Hill's Healthy Advantage Canned DOG FOOD Review

With a score of 3/10, Hill’s Healthy Advantage Canned is a high risk dog food according to our criteria. There are 2 recipes that average 32% protein. Average carbohydrates are 50% as calculated. This is excessively high for a canned dog food. These recipes address a dog’s overall needs. The company formulates Science Diet and Prescription Diet to address specific conditions.

These foods are high in carbohydrates, especially for canned dog food. You’ll find rice, wheat, potato and peas. There’s also sugar listed as dextrose, which dogs don’t need. Dogs have no nutritional requirement for carbohydrate. It’s also an indicator of poor food quality. It can reduce manufacturing costs. Foods that are high in carbohydrate can raise insulin and cause obesity. Starches and grains can cause unwanted changes to the gut microbiome. 

Hill’s Healthy Advantage Canned foods lack whole food ingredients like fruits and vegetables. All recipes include an extensive list of synthetic vitamins and minerals. Vitamin premixes can have excesses, especially vitamin D and copper. These foods contain added amino acids to meet nutrient requirements. This usually reflects poor quality or overly processed ingredients.  

It’s also worth noting that recipes contain sodium selenite as a source of selenium. Dogs need selenium, and it’s usually added in very small amounts. Research suggests that sodium selenite may be potentially toxic. Selenium yeast is the preferred form of this mineral. 

Soybean oil is an inflammatory seed oil that is highly processed and may contain trans fats. Studies show that ultra processed foods link to higher mortality rates in humans.  

On the ingredient safety side, these canned recipes are highly processed dog food. This causes a loss in points across the line. During processing, manufacturers heat the individual ingredients in dry dog foods several times. This can cause a significant loss of enzymes, vitamins, amino acids and phytonutrients. Processed foods are also linked to higher mortality rates in many species.

Recipes use ingredients known to contain higher pesticide/herbicide residues. These are in the top 5 ingredients so they have a higher concentration. Crops sprayed with Roundup contain more glyphosate than others. This is true even for genetically modified crops. Glyphosate is an antibiotic that can kill beneficial gut bacteria. It’s linked to cancer and other diseases. 

These recipes have GMO foods. Genetically modified and Roundup Ready crops have limited safety studies. They lack nutrients compared to non-GMO foods. GMO crops also strip nutrients from soils. Crops require increased pesticide use that can lead to bee die-off. 

Rice is in these recipes. Rice absorbs arsenic that can contaminate the water it’s grown in. There are arsenic links to chronic health issues. 

Several recipes have added color to make them look more appealing to people. They are often used to hide the grey color of rendered ingredients. They’re linked to health issues.  

The concerns below don’t cost points but are worth noting. 

There is ingredient splitting in these recipes. That’s the practice of splitting ingredients into subcategories. This makes them appear lower on the list. This can also move more desirable protein ingredients higher.  

These recipes don’t specify whether fish products are from farmed or wild caught fish. Farmed fish is less nutritious than wild fish. It lacks a healthy balance of fatty acids. 

It’s also worth noting that Hill’s does not state the omega-6:omega-3 ratio in their foods. They list the minimum but that can fluctuate. While this is true of most foods, AAFCO allows a very inflammatory limit of 30:1. Diets rich in omega-6 fats can cause chronic inflammation and disease.