{"id":3117,"date":"2017-06-06T05:23:50","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T10:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.diamondpet.wearewoodruff.xyz\/?p=3117"},"modified":"2026-02-17T10:08:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T16:08:21","slug":"grain-free-pet-food-low-no-carb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/blog\/performance\/nutrition-performance\/grain-free-pet-food-low-no-carb\/","title":{"rendered":"Grain-Free Pet Food: A Low- or No-Carb Food?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to \u201cDebarking Pet Myths,\u201d a monthly series dedicated to addressing common myths, misconceptions and old wives\u2019 tales about dogs and cats.<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite some recent controversy, grain-free pet foods remain very popular among U.S. pet owners. One of the reasons given by some pet owners for feeding a grain-free food to their furry family member is the focus of this month\u2019s post.<\/p>\n

Is grain-free pet food a low- or no-carbohydrate food?<\/h2>\n

\u201cGrain-free\u201d and \u201clow-carb\u201d or \u201ccarb-free\u201d don\u2019t go hand-in-hand. When pet food companies replace grains in their pet food formulas, they often use other sources of carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes, peas, garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas), potatoes, lentils and tapioca (aka cassava). All of these ingredients provide carbohydrates that dogs and cats can use for energy \u2014 just like rice, brown rice, corn, wheat and barley.<\/p>\n

While some grain-free pet foods provide fewer carbohydrates than those made with grains, other grain-free pet foods contain carbohydrate levels similar to or even higher than diets containing grains. Or some of the carbohydrates may be replaced with higher levels of fat and\/or protein. That\u2019s why it\u2019s important that you don\u2019t assume that the grain-free formulation you\u2019re feeding your dog is a low-carbohydrate one. When comparing Diamond Naturals<\/a> adult dog food formulas, the carbohydrate content of each formula is similar, regardless of the ingredients used to make the kibble.<\/p>\n

The important thing to keep in mind when choosing a food for your pet is that different dogs can have different nutritional needs, and the same holds true for cats. Whether you choose to feed a grain-free pet food or not, you still must choose a food that provides complete and balanced nutrition for your furry friend. Yes, choose a food made with ingredients that you, as a pet owner, can be comfortable with. But remember: From the perspective of your pet\u2019s body, it\u2019s the nutrient profile of the food that\u2019s important, not the individual ingredients in that food.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to \u201cDebarking Pet Myths,\u201d a monthly series dedicated to addressing common myths, misconceptions and old wives\u2019 tales about dogs and cats. Despite some recent controversy, grain-free pet foods remain very popular among U.S. pet owners. One of the reasons given by some pet owners for feeding a grain-free food to their furry family member […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Is Grain-Free Pet Food A Low- or No-Carb Food?","_seopress_titles_desc":"Discover the truth about grain-free pet food as a low- or no-carb option. Find out how these diets differ from grain-inclusive ones in terms of carbohydrates.","_seopress_robots_index":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[661,322],"tags":[100,10,187,79],"class_list":["post-3117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nutrition-performance","category-performance","tag-cat","tag-dog","tag-grain-free","tag-nutrition"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}