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*Trial BITES excluded
It's more than grain-free or all, natural, or calming. It's the WHY that matters, and it's understanding how those ingredients affect your animals because they cannot communicate with us how they are feeling. Animals are gloriously adept at hiding pain or stress.
We should try to avoid giving an animal a sedating herb because a label says "calms" unless we know exactly how it works in their bodies and what it does to them because they can't communicate with us how it makes them feel. Many herbs have their place occasionally in our animal’s lives, they’re not meant to be every day adds and we should have a health reason for using them, not simply to get them to lay down because we get busy.
One of my bigger areas of study, outside cannabis therapeutic and medicinal, is how ingredients matter and how to keep all that is being fed to animals as clean and necessary as possible. That comes with a deep understanding of contraindications with other meds, contraindications with food, and what we should see in our animals for results.
Keeping gut health (microbiome) at the top of our minds, we keep our tinctures, BITES, and salve as clean as possible. We choose not to add supplementation or adaptogens, or other herbs to ensure our products support our mission to be as clean and as natural as possible.
We started with a base of around 100 herbs and fruits, like a big pro/con list, and developed what would be nonallergenic, about 5-8 layers deep across various species, to find our main ingredients. What we ended up with was absolutely spectacular.
Our BITES are full of healthy and super yummy ingredients, and every item, in each amount, was carefully thought of and researched.
I love a good overview of anthocyanins (a group of antioxidants present in red, purple, and blueberries), reduction in oxidative stress, fisetin, free radical fighting, and endocannabinoid group of herbs and fruits; not everyone likes or wants to read about this so let's break down what's in our little gems and why it matters even in these tiny amounts.
Organic Wild Mountain Blueberries from the northern region are a main component. They are different from the usually cultivated blueberries we've all grown used to unless you, like me, were a wild kid in the mountains eating berries from various fruit bushes. The difference is pretty big – our little super violet or cobalt, sweet and tart, small red veined berries are sass-filled fruits. They grow low bush on runners and are fuss free, like LIX, and filled to the brim with taste and health benefits.
They have more skin than cultivated blueberries, and most of the antioxidants are in the skin of berries; in case you want to know, the antioxidants include flavanols, polyphenols, and hydroxycinnamic acid.
We're healthily obsessed with these supercharged beneficial berries. As an ingredient, they are highly beneficial for our animals as the antioxidants and anthocyanins (a group of antioxidants present in red, purple, and blueberries) have astounding benefits for every animal's body. They're anti-inflammatory, reduce oxidative stress, aid in the fight against diabetes, cancer, and heart disease, are brain healthy, and help with memory. They also help fight against dementia or sundowners in animals (CCD) AND, and here's the tie-in to the last post, these anthocyanins in these bright, sassy little berries have an affinity for working with the receptors and the Endocannabinoid system (and that's what the CBD and other cannabinoids support so our bodies and our animal's bodies, can find balance).
Strawberries, in all their bright red perfection, are also rich in anthocyanins and, thereby, antioxidants, so pull that knowledge from the above paragraph over to these tasty gems!
Strawberries contain a couple of compounds that we'll single out that are important to bring up; fisetin and lutein, even in small doses, are super beneficial for our animals.
Fisetin is a neuroprotectant; the quick definition of a neuroprotectant is that they work to preserve the neuronal structure. Neurons carry messages throughout the body quickly and in the form of electrical signals. We always want to protect our neurons and support them, so fisetin is beneficial.
Lutein helps protect against macular degeneration, a common problem in elder dogs.
The final ingredient I'd like to discuss in our BITES is our microalgae dark green spirulina, which is undoubtedly a superfood. It's organic and sustainably harvested to keep a low impact on our delicate environment, and even in small quantities, is a giant impact on the delicate systems of animals, promoting massive wellness gains and nutritional support; it's an excellent source of protein without being an allergen, it's loaded with B vitamins and EFA's that boost their immune systems. We love spirulina as an add-on for all animals; even my feral cats will choose to eat it. Spirulina suppresses bad bacteria, and it promotes healthy bowel function and digestion. All great things!
It is important to look at your ingredients; if you aren’t sure, ask. Ask your store team, ask your vet, ask us, and ask the brands until you’re comfortable. Some ingredients are unnecessary. What are those? Things like preservatives or pomace or methylcellulose fiber, or super processed oils, are just a fraction of the list of ingredients there is simply no need to have in products. The point is: Do your best for your animals AND yourself. Will one weekend of feeding your dog something less optimal be problematic? Probably not. It’s the consistent attention to ingredients that matters. Know your ingredients and know the how and why over the long term. Our animals count on our watchfulness over what goes into their bodies, and we need to cut out the unnecessary as much as we can. At LIX, we ensure every ingredient works for a wide variety of animals without compromising their gut health or mental well-being.
We will continue to bring more information on our ingredients and why they matter, so stay tuned… but remember that wellness is more than an ingredient. Wellness is a way of life, an unending dance of looking for balance and happiness, free of disease throughout the body, and synchronous emotional, physical, and mental balance. Wellness is consistently monitored throughout the body, and when we understand how the systems in the body work together, it’s easy to see how we live with animals at risk for stress, illness, or discomfort. When we recognize this wellness as a dance, we know it’s not one product, not one adaptogen, or one massage or acupuncture appointment that cures it all.
It isn’t addressed once a year or at a vet appointment. All parts of how we operate as a family, including our animals, matter. It matters to them; it matters to us.
As always, we’re here to help.
