Baby Belly: A Fermented Food For Puppies
We all want to give our precious puppies the best foundation for a long, happy and vital life. With 70% of your puppy’s immunity associated with their gut, this means nourishing their sensitive digestive systems with whole foods that are alive with beneficial probiotics and enzymes.
At Whoa Nelly! we strongly believe that a healthy gut means a healthy pup.
Which is why each of our Puppy recipes contains our special Baby Belly probiotic food. Baby Belly is a unique fermented food that we have specifically formulated to gently support a puppy’s digestion and immunity as they transition onto solid food and beyond.
Here’s what’s we put in it:
🥣 Organic Oats
🐐 Goat Milk Kefir
🍀 Organic Camomile
🌞 Organic Turmeric
🧂 Organic Black Pepper
Let’s take a look at each of the ingredients!
Oats
Baby Belly uses organic rolled oats as the substrate (or base ingredient) for fermentation. Oats are a gluten-free wholegrain that help stabilise blood sugar levels and soothe the nervous and digestive systems. Oats are a highly nutritious food, supplying a balanced profile of complex carbohydrates, essential amino acids and fatty acids. They are especially rich in manganese, phosphorus, magnesium, B vitamins, folic acid and Vitamin E.
A significant and growing body of scientific research indicates that the regular consumption of oats may help manage and even prevent chronic inflammatory conditions such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and cancer. These are important health benefits to humans and our canine companions, which may be largely attributed to two unique and highly functional components in oats: avenanthramides and β-glucans.
Avenanthramides are polyphenolic compounds which possess strong anti-oxidant, anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory properties and are especially effective at reducing the oxidation of LDL cholesterol.
β-glucans (beta-glucans) are soluble fibres which are known to support healthy cholesterol, blood sugar and weight levels in dogs. These fibres are powerful prebiotics that feed beneficial bacteria in the gut and improve your dog’s immune system, helping them to fight off infections and can significantly improve their response to vaccinations.
Goat’s Milk Kefir
When it came to choosing a starter culture for our Baby Belly ferment we could not look past the incredible benefits of goat’s milk kefir for growing puppies.
Raw goat’s milk itself is a highly digestible complete food, which offers puppies a familiar taste, texture and balance of nutrients akin to their mother’s milk. Unlike cow’s milk which can be acidic and difficult to digest for some puppies, goat’s milk is alkalising and contains smaller and naturally homogonesized fat molecules. It also contains the A2 beta-casein protein rather than the more inflammatory A1 beta-casein. Compared with cow’s milk, goat’s milk is also a richer source of calcium, magnesium, potassium, Vitamin A and Vitamins B1, B3 and B6.
Fermenting goat’s milk with live kefir cultures further improves it’s digestibility and nutritional profile by breaking down it’s lactose and proteins, producing an array of additional enzymes, probiotics, antioxidants and other disease-fighting compounds.
Goat’s milk kefir contains over 12 strains of probiotics, four of which figure prominently in the populations of healthy canine microbiota.
Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobciullus casei, Lactobacillus plantarum and Bidfidobacterium bifidum are all found in goat’s milk kefir and are all scientifically proven to help balance and protect your dog’s digestive and immune function.
According to world-renowned holistic veterinarian Dr Karen Becker, these probiotic strains support a puppy’s wellbeing by:
• Providing them with anti-microbial and anti-fungal defences in the gut
• Improving vaccine responses
• Helping treat and prevent diarrhoea and leaky-gut syndrome
• Improving weight gain and growth
• Reducing cholesterol levels
• Reducing the risk of atopic dermatitis later in life
• Improving overall digestion, nutrient absorption and detoxification
Chamomile
In addition to goat’s milk kefir, we also soak our oats in organic chamomile tea. Chamomile is a member of the daisy family and is one of the most documented medicinal plants in the world. It has been widely used over millennia as a gentle but highly therapeutic agent in animals and humans alike.
Research has identified specific flavonoid compounds and volatile oils in chamomile which have powerful properties that support optimal health in dogs.
