08/06/2018
Why Your Dog Needs Fats
There are just three sources of energy or calories for your dog: protein, fat and carbohydrate.
Protein provides calories and also the building blocks for virtually every structure in your dog’s body. They build muscles and soft tissue, skin, hair and nails, blood cells, neurotransmitters and the enzymes that control virtually every action in the body.
Fat also provides energy - and it does much more than just store fat for energy. Fats (or lipids) function as chemical messengers, they form the membranes of all the body’s cells, they help the body absorb fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K), and they control hormones and play a huge role in inflammation.
Carbohydrates provide energy only - they play no other role in the body.
So getting proteins and fats right is critical to your dog’s health - they’re the building blocks for good nutrition. And getting the fats right means not just the amount of fat, but the balance. Let’s take a look …
Types Of Fats
There are various types of fats in the body, but the dietary fat we refer to most often is called a triglyceride. This fat is made up of a ge molecule with three tails of fatty acids attached to it (tri-glyceride). There are two types of triglycerides: saturated and unsaturated.
