A Dog’s Taste For Peanut Butter We already know that dogs dig peanut butter. However, until now, it had been a mystery as to why they liked it so much. Peanut butter mostly is rich in sugar, fat and salt. Even though dogs really like salt and they will even lick your fingers if you’ve had chips or other salted food; but they don’t like salt as much as humans do. They don’t even need it as much as humans do. When in the wild, the canines mostly live on meat, which has more sodium than required by them. H ence, salt is out of the question. Next comes fat. Peanut butter is dense in fat,which is the nutrient that makes food much tastier. This fact is true for both dogs and humans. However, dogs like fat more than humans do, because they have more fat-related taste buds. Is fat the key then? Not so, because those extra taste buds only appreciate the fat coming for meat and not from vegetables or grains. Dogs also appreciate the third factor, i.e. sugar. They specifically like sugar very much because their taste buds for sugar are located on the tip of their tongue. However, they like non-sugar added peanut butter as much as regular peanut butter. That cancels out sugar as well. The last factor that the scientists came down to, was protein. Peanut butter is a highprotein source. It was produced as an easily digestible good source of protein for patients. These two cues, i.e. easy to digest and high protein density might be the answer to why dogs like it so much. Even though people worry that too much might be unhealthy and dangerous for their puppies, there is actually not much to worry about. The studies that were anti-protein were mostly proven false. In fact, growing puppies do need high amounts of protein to grow their muscles. As long as these dogs have good kidneys, they can deal with the excess protein in their body. The protein also helps these dogs replace hair and skin, which is an ongoing process. If the dogs have a healthy coat, it is a sign that they have been receiving sufficient protein; however, scalp and baldness represent a protein deficiency. The protein is also good for their immune system. Besides meat, other sources of protein (lentils, legumes, vegetables, etc.) might not be so easily digestible by the dogs. Hence, only peanut butter besides meat fills that void.
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http://www.researchomatic.com/New-Research/An-Organic-Chemistry-Project-AboutSaturated-and-Unsaturated-Fats-in-Vegetable-Oils-Margarines-and-Peanut-Butters344995.html