Over the past few months, Team Lyka has been working closely with our in-house vet, Dr. Matthew Muir to re-refresh Lyka’s recipes. Our goal is not just to meet nutritional requirements, but to craft optimal recipes for our Lyka puppers to live a long and healthy life. Based on the latest scientific information, as well as our customer feedback, we have refreshed our current range of recipes to produce more nutritious and tastier Lyka meals.
In practise, these changes mean that Lyka’s recipes don’t just meet the AAFCO nutritional requirements for dog food**. Our recipes exceed these requirements**, in order to provide your pupper with the optimal balance of wholefood nutrition. We are also well above the European, FEDIAF standards, which are higher than the American AAFCO standards.
Check out our new recipe menu. Here are some of the improvements we’ve made:
Higher Omega 3 content to reduce risk of disease
Omega 3 fats are healthy fatty acids that promote reduced inflammation in the body. Omega 6, on the other hand, encourages cellular growth and inflammation. The AAFCO standards require a maximum Omega 6: Omega 3 of 30:1. However, we at Lyka believe that a much lower ratio is optimal. Based on Dr. Matthew Muir’s decade of experience in natural feeding, higher quantities of omega 3**, reduce the risk of diseases such as cancer and arthritis.** Because of this, Lyka recipes now have a maximum Omega 6: Omega 3 ratio of 3:1, 10 times more omega 3 than required.
Conservative changes due to emerging heart disease link
Dr. Matthew Muir has stayed close to the emerging studies on the link between grain-free diets and DCM heart disease in dogs. The latest analysis by the FDA revealed a link between grain-free diets and DCM cases.
Lyka’s recipes previously contained a low level of wholefood cooked legumes because of the nutritional variety they provide. Although we were comfortable with the low levels in our previous recipes^, we’ve decided to be ultra-conservative and remove lentils and chickpeas from our recipes.
We are philosophically against adding higher glycaemic index carbohydrates (such as potatoes, rice and corn), due to risk of blood sugar spikes. Our new recipes only have low GI carbohydrates such as vegetables, butternut squash and purple sweet potato.
^ Kibble is the food type that has been primarily linked to DCM cases. The carbohydrate content of kibble must be high in order to maintain the manufacturing processes and biscuit consistency of the finished product. Therefore, if grains are taken out, they must be replaced with other high-carbohydrate ingredients, for example, peas, legumes and potatoes. Lyka’s previous recipes, on the other hand, contains less than half of the carbohydrate content of kibble, as we focus on offering a diet high in protein and good fats. Our recipes are primarily fresh meats, seafood and vegetables.
We hope you enjoy our new recipe range, and we look forwarding to continuing to provide you nutritious and carefully crafted recipes. Please do not hesitate to reach out to the team if you have any questions about our new recipes.
