Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:23 So, what do you remember? Like chapter two, like kind of I
Speaker 2 00:00:29 Read it.
Speaker 1 00:00:29 <laugh>. You read it? Okay. <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:00:32 And I made what I did, I kind of, I don't know if I can show you. I put like, I got the little tabby
Speaker 1 00:00:38 Things. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:00:41 And cuz I highlighted so much stuff and I'm like, well, I can highlight it all day long. I'm just gonna highlight the entire book. That's not gonna help.
Speaker 1 00:00:49 <laugh>. Yeah. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:00:51 So I got like little, um, the little paper tabs just to kind of write like little highlight things that would kind of jog my memory so I can like, flip to the page pretty quickly or have an idea of like where I wanna go.
Speaker 1 00:01:03 Right.
Speaker 2 00:01:04 Or little places that I highlighted that I maybe like would wanna talk about. Or even if I have the, you know, the book in hand later on, I'd be like, oh, it's on, like, I'm not gonna remember where everything is in the book and what page it's all on and all that stuff.
Speaker 1 00:01:16 <laugh>. Okay.
Speaker 2 00:01:21 That was my own homework for the week, was to go through and kind of read it and highlight it and, and tab it and give myself some quick notes, I guess. Okay. Cause I, I was trying to like, write down things like questions I might like wanna say or things I'd wanna bring up. But again, I'm just like, I'd have, I might as well just read the book online. There's so many good things to point out.
Speaker 1 00:01:43 Uh, I know. That's the problem. That's the problem. You know, when I was reading it's like, ah, that, that's like, yeah. Oh yeah. That's another one. Good one. Oh, wait, wait. That, that sentence was good too. Oh no. The whole paragraph is good. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:01:59 It's so hard to pick like one tiny little bit because Yeah. If I've highlighted, uh, quite a bit.
Speaker 1 00:02:06 Yeah. But I, I would say, you know, a, a general summary of, of chapter two, because this is just a title alone gives you an idea what what is talking about. You know, it's our co evolution with dogs, you know, from wild wolves to willful pets kind of thing. And basically, you know, it's going through a, um, a historical, um, look as in, you know, the debate and question, which some people have and they obsess over is when were dogs domesticated and are dogs wolves, you know? Right. So I think that was like the, you know, just, just looking at that general first, first title page. Right. Um, and the, the, the, the, the reading of it. So it's basically, you know, everybody, if you're still wondering, dogs are not wolves, you know, <laugh>, um, you know, uh, ancestors sort of branched off at some point and, and, um, dogs are species of their own.
Speaker 1 00:03:08 Um, but there, there's this obsession, which I don't know, I I I'm a dog lover, but I've never really obsessed about it. Like, you know, when were dogs domesticate it, you know, it seems like a long, long time ago. Um, but based on archeological finds that, you know, um, that was put in the book that, um, it's a lot earlier than people thought. You know? And, and basically it's highlighting the, I think that the gist is, you know, like our love relationship with dogs, you know, when did we start having them? And then when did we also, the question of when did we start breeding them selectively, um, for certain specific, um, traits that, you know, uh, the people in those days in their geographical location really wanted out of their dogs as a working dog. Yeah. So that kind of like, okay, that's the, you know, the historical thing that came out for me, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:04:10 I like the history that was put in there to kind of give a little bit of a backstory on how we did, um, evolved with them, how early the first paw prints were found. And we thought that they were domesticated, you know, 15,000 years ago. Turns out it might have been 30,000 years ago, 130,000 years ago. You know, they've been around for a long time. I don't know the earliest time that dogs were brought into the home. That's a whole nother factor to look at. Uh, cuz a lot of times they were, you know, kept as farm dogs out in the field. It's been a while between the dogs being, you know, village dogs to farm dogs to snuggling with you in your bed.
Speaker 1 00:04:50 Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like even I would say, uh, my parents' generation, you know, there are people who still view dogs as working dogs and not as pets. You know, like a guard dog is a guard dog for outside the house. They're supposed to patrol the parameter and defend the territory kind of thing. They don't really want, um, the dog inside the home snuggling with them. They, they don't have that, you know, there's still quite a few people, especially I think in certain parts of Asia that still has a pretty like very defined like, you know, line between, um, with animals and pets and even with pets. I mean, like, I, I've had some hardcore people who pets are, should not even be pets. They should just be food <laugh> kind of thing. True,
Speaker 2 00:05:42 Yeah. In some cultures for sure.
Speaker 1 00:05:44 Yeah. Yeah. Um, but what, what this chapter also sort of briefly touched on was about the breeding of dogs. Um, because we were starting to select certain, like, traits that we liked in our working, like even border colleagues especially, you know, stuff like that. You know, what we wanted. Um, and again, I think it itself highlighted like, uh, when we did selective breeding, some things, undesirable stuff kind of happen in the genetics of, of the breeding, the selection of the gene pool. You know,
Speaker 2 00:06:20 You know, German shepherds don't look like German shepherds anymore, you know? Yeah. They have like kind of a hunched back than what they used to have hundreds of years ago. And pugs are supposed to have a longer nose and they've bred 'em to have such short nose and, um, I believe the term is bra cephalic. They might be be saying that wrong. Yeah. Um, where it shortens that nasal passageway and they have more nasal issues than other dogs because that whole function of the nasal cavity has been shortened over the years due to breeding because they wanted it to be a certain aesthetic appeal, but it can actually kind of harm the dog's bodily function in the long run.
