* Disclaimer: The products offered on this web site are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Rather, they are intended for educational purposes only. These treats contain simple sugars and starch levels generally found to be safe for horses with Insulin Resistance. However, every horse is an individual. Check with your own veterinarian. The statements presented on this web site have not been evaluated by the FDA or USDA. The use of herbs for the prevention or cure of disease has not been approved by the FDA or USDA. We therefore make no claims to this effect.
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Artificial Flavorings: Food industry manufacturers (including horse industry manufacturers) use artificial flavorings to cut product costs. Artificial flavorings and sweeteners are MUCH cheaper than the natural good taste of a whole food, but effects of artificial flavorings and sweeteners on health are questionable. Artificial flavorings and sweeteners have been linked to everything from allergies to possible causes for cancer.
Another reason manufacturers use artificial flavorings is because of the consumer trend toward avoiding unhealthy refined sugars. Artificial sweetners allow us have the sweet foods we crave without the actual calories or blood sugar spikes sugar can cause. At first glance, artificial sweetners and flavorings seem logical for us and even for our horses -- especially when it comes to our "Easy Keepers" and "Air Ferns."
But the next time you consider feeding yourself or your horse something with artificial flavorings, consider this:
* Artificial flavorings work through smell, which activiate the taste buds. Just think of your favorite food and how good it smells and try not to let your mouth water! Your sense of smell is dozens of times stronger than your sense of taste and your horse's sense of smell is much stronger than his taste buds, too.
* Horses are known for being able to discern a poisonous plant from a nonpoisonous plant through their amazing sense of taste and smell. This innate ability can keep a horse alive.
* Artificial flavorings can easily overpower a natural food/taste/smell that actually tastes repugnant to your horse.
* Metabolically challenged horses are called metabolically challenged because their bodies are just that -- challenged. Do you really want to feed them something that could be challenging their system even more?
* Food manufacturers are not required to post on their websites, each and every ingredient contained in their products or on their labels. So it is quite common to buy something, thinking it is does not contain any artificial ingredients, only to find out upon further inspection once the product arrives, that it contains artificial ingredients.
Beet Pulp: While beet pulp can be a wonderful, low Glycemic Index food for low sugar horses, lack of regulations in the manufacturing of beet pulp comes with too many risks and concerns for Skode's to use it in our treats. Click here to read the details.
Oils and Fats: No one knows what the safe fat intake level is for an Insulin Resistant horse. However there are several low NSC/sugar/starch feeds that contain added fat.
Important points to note:
* Clinical trials to induce laminitis in horses do so by feeding horses oil (fat.) Ponies develop much worse Insulin Resistance when fed fat.* EPSM horses fed high fat diets sometimes develop Insulin Resistance as a result. Here is a study that shows what happens to insulin sensitivity when normal thoroughbreds are fed a diet that includes approximately one cup of rice bran oil: http://jas.fass.org/cgi/content/full/83/11/2509/T6
Rice bran, corn oil -- these things may be very tasty and even sometimes appropriate components of your horse's nutritional programs -- especially if your horse is expending great amounts of energy. However we suggest that if you choose to feed these things, you do so in carefully measured doses -- not as a filler or binder in a feed or horse treat!
Skode's Horse Treats...
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Why We Don't Use Certain Ingredients
