5. Soft food promotes dental plaque.
 
FALSE.  Many people object to a flesh-based diet because it is soft,
thinking a soft diet causes plaque.  True, a soft diet is a significant
factor in the development of dental calculus.  However, meat-based
diets are soft, and wild polecats and New Zealand feral ferrets lack
significant plaque.  Obviously, something other than 'softness' is
required.  The answer is found in the history of pet foods.  The
traditional "Skippy" diet is the source of this Nile of misinformation.
Older readers can probably recall Skippy dog food, a grain-based,
meat-flavored paste that hardly changed color and consistency from the
time both ends of the can were cut and the cylindrical tan product was
defecated from its protective steel container, to the time it was
extruded from the carnivore's waste disposal system.  This is the stuff
from which dental calculi are made.  Soft, sticky, full of starches,
and lacking appreciable abrasiveness, the Skippy diet was the archetype
of the plaque-causing soft diet.  When products like Milk Bone or dry,
extruded foods (kibble) because available, one of the selling points was
that it prevented dental problems by being hard and crunchy.  This is
STILL a major selling point of dry foods today.  However, the point
was NEVER that a meat diet caused dental problems, but rather that the
sticky, carbohydrate rich "Skippy" diet did.
 
Carnivores, including ferrets, that eat nothing but meat have very little
plaque buildup.  There are a number of factors involved for plaque to
form, including the inclusion of starches (sugars) in the diet, food
stickiness, a lack of abrasiveness, oral pH, calcifying agents, etc.
Hard to believe, is it?  Then why is dental plaque STILL a serious
problem in ferrets that eat a diet entirely composed of dry, extruded
food?  The reason is kibbles are 40-60% carbohydrate, the same sticky,
soft sugary stuff that made the Skippy diet so wonderful.
 
Ultimately, the use of dry, extruded food to prevent dental plaque is the
dietary incarnation of a tautological argument--circular and
self-supporting in nature.
A) Dry, extruded foods are popular because they are touted to remove
dental plaque.
B) The ferret uses their carnassials to cut the hard food into chunks
small enough to swallow, creating a number of small and large fragments.
C) Large fragments are swallowed, but small crumbs that remain in the
mouth are softened by saliva, ultimately forming a soft, sticky, white
matter rich in carbohydrates.
D) The white matter is soon calcified into plaque in the presence of
bacteria, dissolved minerals, and saliva.
E) To remove the plaque, the ferret is fed a dry, extruded food,
repeating the process.
True, the initial hardness of dry, extruded foods helps abrade some of
the white matter from the teeth, but it is soon replaced, and the ferret
still needs to have their teeth scraped.  In other words, dry, extruded
foods are the ultimate cause of the problem they are sold to prevent.
 
Not only do the majority of wild polecats and feral ferrets have clean
teeth and sound gums, but they have evolved specific mechanisms to
control whatever problems may occur while eating a natural diet.  Thus,
it is safe to assume ferrets eating a diet closest to that of polecats
will have the best oral health within the population.  When a polecat
eats prey, the first thing encountered is the fur.  Polecats use their
incisors and canines to tug at the skin, ripping it open; fur pulled
through the teeth acts like a combination of dental floss and polishing
agent, cleaning around the teeth and under the gums.  Fresh flesh is
slightly acidic, has very few carbohydrates, and is tough.  A
considerable effort is required to cut and tear tendon and bone, which
polishes and cleans the cheek teeth.  After the flesh is cut into pieces
and swallowed, very little food remains in the oral cavity, none of
which is easily converted to sugar.  As the ferret chews the soft spongy
bone, the tiny spicules gently polish the enamel surface of the teeth.
Overall, the ferret's oral health is benefited by consuming a flesh-based
diet.
 
Bob C
[Posted in FML issue 3940]