As a dog enthusiast, I often find myself phased with questions regarding their meal. One in particular that I was phased with recently is if dogs can eat edamame. I did some research and decided to convert it to a post.
Can Dogs Eat Edamame? Is It Safe For Dogs? Yes, dogs can eat edamame and it is a safe and healthy food for them. Like most other vegetables, it is a top-notch nutrient source for canines and will go a long way in boosting the health of your dogs. Dogs can eat edamame in various forms; raw, frozen, and steamed.
However, the preparation method, amount served, and frequency of serving play a crucial role in determining how safe it will be for dog consumption.
While you may want to start making plans to introduce edamame to your dog’s diet, you may need to step on the brakes for a second. As great as edamame can be in helping dogs stay healthy and well-nourished, there is some important information you will need to have before you start feeding it to your dog. These include nutritional facts, benefits, how to detect and handle possible allergic reactions, how much and how often to feed your dog edamame, how to prepare edamame in a safe way for dogs, and more.
What is Edamame?
Edamame is a prominent member of the soybean family, and its origin has been traced to Asia. They are plucked immaturely and possess a distinctive green color in contrast to the primarily light-brown soybean. They can be bought while still encased in their pods or after being taken out of them.
Edamame is a vegetarian delight and can be prepared in a host of ways for consumption. These include steaming, boiling, frying, and microwaving.
Edamame Nutritional Information
The following nutritional information represents the nutrient profile of every 100g of shelled
Edamame.
Calories: 109g
Fat: 4.7g
Carbohydrate: 7.6g
Dietary Fiber: 4.8g
Sugar: 2.5g
Protein: 11g
Sodium: 6mg
Potassium: 482mg
Iron: 2.11mg
Calcium: 60mg
Phosphorus: 161mg
Manganese: 1.01mg
Copper: 0.324mg
Zinc: 1.32mg
Vitamin C: 9.7mg
Vitamin K: 31.4mcg
Health Benefits of Edamame to Dogs
Edamame boasts a wide array of nutrients guaranteed to leave you with a well-nourished and healthy dog. Apart from serving as a new and refreshing treat for your dog, it will also enhance proper growth and development. Here are some of the crucial nutrients found in edamame and some of the benefits they present:
- Fiber:
One of the qualities that make edamame great is its fiber content. It should contain an adequate amount of fiber for a dog’s meal to be deemed healthy and well-balanced. Since dogs are omnivores, fiber is essential to help balance and maximize the potency of nutrients obtained from the meaty part of their food.
Fiber also helps dogs to digest their food healthily as well as manage their weight. It is a trusted remedy for overeating as it helps the dog to feel full and, in the end, acts as a safeguard against obesity.
- Carbohydrate:
Edamame contains a safe amount of carbohydrates for dogs, which is a valuable heat source and enhances the jobs of other nutrients. Carbohydrates ensure that there is adequate energy for activities throughout the day.
- Protein:
Edamame contains an adequate amount of protein that go to your dog’s body cells and ensure that all of its parts function correctly. Its effect shows in the quality of your dog’s hair and skin.
Internally, the protein content of edamame ensures that the muscles and tissues of your dog are well catered for, especially when they undergo stress. The protein content from edamame helps to fight against sicknesses in your dog and boosts the production and functions of enzymes.
- Omega-3:
Edamame is a direct source of omega-3, which is a highly rated contributor to the sound health of canines. Omega-3 supports the development of the brain, which will be especially useful if you have puppies. Omega-3 helps in reducing anxiety, hyperactivity, and depression in dogs, ensuring a healthy psychological state.
Omega-3 also supports the heart and kidney for proper function, boosts the resistance of dogs to sicknesses and diseases, and has been proven to give dogs an upper hand in the fight against cancer.
- Vitamin C:
Vitamin C plays a very vital role in maintaining a healthy life for your dogs. The most prominent one is its role as an antioxidant.
