If you chew sugar-free gum and own a dog, you might want to consider going back to regular plain old normal sugar gum. Or else make sure your dog never gets into your pack of the sugar-free stuff:
[url]http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/xylitol.asp[/url]
My personal viewpoint of sugar substitutes is that they aren't safe for ANYONE to ingest -- human, canine, or otherwise. Real sugar all the way!!!!
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Basically any artificial sweetener should be kept away from animals. They can cause a very bad case of the trots (as it will in humans too if too much is ingested)..
I had no idea either, till I received an e-mail about it this morning. So I thought I would piost it here, seeing as we have lots of dog lovers who probably have no idea either.
I'm sure there are other sugar-free foods out there that contain Xylitol, so be REALLY careful about the human food that you give to your dogs.
You're right Mel, it IS hard to find yoghurt that ISN'T sugar free. I buy Danone Creamy -- it's regular fat and regular sugar. No banana flavour, though. Hmmmm... maybe you could buy plain or vanilla yogurt and add a mashed banana to it??
Oh yeah....I realized I didn't make a comment on the whole Xylitol killing dogs thing. Thanks for that info Smoodge. I had no idea.
Honestly Smoodgie....I can't STAND that sugar substitutes are taking over the world!! Try and find a pack of gum that ISN'T made with aspertame, splenda, etc. I think Bubbliscious (spelling?) is probably the only one left on the market. Hell, I can hardly find yogurt for my kids that is made with real honest to goodness sugar! Apparently the only banana flavoured ones (my kids' favorite) sold in supermarkets have this crap in them. And I'm not giving it to my children. I just feel like something that grows in the ground has got to better for us than something created in a lab. Its frustrating that everywhere you look there's diet this..and sugarfree that. People....get a clue!