Calories per Pound & ESC + Starch

On November 6th, 2014 I gave Poulin, Purina, and Triple Crown a call asking about some of their products. While a guarteneed analysis and ingredients are easily found, the calorie per pound and ESC content is difficult to obtain. So I went directly to the source.

In previous articles I've always referenced NSC, Non Structural Carbohydrate (NSC); used to describe the sugar and starch content of the feed, the digestible carbohydrates. Horses with lamanitis, founder, metabolic, etc require a low starch low sugar diet. 11% NSC and below is recommended for that population of horses. While full working performance horses should have 22% NSC or below as to not cause any digestive upset or unwanted 'hotness' that is usually associated with some grain. To put this in perspective, corn has a 73% NSC with the glycemic index of 100. Corn is basically straight sugar and starch, very bad on the horse's body.

Ethanol soluble Carbohydrates (ESC) is composed of the simple sugars glucose, fructose, and sucrose. Water soluble Carbohydrates (WSC) is glucose, fructose, sucrose and fructans. If you take the WSC minus the ESC then you get the fructan content. Fructan is digested in the hind gut, too releases endotoxins in the bloodstream which is a cause of lamnitis. Simple sugars (glucose, fructose, and sucrose) are digested in the foregut and raise insulin levels. Too much can be a contributing factor towards laminitis.

So for the sake of comparison, I will be using ESC + Starch percentage.


Poulin
Fibre-Max: 1,500 kcal/lb
ESC + Starch: 17.5%
PerforMAX 12:12: 1,500 kcal/lb
ESC + Starch: 25.5%
Performance 10:12: 1,550 kcal/ lb
ESC + Starch: 28.8%
Calorie-Plus: 3,500 mcal/ lb
Poulin's ESC + Starch levels could not be obtained

http://www.poulingrain.com/resources/Poulin_Horse_Feed_Carbohydrate1010.pdf
 
Purina

• Ultium: 1,900 kcal/lb & 15% NSC
• Omolene 100: 1,535 kcal/lb & 40.5% NSC
• Omolene 200: 1,625 kcal/lb
• Omolene 300: 1,535 kcal/lb
• Strategy: 1,500 kcal/lb & 24% NSC
• Horse Chow 100: 1,000 kcal/lb & 16% NSC
• Horse Chow 200: 1,125 kcal/lb & 18% NSC
• Complete Advantage: 1,400 kcal/lb & 22.9% NSC
• Horseman's Edge 12: 1,500 kcal/lb
• Horseman's Edge 14: 1,500 kcal/lb
• Athlete: 1,900 kcal/lb & 45% NSC
• Equine Senior: 1,225 kcal/lb & 22% NSC
• Equine Junior: 1,350 kcal/lb & 23% NSC
• Fibra Plus: 1,452 kcal/lb & 18% NSC
• IntegriT: 1,452 kcal/lb & 10% NSC

Triple Crown
Complete: 1,700 kcal/lb
ESC + Starch: 20.6%
Senior: 1,546 kcal/lb
ESC + Starch: 11.7%

Nutrena
Pro Force Fuel: 1,595 kcal/lb
Sugars: 7% Starch: 13% NSC: 20%