Vitamin C does the job of detecting and getting rid of would-be harmful free radicals in the body. Vitamin C attacks and prevents inflammation in dogs and is a well-trusted safeguard against cerebral or cognitive ageing.
- Calcium:
Edamame will supply calcium to your dogs, making digestion a smoother process, promoting the proper functioning of the nervous system, stimulating hormone release, hasten blood clotting, and regulating the heartbeat.
Calcium also plays its prominent role in the proper development of bones and cartilages in puppies, maintaining a healthy skeletal structure, and helping the muscles of dogs to move unhindered.
- Sodium:
Sodium is necessary for dogs’ body to maintain proper nerve functions, help muscles to undertake seamless movements, and keep cells from swelling.
- Potassium:
Potassium is essential for dogs in the proper functioning of the nerves, muscles, and heart. A potassium deficiency in dogs will lead to constant bouts of fatigue and loss of appetite. Potassium from edamame will also contribute to the fight against weight loss in your dog.
- Magnesium:
Magnesium ensures that the hormones in a dog’s body are released in the right amounts and function properly.
- Manganese:
Your canines need manganese to break protein and carbohydrates, energy production and ensure that the joints are in the proper condition.
- Iron:
Iron plays the crucial role of transporting and circulating oxygen to all parts of the body where it is needed. This ensures that energy is produced at an optimum level. Iron also makes sure of proper enzymatic function in the body.
- Copper:
Copper is essential for bone formation, proper functioning of nerves and tissues.
- Zinc:
Plays a host of crucial roles in the body of your dog. These roles include empowering the immune system, facilitating the proper functioning of enzymes, hormones, and even proteins. An adequate supply of zinc ensures that your dog does not lose its beautiful fur and maintains healthy skin.
How To Cook/Prepare Edamame for Dogs
Cooking Edamame for your dogs should be more or less an easy, straightforward process. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to prepare edamame.
Don’t fret!
Here, you will learn how to prepare edamame without causing any harm to your dog. Firstly, edamame can be cooked in several ways for your dogs safe for their health and consumption.
The following are tested and approved ways for serving your dog edamame:
- Steamed Edamame:
If you are thinking about serving steamed edamame to your dogs, you are on the right track. Steamed edamame is one of the safest ways to serve edamame to dogs. As long as the strings of the edamame are removed, your dog should be able to consume it without any problems.
Removing the strings from the pods will ensure that your dog doesn’t experience discomfort from having them stuck in its teeth.
- Frozen edamame:
If you prefer to feed your dog with frozen edamame, it’s not a horrible idea either. Dogs love frozen edamame, and they are very safe, too, as long as you make sure to extract the beans from the pod.
Feeding your dogs with frozen edamame that hasn’t had its beans removed from the pods has been recorded to cause stomach distress for dogs.
- Raw Edamame:
One of the easiest and quickest ways to serve your dog edamame is to serve it raw. As long as you remove the strings from the pods, it’s safe for your canine’s consumption.
You may decide to either leave the beans in the pods or remove them. Either way, it is perfect.
Edamame can be served alone or mixed with the dog’s regular food.
How Not To Feed Edamame To Your Dog
There are several ways we could enjoy edamame that wouldn’t sit well if applied to dogs. If you already have edamame prepared for your dog in any of the ways that will be mentioned below, it means you will have to enjoy this treat all by yourself.
Here are the preparation methods of edamame for dogs that are harmful to their health:
- Flavoured Edamame:
Flavored foods are best avoided when it comes to dogs. There is a risk of salt poisoning as a dog’s system tends not to accept more than a bit of salt.
- Fried Edamame:
Can dogs eat fried edamame? Well, suppose you genuinely care about the health of your dog. In that case, the answer to this is that emphatic NO! fried foods are a quick way of raising your dog’s cholesterol levels and increasing its chances of getting pancreatic inflammation and cancer.
Also, frying will undermine the nutrients contained in the vegetable as edamame is a delicate kind of vegetable.
