Everyone has a doctor in him or her; we just have to help it in its work. The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well. Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food.

                                                             Hippocrates (Greek physician, 460 BC - 377 BC)

Hippocrates was right.  Food can be powerful medicine.  The right foods can make us very healthy.  The wrong foods can make us ill.  Many cultures have used certain foods as medicine, and a wide variety of foods to maintain optimal health. 

Most of our pets eat dry food.  The food formulations are based on the minimum daily needs to prevent deficiencies, not the needs to promote health and wellness.  Kibbled diets comprised of mostly corn, chicken and lamb are energetically very hot and drying .Years of feeding these to our pets make the pet too hot and dry, and can cause skin disease, allergies, diabetes, thyroid disease, periodontal disease, and even cancer.  Veterinarians have been using food therapy for years.  Prescription diets are aimed at treating specific diseases.  They do work for a lot of patients.  As an example, many of our pets with allergies have benefitted greatly from switching to a hypoallergenic food.  After a few months of the correct food, the pets have stopped developing ear infections, anal gland problems, and chronic itching.  The correct foods return these pets to good health.  The extra expense of a prescription diet usually offsets the cost of illness in both dollars and in the animal suffering.  Although these diets can work very well, they are still usually in the kibble form which is quite drying, and they do not incorporate enough variety of foods for optimal health.

A better way to feed for illness AND wellness, is a home-cooked diet.  Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM, incorporates a lot of different foods based on the energetics of the foods and the needs of the patient.    If a patient is very hot, one can feed cooling foods.  Old, cold patients get warming foods.  When appropriate, raw foods can also be fed.  (Although in pediatrics and geriatrics, raw food is to be avoided.) 

Cats are obligate carnivores and don’t do well on carbohydrates.  Almost all commercial cat food is high in carbohydrates, which contributes to obesity and diabetes.  Switching cats to a correct commercial or home-cooked food can reduce or eliminate the need for insulin, and usually fixes the obesity problem.  (These cats must be monitored frequently and insulin changes should only happen with direct veterinary supervision.)

We see a lot of big changes in pets switched to home-cooked diets.  Even in geriatric patients, we see a very large increase in vitality, energy, activity, and even richer colors in a faded coat.  Our cancer patients do exceptionally well.  While we don’t know how much longer our pets will live with cancer, we can certainly increase the quality of their life for the time they have left by feeding a home-cooked diet.

Dr. Clark discusses the diet and nutrition of each patient that she treats using integrated medicine.  While many busy owners can’t cook 100% of their pets foods, they can usually feed a good, holistic commercial diet and supplement with cooked vegetables, herbs, and grains.  If you do want to switch over to completely home-cooked foods, she will guide you to a balanced diet.