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Peanut Butter and Xylitol

Preventivevet.com has posted a very good warning to pet owners regarding dangerous xylitol in some peanut butter.

Preventivevet.com has posted a very good warning to pet owners regarding dangerous xylitol in some peanut butter.

Xylitol is an artificial sweetener common to many sugar free gums and candies. And xylitol is very dangerous – even deadly – to dogs. Some brands of peanut butter are now adding the ingredient xylitol.

Preventivevet.com states:

  • Ingestion of as little as 0.1 gram (g) of xylitol per kilogram (kg) of body weight (0.1 g/kg) can cause a rapid and dangerous drop in a dog’s blood sugar (a condition called “hypoglycemia”). Hypoglycemia can show as staggering, appearing disoriented, collapse, weakness, and seizures.
  • Just slightly more than that, approx. 0.5 g/kg xylitol ingestion, can lead to debilitating, and sadly often deadly, destruction of a dog’s liver cells.

Please check the label of any peanut butter provided to your dog for the ingredient xylitol. If that ingredient is present – do not give to your dog.

For cats – current thinking is that xylitol is not toxic to cats. From Catster.com, veterinarian Dr. Eric Barchas asked ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center about cats and xylitol. There response: “She advised me that recent information has revealed that xylitol is not known to be toxic to cats. They do not develop low blood sugar, nor do they develop liver failure. Prior to this the presumption was made, based upon extrapolation from dogs, that cats would suffer similar effects. Due to the fact that cats don’t frequently expose themselves to xylitol, it apparently took quite a while for all of the information to come out.” That said, it still might be better to side with caution and avoid all peanut butter with xylitol for cats and dogs.

 

Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food

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9 Comments

9 Comments

  1. Kathryn

    July 17, 2015 at 1:22 pm

    I feed a ‘Peanut Butter’ type DOG treat – reading the ingredients on the bag, the ‘peanut butter’ is 4th ingredient after ‘Wheat, Corn meal, Corn Gluten Meal, PEANUT BUTTER, Veg. Oil preserved with natural mixed tocopherols, Rolled Oats, Dried whey, Dried Whole Eggs, Brewers Dried Yeast

    granted, I could make my own, but at 12 22oz bags for 30.00 – I couldn’t beat the price.

    at 1 cookie per day ( broken into 4 separate servings, per dog at 20# I’m going on the ‘poison’ being in the dose with this product as I have no way of knowing

    – and after speaking with the mfg, whose rep on the phone had never heard of ‘xylatol’ , but said he would get up with their nutritionist to determine whether or not the 8in1 One Earth Naturals peanut butter flavored treats, Product # 10540 contained xylitol, I’ll let you know what I find out.

  2. Karen

    July 17, 2015 at 1:45 pm

    One Earth Naturals rep doesn’t know about xylitol, so obviously has no business pushing a “natural” line as he/she is not a “natural” food shopper obviously since xylitol is a common substitute sweetener in many “natural” food store products. Peanuts are also a heavily sprayed crop and I try to buy organic, which yes, is more expensive. I don’t feed any “corn gluten meal” either because of the gmos, pesticide and herbicide residues, and the actual “gluten” part, which I have found gives my dogs skin allergies in the past.

  3. Catherine

    July 17, 2015 at 2:40 pm

    The other place xylitol comes into play is if you have teenagers who leave sugar-free gum lying around. Xylitol is touted in the (human) dental community as a way to decrease the bacterial load on the teeth after eating a sugar laden meal/food/etc. while this is true, any gum is very attractive to my Standard Poodles (any candy for that matter) and so all gum ingredients are checked before entering my house because they have more than once eaten whole packs and we have had to desperately figure out what was in the gum.
    We’ve only had dogs for 22 years but someone (the teen) still manages to leave things lying around 🙁
    I’m not surprised about putting xylitol in pb, it would help with kids who don’t brush their teeth after eating.