Speaker 1 00:06:56 Yeah. I think, I think one of the, the genetically like disturb, um, I don't know, what do you want bread dogs, the bulldog, you know, they can't even give birth naturally. They have to have cesarean apparently, you know, and they've been bred in such a way that the force of the skin and everything, it's really hard for them to have a normal, you know, a normal dog, active life lifestyle. So, you know, it's, uh, yeah. You know, it sort of puts this question mark on, um, our human intention of what we are doing. Like, are we, you know, when we, when we try to breed, are we being responsible breeders or ethical breeders? So that's, uh, another, uh, rabbit hole to go down. You
Speaker 2 00:07:44 Know, it's a big rabbit hole
Speaker 1 00:07:46 <laugh>. Yeah. In fact, I, later on in the book, they actually do talk about like, um, you know, if you were to intend to buy, uh, a pure bread dog or from a dog breeder, what sort of questions you used to look out for. But that's like further down in the book. Um, yeah. So, you know, this, this chapter really talks about the history of our relationship with dogs and, you know, oh yeah. Our, our obsession with DNA testing with some people. They wanna test the genetics of the dogs and stuff, you know, um,
Speaker 2 00:08:18 So there's a whole debate of whether mus are healthier or whether pure breads are healthier. Cause I've heard both sides, you know? Yeah. There's a whole, that's a rabbit hole as well.
Speaker 1 00:08:28 Yeah. Cuz I mean, like, I do, I do rescue work. So I mean, like for, for as long as I can remember, everyone said, um, Mongols are always, uh, mixed bets are healthier and hardier. But with, you know, um, observing them, I don't know, past 10 or years that I've been, you know, actively involved in rescue work, um, that's not true. In fact, you know, um, I think it doesn't matter whether you're mixed beed or not. Um, actually dogs in general, overall, their health today, um, they have a lot of issues. And it sort of boils down to what are you feeding your dog in a very simplified approach. Like, you know, okay, let's look at your lifestyle, you
Speaker 2 00:09:15 Know? Right. Yeah. What are you feeding? What's their environment? What are they coming in contact with? You know, what sort of lifestyle factors are setting off those genetics? Because you can have genetics and they can stay dormant, but until they come in contact with certain foods, certain chemicals, certain toxins, they can flip those switches and then make those, uh, genetic things rise up.
Speaker 1 00:09:36 Yeah. What what I like about this book, um, in this chapter is that because, you know, they're talking a lot with, um, you know, like a functional, uh, health approach to, to longevity for our dogs. And they do actually talk about certain topics like in terms of history and politics. So they talk a lot about like mass migration and agri culture through our human evolution. Right. Our, his history with agriculture and stuff. And then they talk about, they link it up with diet, you know, um, and, and you know, basically, you know, like here says diets are cornerstones of disease and conversely health. Right. Um, which was actually printed in mode here. So, you know, they, they sort of like, okay, how we eat? You know, we humans, we obsess about our diet and, you know, what's the best diet and lifestyle for us to be healthy?
Speaker 1 00:10:36 But there is a disconnect somehow when it comes to our dogs and even some, you know, even in say the pet health industry for humans, you know, like doctors and all that. Physicians, they'll tell you, like with the human, eat a fresh, try to eat as fresh as you can, eat a variety of food. Right. Whereas for the pet food industry, they say like, here, this bag of kibble is for the fight with, you know, the vitamins and minerals or whatever that the dog needs for life. And it, you know, have that don't change it. So it, it sort of, you know, um, brings up that, that question mark and the disconnect. Like, okay, why, why, why is the human industry telling us to eat fresher? But why is the the pet food industry telling us to don't eat fresher? In fact, I mean, like I've had, I've had, I've heard, um, vets actually say like, don't, don't, don't cook your dog food. Don't give your dog anything from your table, you know, from your kitchen. Just, just take it from our clinic in a nice bag, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:11:48 Well, and they always would stress, you know, you don't wanna cause gi upset. So they can kind of like startle the pet owner at first, be like, well, I don't wanna cause gi upset, I don't wanna deal with the ramifications of that, so I'll just stick with what works. And granted, you know, processed pet food will keep the dog alive, but at what costs down the road and where it makes you think in, I think that was one of the turning points for me. And it, and that's the hardest part to get across, I think, when explaining it to, when explaining it to people, why fresher food is better than processed food. And when I started here, here, rumblings about fresher food, you're just like, well, okay, that's weird. But you're right. You know, we're told processed food is better, you know, don't change anything for our pets.
Speaker 2 00:12:36 But when you actually take the, take a second and you open that bag of food and you look at these little brown balls, where is the chicken? Exactly. Where where is that, uh, broccoli. Exactly. Where is that, that corn stock that's on the front of the packaging? Like where, how did all this turn into a little brown ball? And we're, we're taught that these little brown balls are fine to feed them, but when you kind of, and that's the disconnected, it's so hard to kind of like mesh that to explain it to people. And that once you realize that the brown balls really aren't all they're cracked up to be. Yeah. And you're just like, holy mo, then that light bulb goes off and then you can kind of get, it's like, it's okay to add fresh food. It's okay. You, you cannot, um, go wrong with adding a little bit of, you know, fresh diet, whether it be blueberries or leafy greens or anything like that. Because yeah, it really is a cornerstone of our health. Any, uh, what's the quote that comes to mind? A step of, I know I'm gonna totally botch this quote cuz I've seen it so many times, but it's been a while.
Speaker 2 00:13:54 Eating fresher is one step in the right direction away from disease. You can No, cut that out. Cause I totally screwed it up, but <laugh>, I forget. Ah, that's gonna bug me now. It's totally gonna bug me. Eating
Speaker 1 00:14:09 Fresher. You're gonna find, yeah, you are gonna find out and you're gonna come back to that one. But yeah, so, so the thing is with this chapter, um, what, what they're doing, in my opinion, my humble opinion is that they are priming the reader, especially those who've never thought about this, this question mark about what's in our animals' pet food. Is it really, really healthy? They are actually, you know, educating us on the human history of agriculture and the food industry, you know, like, and, and the correlation of when we started to, to grow our own food, the com the commercial stuff and like, you know, and about the health benefits of eating fresh. So, so like, you know, they mentioned people like Dr. Davidson Sinclair, you know, and, and, um, how food is the information for ourselves and tissues all the way down to their molecular structure, you know, so when it's, the more process it is, the more you're altering the, I would say, the nutritional benefits that the food can give you.
