Animal feed for human health

What makes a human physician work for an animal feed company? I asked that question to Dr Luc de Keyser following his presentation at a poultry seminar organised by the Belgian companies Orafti and Danis in the Netherlands.

His explanation was simple; “Because the owner of the company he works for – INVE a premix manufacturer – wanted to know what effect their feed ingredients would have on the health of those people that consume meat from animals that receive their feed.”

Is that not obvious? Why has more companies not thought of this before? It would certainly have helped the livestock industry in the placing of blame, made by anti livestock industry and vegetarians, in a more realistic perspective.

Dr De Keyser told the audience that the human DNA has not changed in thousands of years and that we should take primitive ethnic groups as an example of what to eat to stay healthy.

All major human diseases of the modern world are unknown to these people. Why is that? And can we learn from them?

Yes, says De Keyser, and noted the principles of the Paleo diet which makes you understand why we are confronted more and more with diseases we assumed to be rare.

De Keyser explained that this is not just another hype but a diet that mimics the types of foods each person on the planet ate prior to the Agricultural revolution. These foods are high in the beneficial nutrients that promote good health and are low in the foods and nutrients (sugars, grains, salt, saturated and trans fats, high glycemic carbohydrates, and processed foods) that may cause health problems.

The diet is one of the very few based on real science and backed globally by a large group if scientists and encouraging the intake of lean meat containing long chain unsaturated fatty acids. This type of meat can be obtained from wild animals or animals that have been raised on commercial diets.

Poultry, like fish, can transfer characteristics of their feed via their meat or eggs on to the human diet, and for that reason should be fed under controlled conditions and not kept in free range or outdoor farming.

It sounds like a contraction but the nutritional characteristics of their meat does not fit anymore in the diets of modern man, unless people change their lifestyle and the rest of their diet as well.

This view supported by a huge amount of science, questions even more in what direction the poultry industry will have to go.


For the powerpoint presentation of Dr Luc de Keyser talk (in Dutch) please contact info@WorldPoultry.net