From Food Safety News:
"An Oregon veterinarian is waging an educational campaign to inform dog owners about the dangers posed to their pets by xylitol, a sugar alcohol-derived sweetener with one-third the calories of regular sugar that is being used in some nut butter products ...
Most dogs like peanut butter and seem to enjoy licking it off a spoon or trying to get it out of a rubber toy. However, xylitol is extremely toxic to them, Nicholas said, and there are no warning labels on the products alerting pet owners about the problem or telling them how much xylitol the product contains.
The nut butter products using xylitol for sweetening are not like regular peanut butter but are actually high-protein nut butter spreads with added whey protein isolate and flax seeds, chia seeds and other ingredients. They include P28 peanut spread from a company in Syracuse, NY, Nuts ‘N More from Providence, RI, and Krush Nutrition’s Nutty by Nature brand from Wellington, FL ...
It takes very little xylitol to create serious problems for a dog. Ingestion causes a massive surge of insulin release much more than from the same amount of sugar, he said.
“That surge of insulin drops blood sugar and causes hypoglycemia and, as a result of hypoglycemia, there’s not enough glucose in the blood and it causes weakness, ataxia (like staggering or drunk walking), and can cause collapse and, because the brain isn’t able to get the energy it needs, it can cause seizure and coma,” the vet said."
For complete article:
http://tinyurl.com/nmfahkj
Jennie