Speaker 1 00:15:18 You know, when you consume it. And they talk about bdnf, and I have to re I have to say the first time I heard this, I was really fascinated because it, you know, BDM Dmf is brain derived neurotropic factor. And it talks about, you know, how a pro-inflammatory diet heavy with refined carbohydrates right, would decrease the activity of an important gene related to brain health called bdnf. You know, and, and this is, this is something, you know, when I, when, when I read about this, it's not just Dr. Ock talks about this, but like other, a lot of functional, um, human, um, doctors in the, in the ProHealth in proactive health industry, they talk about BDNF and, and how, you know, your brain, you know, like we could actually improve our mental faculties, you know, and, and our, and our energy just, just by tweaking what we are eating.
Speaker 1 00:16:23 And that's where they sort of introduce the concept of what is carbohydrates. Because this, this is a big opening I think for, for pet parents who have honestly never thought about this thing. You know, they, they, I mean like, even for myself, I thought carbohydrates are all the same. I never really thought what, what is, uh, what refined carbohydrates, you know, uh, the different types of car. And when I started to read that, I was like, oh shit, you know, Uhhuh you mean so many different types, you know, and what sugar, what, what glucose? There's a difference.
Speaker 2 00:17:05 Yeah. And the low glycemic vegetables and the higher glycemic vegetables and like slow carbs and fast carbs, which ones kind of fill you up and stick with you, which ones you kind of burn through faster. It's a whole world,
Speaker 1 00:17:16 Man. Yeah. Yeah. So I would say they're easing the reader, the pet parent, into this, um, idea of like, okay, if you agree, you know, if you understand the concept of humans and a fresher food diet, and then we're looking at carbohydrates, you know, and, and things that affect, um, our, they call, you know, gene expression or, you know, uh, neutrogen genomics epigenetics kind of thing, um, then you can sort of filter it down towards like, okay, if you understand these basic concepts, you know, like how do you think it will affect your animal's diet with what you are feeding your, your pet, you know, so, you know, it's, it's a great, um, I don't know. I thought that they were, you know, pretty good at explaining it really like slowly, um, baby steps
Speaker 2 00:18:13 To it. Yeah. It's very, it's very digestible. Very easy to understand, even if you have to maybe reread the paragraph a little bit just to kinda let that sink in. But it is very digestible.
Speaker 1 00:18:22 Yeah. And they, you know, um, cuz they were talking about, you know, the three main categories of carbohydrates, you know, like sugars, starches, and fiber. You know, what, what sort of affects that, you know, what, what is that? And um, I always remember this part where, you know, dogs don't eat sugar because they can make their own sugar if you feed them protein. And there's this big word that came out, right? And it's called gluco neogen. Right? Yep. So, you know, it, it's, you know, that, that one line sort of like, yeah man, you know, like I wish someone told me that like donkey years ago. Cause I didn't know that <laugh>, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:19:09 So that was, that was crazy to learn, wasn't it? It was really crazy.
Speaker 1 00:19:14 So I, I, you know, that's when I slowly, you know, when I started to, to read and, and find out more, like, you know, oh, you mean as good cups and bad cups, even for dogs, you mean it's the same, it affects the same with like how they talk about the human health diet, you mean it is the same for our companion dogs, you know? So it's like, yeah. It's like, you know, priming us to, you know, get ready for like, ah, let's go down that rabbit hole soon. You know? Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:19:45 It's, it's a little bit of a run through of a nutrition kind of understanding to figure out and understand why, why food is so important. What's, what are good foods, what are bad foods, and how the effect they have on the body. And that's important to know, you know, not only for ourselves, but for our pets too. We just can't assume that, you know, feeding 'em a cereal based form is going to be the best thing. We know that eating fast food for us is not the best thing every day, but we do it to our dogs unintentionally without realizing it because, you know, it's how we grew up. It's what we know.
Speaker 1 00:20:15 Yeah. But, uh,
Speaker 2 00:20:16 Yeah, it's, it's definitely a little bit of a nutrition, uh, education.
Speaker 1 00:20:21 Yeah. It's, it's, there's no easy way to go around it, I'm afraid. You have to sort of understand the basic concepts. And they do mention, like, you know, they sort of say like, well if once you know how pet food is actually processed and made, especially dry food kibble, uh, you might wanna really like question the how healthy it is, um, for your animal. You know, if you understand these basic concepts that they're setting up for you to understand, you know, like the basic foundation stuff. And I mean, like a very simple thing for, you know, it's like I cannot, it took me a very long time, but I realize I can't take bread, especially like white whole, like white bread, you know, process bread because, um, of the flying, the way they make it and, you know, every single pastry shop they have to add sugar and everything, including bread and the sugar really affects me.
Speaker 1 00:21:17 And I had, um, um, just yesterday, cuz it was like, you know, it's a long holiday weekend here cuz it's, uh, today's Harry Maria Plaza, where's the breaking of the Muslim fast, uh, the fasting month, Ramadan and is also Labor Day, uh, on the 1st of May over here. So people, you know, it's a public holiday, so it's like, you know, so people are like eating and enjoying. So I thought, okay, you know, we'll, we'll we'll get into the spirit of the fe season here. So I had some curry chicken curry and it was like, um, with some bread and it was white bread.