The list is long, but here are just a few of the amazing benefits of this humble little flower:
Anti-inflammatory
Anti-oxidant
Anti-microbial, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial & anti-hermitic (worms)
Anti-spasmolytic (relaxes muscles especially in the gut, relieves gas)
Anti-ulcer (protects and heals gastric mucosal cells)
Carminative (soothes nerves & anxiety, mild sedative, improves mood)
Kidney tonic (protects kidney function by supporting urea metabolism)
Cholagogue (supports bile secretion and liver function)
Anti-pureitic (helps relieve itchy scratchy skin)
Vulnerary (improves wound healing)
Turmeric + Black Pepper
Our Baby Belly would not be complete without the addition of golden turmeric and it’s supporting spice, black pepper. Turmeric is a true powerhouse plant with incredible health benefits for both humans and animals. It’s active ingredient curcumin has been widely studied and shown to safely and effectively prevent or treat almost every chronic illness! This is due to turmeric’s extraordinary profile of anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-cancer activities.
While it truly is “The Spice of Life”, turmeric is not readily absorbed by the body when consumed by itself. Thousands of years of Ayurvedic wisdom has taught us that turmeric is best combined with fat and black pepper. With the help of modern science we now know that this is because curcumin is lipophilic (ie. fat soluble) and that black pepper contains a compound called piperine which has been shown to enhance the absorption of curcumin by 2000%. The addition of a small amount of black pepper greatly increases the beneficial effects of turmeric in the diet.
Fermentation Explained!
Baby Belly is made very simply with raw organic ingredients and minimal processing. Each of the ingredients in Baby Belly brings it’s own unique health benefits and nutritional properties. However, the magic really unfolds when fermentation transforms this mixture into a powerful disease-fighting food for puppies.
During fermentation of Baby Belly the beneficial bacteria and yeasts present in goat’s milk kefir produce enzymes which breakdown the fibre and complex carbs in oats and unlock the sugar rich starches inside. The probiotic microorganisms then digest these sugars, fuelling the production of more lactic-acid organisms as well as a host of other bioactive compounds such as digestive enzymes, short chain fatty acids, B vitamins, folate and bacteriocins (proteins which inhibit harmful bacteria such as E coli, Salmonella and Clostridium).
The fermentation of oats with kefir also decreases the levels of ‘anti-nutrients’ in oats such as phytates whilst increasing the bioavailability and activity of its minerals and anti-oxidants.
Every time your puppy eats Baby Belly they are consuming potent probiotics with far reaching benefits throughout their bodies. It is widely known that the regular consumption of lactic-acid bacteria can positively influence gut function, metabolism and immune health and there is a growing body of evidence based research to support this.
Probiotic consumption in dogs has been shown to reduce acute and chronic diarrhoea, reduce atopic inflammation, improve growth rates and vaccine responses in puppies, lower cholesterol and reduce fecal levels of pathogenic organisms such as Clostridium, Staph and Pseudomonas. A daily dose of probiotics may also provide other benefits for dogs such as improved breath, less intestinal gas, better skin and coat appearance, and a reduction in allergies and yeast infections.
We believe Baby Belly helps give your puppy a healthier & happier disposition, and is the best start to life 🐾
Tory Wall
B. H. S. (Nutritional Medicine)
Baby Belly is featured in both puppy recipes!
References:
Ridgeway, M, D. Probiotics, Clinician’s Brief : Ask the Expert; Wellness/Gastroenterology, February 2013 21-23
Wood, R. “The new whole foods encyclopaedia” Penguin Books 2020: pg - New York Ridgeway, M, D. Probiotics, Clinician’s Brief : Ask the Expert; Wellness/Gastroenterology, February 2013 21-23
Ferriera, L. G “Oat beta-glucan as a dietary supplement for dogs” PLoS One 2018; 13 (7): e 0201133
Stergiadis S, Nørskov NP, Purup S, Givens I, Lee MRF. Comparative Nutrient Profiling of Retail Goat and Cow Milk. Nutrients. 2019;11(10). doi:10.3390/nu11102282
Becker, K. Probiotics for Dogs and Cats: What Are They and How Do They Help? Oct 2, 2018
Wynn, S.G., Fougere BJ, Veterinary Herbal Medicine: A Systems-Based Approach; 2007: 291-409
Srivastava JK, Shankar E, Gupta, S; Chamomile: A Herbal medicine of the past with bright future, Mol Med Report 2010 Nov1; 3 (6): 895-901