for such pets turns into a problem. Where will the owner of the animal find its solution - on the shelves of the common room or on one of the shelves with therapeutic diets?
To help the owner of the animal with the choice, the seller will need basic knowledge about adverse reactions to food (NRK) and about the types of feed recommended for such violations.
Food as a provocateur
Food allergy is a form of immunological response, in which proteins belonging to a particular class of immunoglobulins are formed — antibodies. In case of allergy, the immune reaction of the body is accompanied by damage to its own tissues, and the antigen that caused such a reaction receives the title of allergen. An antigen is not necessarily a protein. Antigenicity is also inherent in many complex polysaccharides, lipopolysaccharides and even some artificial high-polymer compounds. Chemical elements, simple chemical compounds and organic molecules such as glucose, other mono- and disaccharides, amino acids do not have this property. However, some "harmless" substances, after combining with proteins of body tissues, can turn into an antigen.
By and large, for the body, all proteins (and all compounds with antigenic properties), except those synthesized by itself, are foreign. The task of digestion is to bring the food eaten into a convenient and safe form for assimilation. During normal operation of the gastrointestinal tract, food products are broken down to compounds that do not cause an allergic reaction (amino acids, low molecular weight peptides and other non-antigenic structures). For non-split foods that can cause pseudoallergic reactions, a healthy intestinal wall is practically impenetrable. True, some of the proteins of food can still get into the blood in an "unprocessed" form and in healthy individuals, but not in dangerous quantities. If the immune system works properly, they are dealt with without allergies.
In a number of diseases and pathological conditions, the permeability of the intestinal barrier increases significantly, and the quality of food splitting decreases. This is facilitated by a deficiency of digestive enzymes, violation of parietal digestion, inflammatory and dystrophic intestinal lesions, dysbiosis, worms and protozoa parasites. The affected organs suffer even more from an allergic reaction, resulting in a vicious circle when two pathological processes support and mutually reinforce each other. And at the same time create additional difficulties for diagnosis and treatment.
But with all due respect to the true allergy, we remind you that it is not the only reason for food intolerance. The entire possible range of reactions of the body (symptoms can be diverse — otitis externa, dermatitis, diarrhea, vomiting or respiratory disorders - and manifest in any combination) are designated as "undesirable reactions to food". Science today recognizes the following reasons for these reactions:
A true food allergy, which is always associated with immunological mechanisms. It is described in detail above;
Pseudoallergic intolerance (hypersensitivity of non-immune nature). It is associated with certain properties of certain foods and dietary supplements that are rich in histamine or simply contribute to its release. For example, derivatives of chemicals that accumulate in meat or plants as a result of intensive agricultural technologies. According to various estimates of Western veterinary specialists, the frequency of food intolerance to derivatives of industrial production is in the range of 30-60% of the total number of NRK;
Intolerance to individual components of food due to a deficiency of digestive enzymes (congenital or acquired). For example, with age, the animal's body can produce less and less of the enzyme lactase and lose the ability to digest the lactose contained in milk.
A combination of several causes, for example, food allergies and pseudoallergia in one patient is not so uncommon.
In the veterinary department
Here on the shelves there is, so to speak, heavy artillery - diets, ideally used as prescribed by a veterinarian and under his supervision. The latest achievements of science and high technology. In order to "pull" the creation of such a diet, including serious clinical trials, the company must either have its own research center, or cooperate with such a center. It is not surprising that the largest companies with large resources and financial capabilities make the greatest contribution to the development of veterinary dietetics. Although on the market you can find products not only transcontinental "monsters"…
The second feature of this dynamically developing group of feeds is the transfer of good-quality diets, but no longer the last word of dietetics, or simply perfectly suitable for consumption by healthy animals of the risk group, to shelves with everyday full-fledged feeds. But we will talk about this in more detail in the second part of the article.