Speaker 1 00:21:53 And today my style is so bloated because I haven't had bread in a really long time. And I was like, oh, okay, I'll have that. Oh, that's enough. Or bread. Okay. I'll have some, you know, some eggs of mayo with it, you know, and, and I just eat that, you know, as a snack. But today my stomach was so hard and bloated and it's been a long time since I had that and, and because like, I'm kind of being more conscious of what I'm eating and I know what I ate yesterday, so I was like, oh yeah, I know what triggered it. You know, it's the food that I ate unfortunately as much as I, you know, liked it Yeah. Culturally, you know, with uh, you know, with your friends. Um, but yeah, it, it actually did something to, to my stomach. And today I was like, I was feeling like, oh, you know, like I did feel good cuz I was so gassy and hot and bloated and I was just thinking cuz of today's call, you know, the carbohydrate stuff, right?
Speaker 1 00:22:50 Can you imagine our dogs eating table and how, what they must feel like, and we don't, we don't even ask them like, how are you feeling? Or, you know, people will say, oh, my dog fought so badly, my dogs fought, are really smelly. Why do my, why does my dog fought so much? You know? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and, and I, I'm just like, you know, these unconscious questions in the past now when I'm reading this book, I'm like, Uhhuh food, it's the food, it's a carbohydrate to my friends. It's the stuff that they're putting inside, you know, <laugh>. So, yeah. Um, yeah, I think today, regardless of whether you have pure bread or a mixed breed or whatever you wanna call a designer breed dog, um, one of the top, uh, I think issues that most dog owners face, and that's what say is skin ear issues.
Speaker 2 00:23:49 Yes. Very popular. Yeah. Very, very popular. And that can be very much food related environmentally too, but very much food related.
Speaker 1 00:23:56 Yeah. So, yeah, it's, it's interesting. Um, yeah. So I don't know, is there anything else from this chapter that you kind of wanna highlight?
Speaker 2 00:24:13 I like the part where they point out that junk foods are bad. I mean, we kind of touched on that, but I like that they highlighted it to, uh, say that the ultra process products are made to be hyper palatable and attractive to the dogs so that they crave it. They unknowingly will not necessarily unknowingly, they'll crave food. Just like you have that craving for a bag of potato chips every so often. You know, if, if you're hungry and there's a bag of potato, you are starving. You've had a long day, you want food, you're going to eat that bag of potato chips. Cause they are very
Speaker 1 00:24:48 Delicious. I am a recovering chip, or crisp as we call it in the uk, a crisp addict. You know, like seriously, I, that was my achilles heel, my kryptonite kind of thing. I wasn't so much into sweet dessert or, you know, sugary stuff, but Ha give me a bag of chips.
Speaker 2 00:25:09 Yeah, totally. And when when you're starving, yeah, when you're starving and you just want something, you'll, you'll take it. And I noticed that over the years with the dogs I've had and, you know, seeing people with other dogs or videos of dogs, they will eat anything because it is food that's put in front of 'em. And those palletizers and the flavor enhancers that are in kibble that a lot of people don't realize are put in there because the actual smell of kibble before those flavorings are added really isn't great. I think it was Steve Brown who talked about it when he was, um, at one of the manufacturing facilities for somewhere he, uh, I don't know if it before he formulated or after he'd taken his dog down, um, with him to the manufacturing plant and pulled, like the kibble wasn't done being processed. It was almost done, it was before it had the flavorings added. He took it off the line and handed it to his dog and the dog smelled it and the dog was like mm-hmm. Cause it was just, you know, dogs would go after whatever. It wasn't until after the flavorings were added, um, that Steve realized, oh, this is what is tracking them and make, I said, what is it? I believe it's in, um, I don't know if it's in this chapter or if it was in the first
Speaker 1 00:26:20 No, it's in this, I, it's, um, yeah, palletizing PEs or whatever you call it, it's,
Speaker 2 00:26:27 But they add in like punic and cadaver and she, um, she even said that you don't wanna know what it is, the words explain it all, but supposedly, allegedly there's punic and cadaver that can be added to, um, some kibbles to enhance the, the smell of it and the flavorings of it to make them attract. So the dogs are going to eat whatever's put in front of them. And you hear that a lot. They're like, oh, well my dog loves this food. Well your dog will love a raw steak as well, <laugh> if you give it to 'em. Cuz they're gonna choose that too.
Speaker 1 00:26:59 Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, so, you know, they sort of highlight the fact that, you know, dog food is even more processed than any human food on the market for us. And it's what they put in the, you know, those, those, um, additives, really, it's all chemical stuff to make it taste yummy. I, I call it, you know, like the msg, um, of mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, it's, it's all the fake chemicals. It's just to, to wet wet tongue and to make it, you know, and the salt and everything. It's to make them eat more, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:27:33 It happens in the human food industry, all the, that lovely aisle of crackers and chips and the candy aisle. You know, there's, if you dig far enough, you can find videos where the manufacturers will say what they put into their food to make it taste so delicious and keep you coming back for more. Same thing happens with pet food.
Speaker 1 00:27:52 Yeah. So
Speaker 2 00:27:54 There's a reason why we like the fast food, you know, flavoring
Speaker 1 00:27:57 And what we
Speaker 2 00:27:58 Drive through and all that stuff. But yeah, you know, there is a convenience factor of it. But we had that choice as humans to, um, make the choice whether to go to McDonald's or go to, you know, the farm market or the grocery store produce section and get things. Our dogs don't always have that option. Uh, I believe it is talked in this chapter as well, that they don't have much choice. They're offered what we give them. We are the sole, you know, person giving them their food. Like I said, you know, they're gonna eat what's put down in front of 'em because they are hungry <laugh>, they know they need food. Um, they either want it for breakfast or dinner or, or once a day, however many times they feed your dog. But they are hungry and they want food, but they don't have a choice and they're gonna eat what we give them. So we need to be able to be, um, educated enough to know what we can do better to kind of enhance their bodily functions and molecular structures and, and use that good food as information for their cells.
