I now understand what it is to eat kibble every day, after all, I'm kind of doing it now. Yeah, that's right. You see, I decided to kickstart my goal of dropping a few pounds with one of those meal replacement "cookie diets" for the next couple of weeks. Call it a fad, call it what you like, but there is everything inside these cookies - organic this and that, fancy oils, minerals, proteins - you name it. Even WebMD gave it a glowing review.

I'm pretty sure that I'm eating a more balanced diet now, but man, is it brutal! And I should add that I've only been on it for less than four days. The monotony of eating these cookies kicked in after Day 2. The aftertaste... just looking at those cookies made me gag. By the end of Day 3, I developed headaches and couldn't take it any longer. My body was begging for some carbs, so I succumbed to an innocuous egg salad sandwich on whole wheat bread. I'm not a good enough writer to describe how satisfying that little sandwich was...washed down with a bottle of Coke Zero, I should add. I felt better right away.

Now I haven't abandoned the diet, I've got another 100+ cookies to eat and I'm motivated to drop the weight, but geez, all I keep thinking about is the poor dogs eating from those 40 pound bags of kibble every day. It must be awful.

You can tell me that (some of) those brands have all the necessary nutritional components for your dog to thrive, that they've been developed by a team of scientists and vets, and you know what? I won't disagree with you. But talk about sucking the joy out of life! For a dog, food is even a bigger deal than it is for humans. Watch your dog go at it when you drop a piece of steak at the table. It's like the canine version Flash Gordon. The canine passion for food has even crept it's way into the English language: have you ever "wolfed down" a meal?

I don't care what any scientist or doctor says, or what studies have been done, or even what most people do. Eating a manufactured diet is awful. With a little common sense you can eat a lot better, that is real food, food that is enjoyable and satisfying and yes, healthy too. So why would you want to feed your best friend, aka your dog, this kind of artificial diet? Dogs are family and they deserve better. They deserve a raw diet.