You’ve probably heard about omega-3 fatty acids. These are abundantly present in fish oil and are highly marketed as essential supplement to your food or your dog’s food for that matter.

Omega-3 fatty acids are added to just about every human food and the year 2007 may get labelled omega-3 fatty acid year for that matter. And as dog food follows many similar marketing trends to human foods we are seeing more food labels with omega-3 and nutritional support claims than before. It’s like a miracle ingredient. Seems to be good for everything if you belief the colorful statements.

Omega-3 plays a vital role in brain cell function and a dog’s brain is very rich in long-chain omega-3 fatty acid. One research project mentioned that puppies nourished with enhanced levels of ducosahexaenoic acid (DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid) were smarter and more trainable than puppies on a typical or low DHA dog food diet. A DHA deficiency can impair your dog’s learning ability and memory. You wouldn’t want that right? All those training sessions on early Sunday mornings standing in the cold rain (well… that’s my experience talking ) to waste.

Omega fatty acids have been shown to veterinary literature to have a positive effect on inflammatory skin diseases and as such could be of benefit in relief of dog allergy symptoms.

You are what you eat, your dog is what you feed him and what a dog looks like on the outside is likely an indication of how well he’s doing on the inside. It all boils down to this: good nutrition is the foundation of good health!

As in modern times cattle, raised for commercial meat, is often kept inside and fed on grains instead of grass the meat and eggs these days have become less rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Meat of wild animals contains much more of these healthy fatty acids. Also modern production methods that involve high temperatures distort the unsaturated fat molecules and change these into unhealthy trans fatty acids.

From this knowledge one could hypothesize that dog food may have become quite low in omega-3 over the years. However, the AAFCO does not recognize omega-3 fatty acids as essential requirements for dogs (!) and as such deficiencies are theoretically impossible to occur. In contrast, the list of health benefits for dogs from omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids continues to grow and various omega-3 supplements hit the market place.

Read more about health benefits of omega fatty acids in dog food at Best-Dog-Food-Guide.com.