Speaker 1 00:28:56 Yeah. And you know, the, the, because since you, you know, you, you mentioned as well cuz our dogs have no choice in the matter of how they live as well. And modern day dogs, especially those who are living in urban city environments like I am, we spend most of our time indoors now. You know, like where I live is a, a high rise apartment and I don't even have a balcony. I don't have a backyard, you know, um, we don't, you know, it's like I have to bring, I have to consciously bring my dog downstairs several times a day to give her walks to pee on a grass and let her do a toilet business. You know, sniff around. And, and what is scary is that a lot of tiny, tiny dogs, toy dogs, some of them have never even walked on grass nowadays. You know? Um, and I have seen it in my estate because a lot of people like to put the dog issues on all the time. It's not just for extreme weather conditions like say in, in North America where you might have, you know, snow or hot summer, you know, or the terrain is rougher. You wanna have an extra protection for the animal, you know, because of the extreme weather conditions. But in Singapore, where it's basically a tropical, we are, you know, like one degree north of the equator really, you know? Oh wow.
Speaker 2 00:30:19 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:30:19 So we, we basically live in a hot, humid climate. I think it's the closest I I would say is like Florida kind of weather maybe. Yeah. And, and I have seen, especially toy dogs, because they're so small, they can be accessorized with costumes. And I'm not saying it's anything bad, it's your choice and it could be fun. Right. And I think they can be cute, but some of these donors are so germophobic because they believe in, you know, we talked about it last week as well. Like, you know, people like it very, very super clean. You know, um, they put the shoes on the dog, so the dog is always wearing shoes and they don't, they're
Speaker 2 00:30:58 Not exposed. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:30:59 Yeah. And, and the adult doesn't. And some dog owners don't even like walk their dogs. I mean, like, I have a resident who actually hand carries his dog all the time.
Speaker 2 00:31:10 Wow.
Speaker 1 00:31:11 Yeah. Like very seldom is the dog actually put on the floor,
Speaker 1 00:31:16 You know, and it's a tiny dog and this dog has a lot of skin issues and we've tried to, you know, help him and say like, you know, um, maybe he can try and freshen up the food a bit, you know, because he was feeding a lot of prescription diet and medication and he was complaining that whatever the vet, he's spending so much money at the vet, but nothing is helping the dog. So we said like, well maybe you wanna try some steam fish like salmon or, you know, you know, something just, just a little bit different. And when he made that tweak, he actually gave us feedback that, oh, the dog skin is improving. And guess what the dog used to have was infamously known as a very reactive barky dog. Like, every time you see the dog is forever barking and you know, tiny dogs, that's not walking thing. That's really annoying. And every time she saw my dog always, like, even across the traffic, like, so once we tweaked the diet just a little bit right. With some fresher food, and we did say some like macro or salmon for the omega three kind of thing. Um, he actually said the skin inflammation was less red, less itchy, and the dog was less rocky.
Speaker 2 00:32:30 Nice.
Speaker 1 00:32:31 Nice grumpy.
Speaker 2 00:32:33 Yes. Makes such a difference. And it, and you, you can't even, you could explain it all day long, but until you actually see the improvement and the owner sees the improvement, they're like, oh, okay. Because if he was just getting kind of like bandaids to cover up some of the symptoms the dog was having, you know, it's only gonna last for so long and that dog is still gonna be grumpy if she's not feeling a hundred percent. So yeah. Changing the diet and reducing that information, you feel a little less grumpy too
Speaker 1 00:33:00 <laugh>. Yeah. I mean like, I, I, I, I have eczema. I live with eczema, so it's like, it's triggered by, you know, all sorts of things. Stress being one of them, you know, environmental stuff sometimes. So it's like, I know the feeling when it's so inflamed cuz I've scratched until the whole thing is raw, you know, so I, I can imagine how the poor dog is because it's been like that for years.
Speaker 2 00:33:24 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:33:26 For years. And
Speaker 2 00:33:26 You have such a, have a quick, um, kind of turnaround and changing the diet and adding something fresh. Yeah. There's a lot of people, a lot of stories I hear about people who just kind of might do one tiny little thing and that's all it takes. It's just one tiny little thing and you kinda see an improvement and then that, that switch will click for them and they're like, oh, there might be something to this. Like yeah, there is <laugh>. Yeah. They just wanna help your dog live the best that they can. And that's what I love about this book is it is giving all these tips and tiny little tricks that are, like I said, easily adjustable to understand it. You don't have to do everything at one time, just one little bit here or there to understand what kind of, um, what kind of issue you might be dealing with. Or even if you're not, it's good to have an understanding, you know, talking about like learning about the BDNF and how stress and exercise can help learning that food is information for your body. Learning that junk food is not the best to have every single day. Yeah. And
Speaker 1 00:34:20 Adding things. Yeah. And you know, like environmental toxins, even wifi, 5g, you know, wifi routers, you know. Um, I, I think a lot of people, especially in Asia, the take up for 5G mobile phones is extremely high. I haven't upgraded my, my iPhone, my iPhones like iPhone seven, you know, still <laugh>, you know, it's a really old clunky little thing that is still surviving, you know? Um, but you know, if you are into what's modern technology as they call it, like, you know, keeping out the Jones's, 5G phones in this, in Asia is actually a big thing. It's like pretty common now. I think they're pushing for really, really hard. Um, I haven't upgraded anything in my home for 5G router yet. And mine is still like, you know, the two tree and oh, they call it four, you know? Yeah. Uh, um, but what I hear, you know, about 5G wifi routers and how it's like very disruptive, even for like animals who are so sad they don't even wanna be near it.