The main methods of managing patients with food allergies are the choice of protein sources for their diet, which they have not met before, and the use of ready-made feeds based on hydrolysates. All diets for allergy sufferers are based on these principles to varying degrees. Here are the typical features of a hypoallergenic diet:
A small number of protein sources (ideally one animal and one vegetable source);
The content of new or rarely used protein sources - to reduce the risk of an allergic reaction;
Small molecular weight of protein fragments;
Absence of gluten (aka gluten);
Lack of lactose;
Absence of foreign proteins and impurities in the feed composition;
Since the natural taste of the resulting useful product is very unattractive, it must be corrected with special harmless additives (each manufacturer has its own composition of such a branded "sauce").
Feed for animals suffering from food allergies — protein hydrolysate-based diets (sometimes prescribed for life). In the feed based on hydrolyzed components, the protein has already been "digested", the resulting molecules are too small for the body to consider them an allergen. The minimum molecular weight required for the manifestation of antigenicity should be at least 10 thousand daltons (kDa; the main food allergens are glycoproteins having a size from 10 to 70 kDa). The molecular weight of protein in well-known hypoallergenic therapeutic products based on hydrolysates usually ranges from 3 to 15 kDa.
And yet individual animals (these cases are among the most severe) react even to protein hydrolysate. Therefore, when it became known that the allergenic potential of amino acid sequences weighing no more than 1 kDa was close to zero, the developers of veterinary diets faced the task of creating a production technology that would allow splitting proteins to fragments weighing about 1 kDa. And such a diet was created.
The second problem is the search for rarely used protein sources. One of the latest finds was the protein of a poultry feather. In its natural form, this protein is indigestible. But thanks to a special technology, it is converted into a mixture of amino acids, which has an extremely high food tolerance.
The third problem lies in such an organization of the processes of feed production and feeding (!) an animal to exclude the presence of extraneous allergens. The first is entirely on the conscience of the feed manufacturer (cleaning from possible impurities, DNA tests for the presence of foreign protein); there is nothing superfluous in the veterinary hypoallergenic diet at all. The second is the task of the owner (thorough washing of the bowl and hands before feeding the animal, purified water, absolute exclusion of any other food, etc.). Therefore, it is worth reminding the buyer that all the recommendations specified by the feed manufacturer must be strictly followed.
Another important point is the duration of the diet used. To stop the skin manifestations of allergies, a long period of feeding with a new diet is required - about six weeks. Experts note that most cats have an improvement in their condition after eight weeks, but many believe that a longer period of 10-12 weeks is needed to guarantee. The term depends on concomitant diseases, and on the state of the digestive system as a whole.
"Special Forces" on the shelves in the common room
From a practical point of view, the following groups of consumers who need hypoallergenic diets can be distinguished:
Animals suffering from IBS and in need of a hypoallergenic diet based on protein hydrolysate (sometimes for life);
Animals predisposed to skin diseases and often suffering from itching. Without affecting the cause of the disease, special feeds are nevertheless able to affect the severity of the reaction and alleviate the condition both with atopic dermatitis and with an allergic reaction to flea bites. Food that reduces the risk of developing NSC helps to improve the skin condition of such eaters;
Animals that have shown a tendency to develop NRK and need preventive dietary restrictions (mono-diets, preference for "organic" feeds).
For patients from the first group, the diet is selected exclusively by a veterinarian, since it is the main, basic tool in complex treatment (and the diagnosis itself is carried out with the help of exclusive diets). But the second, and especially the third group, do not need such strict restrictions. The food that reduces the risk of developing NRK is not a therapeutic diet in the strict sense of the word and is sold in the general department. Manufacturers can call it both "hypoallergenic" and "animal food with sensitive skin" or "hypersensitivity"; in the names of such feeds, the prefixes Singles, Sensible, Pure, Care, Ultimates, etc. are frequent. And the choice is not just great, it is huge.
What can I say, which company today does not have at least one brand positioned as hypoallergenic food? And the "lamb with rice" diet is so common today that its reputation as a "rare source of protein" is under threat. By the way, it is not very correct to call hypoallergenic food just because it is with rabbit or lamb, and the appearance of such feeds in economy class is extremely doubtful. Hypoallergenic feeds of the above companies can be attributed to the super premium class, and they are not cheap.