- Baked Edamame:
Serving your dog baked edamame would mean exposing your dogs to possibly large amounts of flour, butter, and seasoning. This is a risky venture and should be avoided as much as possible. Your dogs will fare just fine without having baked edamame.
Is Edamame Toxic to Dogs?
Not at all. These vegetables have been found to contain many beneficial nutrients and minerals that your dog will need to maintain a healthy lifestyle and grow.
Save for possible allergies; there is no evidence whatsoever that edamame has been toxic to dogs. As long as they are cooked right and adequately introduced to your dogs, it would help if you did not harbor any worries when giving your dogs the edamame treat.
How Much Edamame Can I Give to My Dog?
When trying to introduce these vegetables to your dogs, it can be pretty tempting to desire to throw more than a handful into their feeding bowl in an attempt to give them as many nutrients as possible.
Like any other food going through its first trial, edamame must be introduced with care, tact, and vigilance. This is because it is safest to gauge your dog’s reaction to the new dietary item, both in the way they accept the taste and how it sits with their system before it is fully introduced.
If your dog is found to be allergic to edamame, you would not want to bear the guilt of causing it too much discomfort and distress due to the amount of new food it ate. It is advised to limit your serving to 3 beans a day for small dogs and 5 for larger dogs from experience.
Side Effects of Edamame for Dogs
The side effects of edamame for dogs are triggered when they have their stomachs full of it. Even when your dogs have been long introduced to edamame and have welcomed it as a part of their diet, there are limits to how much of it they can take per day.
Anything more than a handful of edamame could cause your dog to experience diarrhea with its attendant consequence – vomiting. The bottom line is, feeding your dogs with a bit of edamame each day is far healthier and more effective than loading their stomach with it.
Frequently Asked Questions on Dogs and Edamame
Can Dogs Eat Soybean?
Yes! Dogs can eat soybean. Soybean is easily digestible for dogs. Not only that, these legumes contain vital nutrients that your dogs shouldn’t miss out on. The protein content of soybean makes it a legume of high demand for feeding the canine family.
Can dogs eat soy sauce?
No! Soy sauce contains a high quantity of sodium which can cause harm to the health of your dog due to salt poisoning. The intake of soy sauce is responsible for diarrhea, seizures, and vomiting in dogs.
Is edamame poisonous to dogs?
No! edamame is not poisonous to dogs in any way. However, care has to be taken when introducing it to your canines.
Edamame should be fed to dogs for the first time in little quantity to test its acceptability to the dog’s system. Also, it is advisable to avoid cooking edamame for your dogs with salt to avoid salt poisoning. For the same reason, you are to stay away from seasoning when preparing edamame for dogs.
Can my dogs be allergic to edamame?
Yes! In rare cases, dogs have been observed to show allergic reactions to edamame. This is the reason why introducing edamame to dogs should be done carefully. You do not want to notice allergies after feeding your dogs with a lot of the vegetable.
Can dogs eat dry roasted edamame?
Yes! Dogs can eat dry roasted edamame. However, roasting edamame can reduce the health benefits of the food by killing some of the nutrients. Roasting is not a preparation method to use if you want your dog to get as many vegetables’ health benefits as possible.
Conclusion
Edamame is a worthy addition to the diet of any dog. This member of the soybean family has been trusted to provide dogs with the best and most vital nutrients and minerals necessary for promoting sound health, fighting off diseases, and supporting the development of dogs.
Edamame can be prepared or served in several safe ways, including raw, steamed, or frozen. It is not advisable to season, bake, or fry them as these preparation methods are unfriendly to dogs’ health. Adding salt to edamame for your dog is a wrong move as well.
This vegetable is best introduced to the diet of dogs in small quantities depending on the size of the dogs so that level of acceptance and allergies can be monitored without risking the health of the dog.
Congratulations! You made it to the end of the article. Now, you can enjoy helping your dog live as healthily as possible while enjoying a more robust, colorful, and exciting diet plan.