Speaker 1 00:35:23 It kind of scares me because it's like, I live in a small apartment, I think, um, 72 square feet. I, I'm really bad with, with my, with my numbers, uh, when it comes to Netflix or whatever it's called. But it's a very tiny apartment. Right. And basically my wifi is on the whole time because I work at night and my, my, my flatmate works during the day and it's kind of like, we just leave it on, you know, and we don't really think much about it. Plus it's such a small place. It's, we are literally living in a little tiny box and, you know, with 12 cats of one dog, it's, you know, it's kind of cozy. Right. But when you read about, you know, how electronics and technology can also disrupt your epigenetics, your body health wise, you know, it, um, even for me, I'm still trying to grapple like, what, what can I do? You know, what, like really a new habit switch off the wifi, you know, which is like that that that something is different for me. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:36:30 And even think about that too, cuz it's gonna be different for someone like you in a high rise apartment, you know? And there's plenty of cities and plenty of people who live in downtown high rise apartments or even just apartment complexes. You know, even if you turn off your wifi, is your neighbor turning off the wifi? Yeah. Is the person above you turning it off? Is the person away because you know that those, you know, those waves can reach quite a bit. You know, we have wifi on the other side of the house and it can reach my bedroom, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:36:56 But yeah, so it's,
Speaker 2 00:36:58 It's gonna be different for everywhere. But yeah. Especially with like, you know, the 5g, I've, I've, I've seen people talk about how harsher that can be. I haven't seen any personal effects myself. I don't have 5G yet <laugh>, but, uh, um, I've, I've heard people talk about how it can be a little bit more, um, harmful to our bodies
Speaker 1 00:37:17 Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 00:37:18 <affirmative> and, uh, how, how is that affecting our dogs? So even say you should turn off your wife at night for yourself as well, you know, and Dr. Beck and Ronnie say that we should turn it off for our, our dogs and our pets because it can, it can affect them as well. But yeah, living in a high rise is gonna be different than someone who might have internet living on a farm. It's, it's, I like that we can have those comparisons, you know? Yeah. Being in, in how we live in, in different worlds. But, um, it's good to think about how other people live in situations and, and doing what you can for your dog. But yeah, I, I didn't think about that before with the whole wifi thing. It's like how do people deal with that when you live in a, you know, a uh, closer living capacity and apartments in higher. Right. It is definitely more difficult in that sense.
Speaker 1 00:38:01 And, and I tell you, like every cat, I mean, like, my cats like to snuggle and sleep on the damn route itself cuz you know, it's warm, right? <laugh>, you know, you on the tv, the TV thing and they just go snuggle and they'll sleep there. And I'm like, you know, and I'm like, am giving right. Radioactive <laugh>, you know, you know, like, oh no, I'm doing something which I shouldn't be doing. You know? Um, so I think, honestly, and this is something I do think about, but I haven't actively like, tried to change my lifestyle about my use of technology at home. Cuz really, like, my phone picks up, like, you know, they say like, oh, you know, you've got wifi notifications from all around or like, you know, um, you know, like, oh, do you, do you wanna join this network? I'm like, no, I don't wanna fucking join your network.
Speaker 1 00:38:48 You know? Um, but yeah, when we live in a high rise, very dense population, um, it's kind of, it really is difficult to run away from that wifi thing, you know? Yeah. I, I would say that, um, I haven't actively even tried to switch off my, I think because the way my, my TV and and power switches all set up is like inside and l cove kind of thing. And I would put my hand in and switch off everything. So it's like, maybe in future, like if I was to renovate my home, I might wanna design a switch to switch off everything. Cause um, there's this guy called Eric at meets, he's like, uh, like a business speaker kind of thing, right. And he actually does WellFit, um, is this like, um, health food program. And he actually said he actually has one power switch that he designed for his bedroom where he just switches off that switch and all electronics get switched off in his house in his bedroom. Oh,
Speaker 2 00:39:50 Good idea.
Speaker 1 00:39:51 You know, so I'm like, okay, that's something like in my future renovation, I might actually think about doing that. But cuz my home, I've lived here for almost I think 20 years now. Um, it's kind of decrepit <laugh>, you know, it's, it's, i I I would say it's, um, well lived. It's a well lived home, you know, uh, there are some called webs here and there, <laugh> <laugh>. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:40:18 We all have cobwebs. Don't, don't French. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:40:20 Yeah. So, you know, so, so the idea of, you know, especially in an urban environment, our our companion dogs are living a very, uh, insulated, uh, environment nowadays, you know, depending on where you live. And so to be more consciously aware, you know, like what are the little factors that might help to improve and, um, enrich the dog's environment, you know, is important, you know, so Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:40:54 Even like you said, even in someone in your situation, you have to take that time to take them downstairs several times a day. You know, even if you, depending on where you live, even if you live in a house, you still need to get your dog outside, you know, in the backyard. Let 'em touch the earth. You don't necessarily have to take 'em on a walk every single day, although that's ideal. You know, let them get outside, get that sunshine, don't keep 'em cooped up because that's not natural for them at all. Like you were saying, you know, those tiny little dogs that never get to go outside or touch real grass, you know, how is that affecting them in the long run? You know? It's, it's, it's important that we give them those, those choices to be able, able to experience those natural things they should be experiencing.
Speaker 1 00:41:36 Yeah. And yeah, so the book, this chapter sort of starts to, um, introduce you to the concept, the microbiome as well, you know mm-hmm. <affirmative>, because we were talking about environmental enrichment and the soil and the earth and the ground and the microbiome and gut health. So they, they sort of slowly ease you in on the concept of, you know, what is a microbiome, you know, um, uh, kind of thing. And, and that sort of leads into, you know, the next chapter, um, which we'll talk about next week, which is the science of aging <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:42:11 Very important, very important to understand. And how, how that rolls into how can we make them live longer, longer, and healthier.
