FEEDING BROCCOLI TO MY DOG

Dear Jubilee:

My dog loves broccoli-and I used to give him the stalks when I was preparing it. Recently I read that along with grapes and onions broccoli is a big NO_NO. I notice you use it in your raw diet.

What gives?

Dear What Gives,

Broccoli and carrots are both vegetables that I use sparingly (on our website, it says occasionally). I go easy on carrots because of the glycemic index, and I go easy on broccoli because I had heard somewhere that it is not as nutritious as other green vegetables.

However, your question sent me to the Internet, and I came up with two different takes on broccoli. Both make sense.

First, at http://www.mercola.com/2005/jan/8/antioxidants_pet.htm, I found the following by Steve Brown and Beth Taylor, authors of See Spot Live Longer. I have not yet read their book but it is on my to-read pile. They wrote:

”As an example, for almost no cost and little effort, you can improve the odds that your dog will live a long life with a broccoli stalk. Packed with the most micronutrients for your dollar, juice or finely chop a broccoli stalk to break the cell wall of the plant and make the nutrients more available. The stalk is just as nutritious as the broccoli flower and contains many important cancer-fighting nutrients that can help your dog live longer, but is often thrown away! 

”Broccoli stalks, along with dark green lettuce outer leaves and asparagus spear stalks, are good sources of chlorophyll, like all dark green vegetables. Natural chlorophylls exert protective effects against carcinogenic exposure in animals and people. Human studies in China show that chlorophyll may help to delay the onset of symptoms of liver cancer caused by mycotoxin-contaminated grains (products that have killed many dogs).”

Here is what a vet, Mike Richards, wrote on the Internet:

“Broccoli toxicity has been noted in livestock. Apparently in California it is widely available at certain times and the dairy cattle there are fed broccoli due to this. If the percentage of broccoli in the diet exceeds 10% it can cause gastrointestinal upsets and if it exceeds 25% it is fatal.

“I could not find any references to problems with broccoli in small animals, probably because no one feeds them more than 10% of their diet as broccoli or possibly because they don't have rumens and therefore don't digest the broccoli as thoroughly.

“The toxic ingredient in broccoli is isothiocyanate and it is reported to be a pretty potent gastrointestinal irritant.

“. . . I did find several references suggesting that broccoli should be fed to pets because of the bioflavinoids in it and their cancer fighting capabilities. So he might be wrong.

“Personally, I wouldn't worry about it unless you are planning on feeding a lot of broccoli at one time to a dog.”

 Mike Richards, DVM  http://www.vetinfo4dogs.com/dtoxin.html

Jubilee