Another thing is that in this case, the miser pays not even twice, but three times. The owner needs to explain that the same mutton is valuable for his dog not because it supposedly never causes allergies, but because a particular animal has never received mutton with food before and therefore cannot be sensitive to the proteins of this type of meat. If a dog or cat has previously eaten lamb-based food, it automatically enters the circle of "suspected" potential allergens. Ideally, the protein source should be an alternative - choose something that has never entered the patient's body. Hypoallergenic diets can be either mono-protein or include several different alternative sources of protein. To reduce the cost of food by mixing protein from more accessible sources will not work here. And since we are talking about animals of the second and third groups, in which NRK can be caused by agents of a non-allergenic nature, we immediately remember about various additives and preservatives that need to be replaced with harmless, or even useful, analogues… And the price immediately becomes clear. Because if veterinary diets can be compared with a special-purpose detachment based in the vet department of your pet store, then good, truly hypoallergenic feeds are "special forces" on the shelves in the common room.
Some manufacturers even position such feeds as veterinary diets, trying to distinguish them from the total mass of packages stamped "hypoallergenic". In fact, the group "Feed for animals with special needs" has already been practically formed and allocated by many manufacturers. At its core, it should be based on the border between the common room and the vet department, and the fact that it is actually located on shelves with ordinary feeds should not confuse the buyer. Unfortunately, in the common room I rarely came across sales consultants who could name the differences between two 400-gram bags of dry food with the inscription "hypoallergenic" and at least 100% difference in price. Let's see how the formation of our "special forces" became possible.
As already mentioned, the formulation of dietary diets, which are no longer the last word of dietetics, has gone into widespread production. Adverse reactions to feed have been comprehensively studied, the basic principles of their prevention have been taken into account in the development and production of premium and super premium feeds. No one wants to get unwanted reactions to their product! On the other hand, it became clear that special feeds are needed for animals with minor, episodic NRS, as well as for healthy animals at risk. Finally, the ideas of healthy nutrition of companion animals have become popular. This has led to the emergence of such feeds as monobretic, organic, nutraceutical, biologically appropriate and even holistic. All of them were intended for daily feeding of healthy animals so that these animals would stay healthy for as long as possible.
Monoprotein (monoprotein) feeds contain one source of animal protein and one source of vegetable protein. More often, rare sources are used as ingredients: lamb, venison, fish, duck, ostrich, potatoes, specially processed rice, etc. That is, they are already an excellent diet for animals with NRK. Another trend is the use of ingredients grown using special technologies without the use of special chemicals (growth stimulants, antibiotics, pesticides, etc.) and genetic engineering, and the minimization of "chemistry" in the production process. What prevents reactions to derivatives of chemicals used in intensive animal husbandry and crop production, synthetic antioxidants and preservatives. In addition to fortification with the main nutrients, biologically active additives were included in nutraceutical feeds. Some of the latter have a positive effect on the state of the intestine, immunity and contribute to the reduction of NRK. The principles of biological conformity have led to the appearance of grain-free feeds (that is, gluten is not to be feared). On such a rich base of useful ideas and their various combinations, variations of modern hypoallergenic feeds were created. Sometimes the specialization of the feed captures adjacent areas ("Food sensitivity + Skin problems", "Hypoallergenic + Skin problems").
So, I repeat, the choice is huge, and you are simply doomed to sell food of "hypoallergenic status". Who knows, maybe it will be you who will have the idea of how, without violating the usual and convenient principle of placement by manufacturers, to facilitate the orientation of the customer on the shelves… In the meantime, the main guide of the buyer remains the sales consultant. What can I advise him?
Read the composition of the feed sold. This is a proven way not to get trapped.
It is difficult to answer the question: "Which hypoallergenic food is the best?". Do not forget that the organism, whoever it belongs to, has individual characteristics. The selection of food for an animal prone to NRK sometimes involves several attempts. It is good if there are several good brands in your store, from which the body itself will choose the "best" for it.
With a true food allergy or intolerance to some substance, a sufficient effect occurs as soon as the patient receives food that is free of them. But with other types of allergies, infections of the skin, skin manifestations caused by parasites, the diet will not give the expected effect, since it plays an auxiliary role.
A source: https://www.oldbluzcoon.com