Speaker 1 00:42:20 Mm. Yeah. So, I don't know. So what do you think my friend, have we kind of covered this chapter more or less like the highlights that you wanna bring out?
Speaker 2 00:42:32 Mm. You wanna talk about how they're polluted with chemicals or did we already kind of, oh,
Speaker 1 00:42:37 Wait
Speaker 2 00:42:37 A minute already.
Speaker 1 00:42:38 Hang on. My cat's on my laptop. Are we still recording? <laugh>? Okay. Bailey. Okay. Yeah. All right. I think we're still recording. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, sorry, can you repeat that again? I completely missed you where my cat was falling. Oh, you're
Speaker 2 00:42:56 Fine. Um, there's one part I have highlighted about the house chemicals where American pets are polluted with higher levels of the same synthetic industrial chemicals that researchers have documented. And people, uh, where they did the samples of blood from 28 dogs and 37 cats and dogs and cats were contaminated with 48 of 70 industrial chemicals tested.
Speaker 1 00:43:22 Yes, yes. Yes. Again, um, yeah, the, these, these big words started to come up. Uh, so, you know, they talk about, you know, um, the chemicals and our homes like on our furniture, our fire retardants and stuff, um, how our animals are absorbing these stuff a lot higher than us, you know, simply cuz they're smaller mass cats and dogs, cats especially cuz they like to sleep on the furniture and stuff. So the food that they eat with glyphosate, those, um, chemicals in the agriculture business that they solve, like kill all the bugs kind of thing. And, you know, um, our dogs is in the urine. That was, that was something that really like, ah, okay. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> is showing up all these chemicals, toxins are coming up in their root urine. So can you imagine what about us?
Speaker 2 00:44:28 Oh, for sure. Yeah. What are we coming into contact with? You know, think about it for us as well, when, you know, and having a, a dog or a cat that's in a, in a much smaller body, you know Yeah. With their food being stored in plastic bins, you know, coming in contact with heavy metals, fire retardants that are sprayed on couches and furniture. I know one tip that Karen Becker has talked about is if you do have a couch or furniture, things that are sprayed with fire retardant is get like an organic cotton sheet and throw that over your couch. That's one easy tip. If you can find an organic dog bed, you know, go for it. But those, um, may not be feasible for everyone to find, you know, rather quickly. They are out there, they do exist, but one thing you can do is even if the dog bed you have or the couch you have, just take an organic cotton sheet and throw it over there and kind of limit that contact of the skin and the hair coming in contact with the fire retardant sprayed on some of those things. Cuz that has an effect too. And that's something I never thought about before. You know,
Speaker 1 00:45:26 I never thought about it, I'll be honest. And it kind of horrifies me because you know how when, you know, when you have a home, we take a lot of these things, fire retardant, um, it's like the norm or it is considered a good practice that oh, you've got furniture that's fire retardant, or my curtains or my blinds are fire retardant. You know, um,
Speaker 2 00:45:51 It has its place, but it also, you don't wanna lay on it all the time either
Speaker 1 00:45:55 <laugh>. Yeah. And it's, it really, you know, hit home to me the fact that we are, we are unconsciously living in a very toxic home without us actually realizing what these chemicals are causing to our bodies.
Speaker 2 00:46:11 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:46:13 You know, um,
Speaker 2 00:46:14 And think about it, we can, we can take a shower every day, you know, even if you lay on the couch and or come into contact with metals and chemicals and, you know, paint or, you know, gasoline, whatever we deal with on a day to day basis, we can go home and take a shower. You know, our dogs and cats usually get a shower or a bath like once a month every, every six weeks or so. Yeah. Depending on how frequently you wash 'em. But they're not getting the shower or a bath every single day to wash off the day's, you know, contact with fabrics and chemicals and tos. And so they will absorb that. One thing I wanted to point out that the book said was there was a study of samples of blood done from 28 dogs and 37 cats, and it found that dogs and cats were contaminated with 48 of the 70 industrial chemicals tested. So they tested their blood and urine samples and they had 48 chemicals in their system out of the 70 that they tested. And that's a lot. And we don't realize that it's accumulating in their bodies over time.
Speaker 1 00:47:16 Yeah, yeah. So, you know, um, I would say this chapter is priming the reader for, you know, slowly opening the curtain and, and really like highlighting these things, things that, to be honest, I've never actually really seriously thought about. I took a lot of things for granted and, you know, um, I mean, very simple. Like when I bought, like years ago when I bought my new, um, blinds in my home, um, I wanted to go with something different where they can print photos, images on the blind, like a roller blind on canvas. Right? So I chose some images and I thought, oh, it's so nice. But when it came up, the, the, you know, the offgassing from the print smell was really, really strong and, and you know, I didn't think much about it. I just thought, oh, I need to add this a lot longer. Right. I need to open the windows and, uh, but now when I'm reading things like this in the book, you know, and I'm only thinking, gosh, can you imagine at least I get the option of leaving my house, you know, when there's a paint job being done, but if you say you don't, um, remove your pets during like a paint job or renovation, simple like that, or you know, simple installation, so the chemicals are said and you know, you need to add them. Your animals are breathing it in still.
Speaker 2 00:48:39 Yes. You know? Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:48:42 And yeah, so for me it was like a big like, you know, like, oh wow, I got really nice cool lines and I look at it, I'm looking at it now, but like, you know, uh, I did not think, um, about how it might affect my animals <laugh> with the initial period.