  4. Sage

    July 17, 2015 at 3:32 pm

    Very interesting information and I’m sending this to my Veterinarian in case he doesn’t yet know about these peanut butters. Xylitol is part of a class of sweeteners called ALCOHOL SUGARS and should be listed as such on the label. Since the BRANDS are not listed in this post I googled and found the original article that Susan cites and it would be really helpful if Brands could be listed here in product / ingredient alerts. Original article is here http://www.preventivevet.com/dogs/is-peanut-butter-safe-for-dogs and the two BRANDS are NUTS ’N MORE® http://www.nuts-n-more.com which is apparently a big seller at GNC, and KRUSH Nutrition http://www.krushnutrition.com/nutty-by-nature-peanut-butter-thick-creamy/ which has a Xylitol warning at the bottom of the page link above. It should of course be on the product label as well.

    I guess ingredients labels of all packaged products should be read before giving to dogs or cats. I have read elsewhere that Xylitol and all other “tol” sweeteners should NOT be given to dogs or CATS.

  5. B Dawson

    July 17, 2015 at 6:56 pm

    If you want the cleanest possible peanut butter, make it yourself. It’s easy to do if you have a food processor or heavy duty blender like a vitamin. You can choose to use peanuts raw or roast them to the desired darkness in the oven on a cookie sheet at 350 F. Toss them into the food processor and process until the desired creaminess, stopping to break up the mass occasionally. There are lots of videos on the web for more information.

    I’ve found buying bulk shelled peanuts from my local health food store lets me make fresh butter and a bit of savings over the commercial jars..

    It always pays to read the label and don’t stop asking manufacturers questions until you’re satisfied..

  6. Cathy

    July 17, 2015 at 8:28 pm

    I bought a doggie tooth paste made for canines at our local pet store, got home with it,read the label and it contained xylitol . Took it right back and told them the reason why. This was about a year ago and it is a popular brand.

  7. Samantha Cuellar

    July 18, 2015 at 3:58 pm

    Thank you Susan Thixton for the heads up on xylitol, and to everyone else who replied, leaving more important info. Currently I have been giving my Suzie Q’s meds with Safeway Kitchen Creamy Peanut Butter which she loves, however, it wasn’t til I saw this article that I actually read the ingredients. PEANUTS, SUGAR, HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL, (RAPESEED, COTTONSEED, SOYBEAN), SALT, MOLASSES.

    WHO PUTS SUGAR IN PEANUT BUTTER????!!!!!

    I can’t remember if I purchased this PB or if someone gave it to me, but either way, I can’t afford to throw it out. But at least it doesn’t have xylitol in it. I know that hydrogenated vegetable oil is not good for anyone, too. But you can bet that I will definitely be reading the PB label from here on out.

    Again, thx to all for the heads up and all the other great info.

    • B Dawson

      July 22, 2015 at 12:10 pm

      Another thing to thank our pets for. So often we change our habits for their benefit and by doing so improve our lives.

      Most grocery store brands – including some health food brands- add sugar, honey, sweeteners and additional oils to peanut butter. Glad that you’re going to be reading labels now.

  8. colbey

    August 4, 2015 at 3:14 am

    i’ve just started researching different cat foods and was on this site where i clicked to read this article. i JUST read thru a list of “Foods your cat should never eat” that’s on webmd. (yes, i’ve heard that webmd is not to be completely trusted, but i thought reading their list would give some basic info that could be verified or dismissed with further research.)

    i’d already noted several items in their list that i questioned (the inclusions seemed that it would push people away from trying to make their own homemade cat food). the one i hadn’t questioned though was #9-human “foods”/etc. that contain xylitol. the claims were the same–xylitol can cause increased insulin/decreased blood sugar, and possibly to liver failure.

    the site claims the list was reviewed by “Amy Flowers DVM” in March, 2014. specific sources aren’t listed for each listed item, but included in the References list are:
    ASPCA: “People Foods to Avoid Feeding Your Pets.”

    http://pets.webmd.com/cats/ss/slideshow-foods-your-cat-should-never-eat

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