Research progress on the application of pet weight-loss prescription food

So far, prescription pet food has a history of about 80 years. In 1943, Dr. Mark Morris first used the concept of nutritional management to treat Buddy, a guide dog with renal failure, and achieved good results. Since then, prescription pet foods have gradually taken shape.

The so-called pet prescription food is food specially formulated for the physiological needs of dogs and cats at different ages and different diseases of dogs and cats. It is a type of special formula food. This type of food cannot be used as a medicine alone to treat diseases, but it can be used in In the process of disease treatment, it is most effective to cooperate with the rehabilitation of animal diseases. Clinically commonly used prescription foods mainly include hypoallergenic prescription food, disease recovery period prescription food, digestive tract disease prescription food, diabetes prescription food, urinary system prescription food, weight loss prescription food, etc.

Facing the increasing proportion of pet obesity, reducing energy intake has become the main strategy for overweight dogs and cats to lose weight. Initially, people only controlled the energy intake of dogs and cats by reducing the amount of diet fed, but the effect was not ideal. Because most commercial foods are balanced diets formulated according to the nutritional needs of dogs and cats, reducing the amount of feeding will make some of the essential nutrients lacking and lead to low immunity or cause Other diseases. Therefore, it is recommended to research and develop for alleviation. Diets for body weight, rather than just limiting the amount of feed. Pet weight loss prescription food "came into being." Pet weight loss prescription food is a kind of special prescription food based on the concept of nutrition management, which is specially tailored for overweight or obese dogs and cats. It has an auxiliary treatment effect on obesity in dogs and cats and provides necessary nutrients for pets. Maintaining the muscle content of pets can effectively and steadily make pets lose weight without having to endure starvation while losing weight. It has a certain sense of fullness and a high weight loss happiness index, which is of great significance for controlling the weight of dogs and cats.
☆Application research progress of pet weight loss prescription food

1. The nutritional characteristics of low fat, low carbohydrate, high fiber and high protein

The main reasons that cause pets to be overweight or obese are overfeeding, lack of exercise, heredity and breed, gender and sterilization, endocrine disorders, age and other factors. When multiple content is combined, the risk of pets suffering from obesity will greatly increase. Relevant research shows that if female dogs are older, feed with homemade wet food or purchased commercial food, and lack exercise, the possibility of pet dogs becoming overweight is greatly increased. In fact, most dogs’ obesity is simply obesity, that is, eating too much or too well, taking in too much energy, causing overnutrition. The body converts the excess energy into fat and storing it in the body, thus causing obesity. . Feeding low-fat, low-carbohydrate, high-fiber and high-protein diets has become an important means of treating obesity in dogs and cats.
Table 1

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Different from the traditional concept of weight loss, a high-protein diet (Table 1) can also promote weight loss in pets. Intake of lg protein can produce 4cal of calories, and intake of 1g of fat can produce 9cal of calories. Obviously, if the same quality is eaten, the weight control effect of protein is obvious. In addition, a high-protein diet is beneficial for maintaining the muscle content of the pet's body; the ingestion of high-protein food will also stimulate the secretion of intestinal chymase peptide in the digestive tract, prompting the animal to reduce food intake.

2. Supplement of dietary fiber

The "seventh nutrient" dietary fiber is a substance with a small body weight. It can increase satiety after swelling in the stomach, slow the absorption of nutrients, reduce food intake, and affect lipid oxidation and storage. In addition, dietary fiber can accumulate fat in the intestinal tract and excrete it with feces, playing a role in reducing weight and fat. Human studies have found that chitosan (a special dietary fiber) has a significant effect on weight loss. The main component of konjac powder is a soluble dietary fiber. Shan Dacong introduced it into the weight loss prescription food for pet dogs, and the weight control effect of pet dogs is good.

3. Application of L-carnitine

L-carnitine (CN) is an essential nutrient for animals. It is closely related to fat metabolism in animals. It can transport long-chain fatty acids into mitochondria for oxidation. Therefore, L-carnitine has The effect of weight control. In human related studies, overweight and obese subjects over 30 years old took L-carnitine and combined with appropriate physical exercises to significantly reduce their weight. Using a rat model, when studying the effect of L-carnitine supplementation on weight control, it was found that supplementing L-carnitine in low-energy diets had a positive effect on weight control in mice. Shan Dacong added L-carnitine and dietary fiber to the dog's basal diet, and studied the weight control effect of the weight loss prescription diet combination. It was found that the combination of dietary fiber and L-carnitine had a positive effect on the dog's weight management.

4. Adding Chinese herbal medicine

Xu Jiu et al. studied the effects of natural Chinese prescriptions for strengthening the spleen and stomach, natural Chinese prescriptions for immune function regulation, and natural Chinese prescriptions for kangfu moisturizing hair on the growth and development of dogs and blood biochemical indexes. Type natural Chinese medicine and Kangfu moisturizing natural Chinese medicine prescription food have good effects on Beagle dogs. The main principle of using traditional Chinese medicine to lose weight is that traditional Chinese medicine can accelerate the metabolism of fat and increase the body's metabolic rate, thus having the effect of weight loss.

Commonly used Chinese medicines for weight loss are: tea, wax gourd peel, seaweed, red bean, lotus leaf, hawthorn, fleece-flower root, Alisma orientalis, white tuckahoe, corn silk, rice kernels, white grass root, honeysuckle, angelica, rhubarb and so on. When studying pet weight loss prescription food, Ma Liqin used rabbits as an experimental animal model to study the effect of rhubarb weight loss compound formula on weight control of rabbits. The results showed that rhubarb weight loss compound has a significant effect on reducing the weight of rabbits. The content of total cholesterol and triacylglycerol can significantly reduce the wet weight of abdominal fat in rabbits. Lin Yuanyuan et al. used rats as a research model and induced obesity by a high-fat diet. They were fed a mixed decoction made from the three herbs of dried tangerine peel, hawthorn and eucommia ulmoides, and found that the Chinese herbal medicine formula can inhibit fatty acid synthase in rats. Activity, promote acyl-CoA oxidase activity, has a significant weight loss and lipid-lowering effect.

5. Use of probiotics

With the in-depth study of the relationship between intestinal microbes and obesity, regulating the intestinal flora and restoring the diversity of intestinal microbes have become effective strategies to prevent and manage obesity. Lactobacillus, bifidobacterium, etc. have been found to be related to the occurrence of obesity. At present, Lactobacillus rhamnosus LPR, Lactobacillus gasseri BNR17 Lactobacillus plantarum CECT7527, Bifidobacterium lactis B420, and Bifidobacterium short B-3 have been put into the human weight loss market. The current application of probiotics in pet weight loss prescription food is still blank, but the research on the relationship between human probiotics and obesity has proposed a new solution to the problem of pet obesity. It is believed that with the advancement and innovation of technology, probiotics will treat obesity in the future. Will play an important role in the intervention.