Speaker 2 00:49:03 Yeah. There's tons of little things like that, that it's, it's not to overwhelm the reader, but just to make the reader aware that
Speaker 2 00:49:14 Everything really is toxic. And it's not to be a fearful thing or any fearful induced statements, it's that the more we know, the better we can do. If we know that things are toxic, what are the little steps that we can do to kind of get something that's not as toxic? You know, little tips, whether it be, you know, like I said, throwing a bedsheet over something, you know, being aware of what, uh, fragrances it smells you're using in the house. You know, being aware of everything that you're, you and your pets can come into contact with and what choices we can make to do little, little things better to help ourselves live healthier and help our pets live longer as well and not have to, uh, like you said, they don't get the choice in a lot of things. So we need to do what we can for them as much as we can, as best as we can.
Speaker 1 00:50:05 Yeah. So I, I would say, you know, reading this book, especially for new time pet parents, uh, if it's like really like first time you're reading this kind of information, you might start to feel a little bit overwhelmed, but just take it slowly, you know, and, and just realize like, okay, um, now you know, better. So just start like fighting little tweaks that you can to improve within your budget, honestly, you know, so like what you mentioned about, you know, just an organic bed sheet, cost bed sheet over your furniture, you know, that's not gonna cost you a total arm and a leg. Um, you know, um, but if you can't afford organic, well just a cost bed sheet is still better than nothing. And that's what exactly what I do because I've got animals on my furniture. Right. So I just throw, you know, the, the bedspreads or whatever over and then I wash them, you know, I wash them regularly cuz you know, I live in the tropics that gets pretty hot and um, lots of animal fur. But Yeah. You know, so for, it's beneficial for both the humans and the animals, these little, little tweaks that you do, you know, when you're more conscious. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:51:14 And just being aware when you go to the store to buy things, if you're gonna bring in, you know, some sort of cleaning agent of any kind, you know, there's all kinds of natural recipes you can buy a lot of people little clean with vinegar. Um,
Speaker 1 00:51:28 There's easy
Speaker 2 00:51:28 Mixtures you can find. Yeah. Recipes online. There's a lot of new companies coming out with, you know, actual non-toxic cleaning ingredients. You know, it's, it's to be more mindful of when you're buying new products to bring in your home. Whether it's, like I said, cleaning ingredients, whether it's new carpet, new furniture, being mindful of what's in those and, and asking a little bit of questions. You know, I had to be careful when I got new carpet in my bedroom for my birds. I know that new carpet is toxic to birds. They have to be removed from the room for about two weeks because I believe it's from aldehyde that is in there. So I knew that already. But if you get new carpet in the home, what is that off guessing smell doing to your dog or your cat who can smell like 10,000 times better?
Speaker 2 00:52:12 You know, what effect does that have on them? And you might see zero effect because you've got a super happy bouncy dog, but it's still off guessing. So it's just little things like that to be a little bit more mindful of that. I like that the book will point out and give little, um, nuggets of information to be like, oh, okay, so if I know this project is coming up or I wanna do this, or next time I go to the grocery store and I need a, you know, typical bottle of counter cleaner, you know, what can I do to look for something that might be a little less toxic that I can bring to the home?
Speaker 1 00:52:43 Yeah. One, one group that they mentioned in the, in the chapter is the EWG group, which is the environmental working group. So that's actually, they have a website that you can go to and just, you know, talk cuz they talk about their, their thing is all about the environment and toxins and chemicals, right? So they give you healthy alternatives as well or you know what to look out for. So if you are starting this journey that is a one website that, you know, you, you wanna start familiarizing yourself with, um, you know, for the long term. But yeah, it's, it's, you know, this chapter when you talk about bpa, uh, you know, all all these scientific, uh, plastics and chemicals, right? It's like, like, wow, I honestly never really thought about these things, you know? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And when we start reading the book, you realize that oh, P b p uh, p bpa, oh my god, these are actually in a lot of everyday stuff that we take for granted.
Speaker 1 00:53:42 So, you know, you are doing yourself a favor and your family a favor by, you know, finding out a lot more about these things because there is, um, you know, more and more, um, cases where our children, you know, the younger generation they have, they're getting more sickly for some reason. And a lot of the time it's actually linked to all these environmental toxins that we are exposing ourselves to. Then it's passed down, you know, um, even through pregnancy into the child as well. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. So, yeah, I think, what do you think kind of kinda kind of covered today's chapter pretty well, I think,
Speaker 2 00:54:32 Yeah, I think we touched on a little bit of everything off every page.
Speaker 1 00:54:36 Mm. Yeah, I mean like for, for the Singapore listeners, there's actually a, a mention in, in this chapter about, um, an experiment study that was done between, um, a research group from Switzerland and Singapore, you know, um, in 2019 about testing healthy big beagles and stuff. We sort touched on that very quickly just now. So it's like, yeah. So, you know, for the Singapore business, you know, our country is mentioned in here, um, so you wanna find out more, you know, go to page 42 and check it out <laugh>. Yeah. But yeah, this, I I would say like, um, each chapter, if you read one chapter a day kind of thing, it's not so difficult. Even if it's once a week, if you're super, super busy, um, it, it won't be too overwhelming. Gives you some time to think about things as well. So, yeah. So, well I think we've covered enough for today. Um, so I wanna thank Shana again for being my, my book buddy cuz she's, she's far brainier and, and a lot more savvyer than I am about all this information because she basically has lifted, written it and, you know, uh, been part part of this project for like quite a few years now. So, you know, it's in her blood subconsciously and it's all coming out slowly now. <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:56:02 Slowly. Yes, <laugh>, but it's all in there. It is all in there.
Speaker 4 00:56:08 Wow. I'm so thankful and grateful that you took the time to listen to this podcast. It would mean the world to me if you could subscribe, download, rate, review and share this with others whom you care about that may enjoy it as well. Thank you. And remember to be kind to yourself and others. Have a awesome day, everyone.
