There is a huge difference between veterinary food therapy and regular pet food.
With regular pet food, everyone knows the most important ingredient on a pet food label is the first one listed.
After all, the first ingredient makes up the bulk of the diet.
But, have you ever thought about the rest of the ingredients?
Why are they included?
What purpose do they serve?
Are they necessary?
Well, you are not alone in your questioning. Recently, I spent a lot of time researching why certain ingredients appeared in pet food formulas.
What I discovered might surprise you!
It’s All About The Angle
Consumers choose pet food based on three factors – marketing, recommendations, and price.
While marketing comes straight from the manufacturer, recommendations come from other pet owners, friends, pet store owners, and veterinarians. As for price, you get what you pay for.
However, marketing is by far the most persuasive factor, and every manufacturer needs an angle.
Consequently, manufacturers devise many methods to achieve a marketing angle.
Scan any shelf at your local store or even your veterinarian’s office, and you will see many different marketing angles.
Examples of these angles include:
- Unique processing or even lack of processing
- Novel ingredients
- Organic and natural claims
- Persuasive packaging
- Certified humane sourcing
- Human-grade
- Small-batch
- Breed-specific
- Age-specific
- Diagnosis-specific
All of these angles are great and help to differentiate various products, but are marketing angles the deciding factor in what you feed your pet?
If so, then I want you to reconsider your decision.
I want you to consider a philosophy.
But first, let me tell you about my introduction to pet food.
Veterinary Food Therapy is What’s Not Taught in Vet School About Pet Food
In veterinary school, students learn about science.
Science is the cornerstone of nutritional training in veterinary school; guaranteed analysis, macronutrients, vitamins and minerals, and diseases associated with nutrition are all thoroughly covered.
Even though I agree that knowledge about nutritional science is important, this scientific expertise doesn’t necessarily mean you know anything about pet food or even feeding a pet.
Unfortunately, nobody teaches the aspiring veterinarian other details about pet food like cost-effective formulation, ingredients, fortification, procurement, marketing, and pet food philosophy.
These details are very important to understanding pet food.
As a matter of fact, these areas highlight the exact reasons consumers choose a particular diet for their pets. Knowing why people choose a diet is fundamental to understanding pet food.
However, the most misunderstood facet is pet food philosophy.
Thankfully, many veterinarians have come to appreciate the PET | TAO philosophy because they know it works.
Veterinary Food Therapy and The Knowledge of Nature
You see many manufacturers market food as “natural.” But, is it really natural, or is it just a marketing claim?
I will let you decide.
But first, I want to give you some insight into a better way to feed your pet, and it all has to do with philosophy.
Roughly 3,500 years ago, through a relentless observation of nature, ancient Chinese scholars discovered the power of food energetics and food combinations in determining health.
More importantly, they discovered that if ingredients are chosen for a specific reason according to food energetics, then the diet becomes more powerful in promoting health and preventing disease.
They called the philosophy Food Therapy, which is all about choosing each ingredient for a reason, or more correctly, it’s “energetic.”
Food Therapy philosophies suggest that the energetic properties of food, like energy, flavor, and movement, impact and determine overall health.
As to why some manufacturers choose the ingredients they do, it might come as a surprise, but I don’t really know. But, I would guess that many companies value cost-effectiveness over quality or reason.
PET | TAO’s Ingredients Are Chosen for a Reason – Food Energetics
When it comes to PET | TAO, I can tell you:
- 1001 veterinarians recommend our Food Therapy philosophy
- Food Therapy is practiced all over the world
- Countless pets benefit from it
And, we deliver it right to your pet’s food bowl!
