The Natural/Holistic Pet Food Myth

Most pet foods that claim to be “natural” or “holistic” are indeed not! All you need to do is look at the official definitions of these terms to understand what I’m saying. The standards for pet food labels are set by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). AAFCO’s definition of natural is: “a […]

The Body’s Wisdom is Smarter than Nutritionists

Nutritional reductionists believe that they can formulate complete and balanced diets for dogs and cats. They create pet foods from ingredients that the ancestors of our dogs and cats did not have access to. The conditions under which the animal body was finely tuned over millions of years can give us insight into what is […]

Your Vet’s Pet Food Misunderstanding

As explained in last week’s blog, determinism is the belief that any subject can be best understood by understanding its parts. When determinism is applied to nutrition you get the kind of silly statements that veterinary nutritionists and pet food manufacturers make all the time. These experts will tell you that it is not the […]

The Folly of Reductionism

Reductionism is a common belief among scientists and researchers in Western medicine. The idea is that anything can best be understood by looking at its parts. When you comprehend how each part works then you can appreciate the thing of which they are a part. This is the way I was trained in veterinary school. […]

Side Effects from Raw Food

As a holistic practitioner, I treat the whole pet. Animals often come to me because they have a specific problem. The Western medicine way of dealing with such difficulties is to only focus on the issue at hand. In veterinary school we really learn more about disease care than we do about health care. The […]