08/08/2024
Finally, we’re at a turning point in veterinary nutrition. ✨ Vets are the last group of formally trained medical professionals to still actively (and sometimes aggressively) promote the exclusive feeding of ultra-processed, pelleted food for a lifetime (birth to death), as a means to achieve longterm health. 🥺❓
This incongruent and unorthodox recommendation is a result of our nutrition education during veterinary medical school. As of now, every vet school around the world is endowed by a Big Pet Food brand, so their nutrition curriculum is funded, prepared and executed (taught) by the top (ultra-processed) pet food manufacturers (or faculty funded by them), so our future vets don’t have access to unbiased nutrition information. But our Next Generation vet students are asking more questions 💥; aren’t less processed, fresher foods healthier for all mammals? How does heat and extended, unregulated, storage temps affect added nutrients, flavorings, palatants and additives 🌡️? Where are all the synthetic nutrients coming from, and is anyone regulating safety? In the U.S., there’s no limit on the amount of copper and other minerals in pet food… and what happens when we feed excessive amounts in perpetuity?
While some vet med students may not feel nutrition is relevant to their future (see link in graphic), and some (correctly) feel they aren’t adequately prepared for the job ahead of them, we have a whole new generation of intelligent, inspired, and empowered veterinary students who actually understand all of these issues, and are moving forward with a clear sense of what needs to happen in veterinary hospitals around the world, but also what has to happen in the industry ☄️. The next generation of present-knowledge vets is here… let’s support the heck out of them❣️
