Are you watching what you eat? Are you watching what your pet eats? Is your beloved pet getting older? Does your pet have special needs or a health problem? Are you concerned about how wholesome the commercial pet food supply is? Do you love to cook? Or do you enjoy home cooking with an easy flair? All of the above are inspirations to cook for your family pet!

The art of cooking for domestic small animals abounded in our agricultural past. Farm families throughout at least three-quarters of the 20th century knew how to prepare balanced diets for their cats and dogs from leftovers and their own home grown products. Commercial pet foods are a more modern invention. Now, as we become more aware of the by-products and preservatives frequently found in commercial pet foods people are once again returning to home-cooked foods to nurture and heal their pets. One popular avenue of healthy living is through Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

TCM has five branches: Acupuncture, Exercise (Martial Arts, Tai Ji and Qi Gong), Herbal Remedies, Tui-Na (also called An-Mo or Chinese Chiropractic), and Food Therapy. The root of TCM is Food Therapy. In the veterinary field, we don’t make our pets do Martial Arts or Tai Chi but exercise American style is still beneficial.

Have you ever wondered why the proverbial Chinese dinner leaves you feeling satisfied but not stuffed, ready to do something active? How about the feeling you get after a turkey dinner when you’d like to sleep for four hours in the middle of the day? The Chinese chefs take advantage of the actions of garlic and ginger to transport foods and move them through the GI (gastrointestinal) tract. Other foods promote the heavy feeling of being over stuffed because of foods and food energies.

In TCM, Food Therapy is the art and science of using selected food ingredients and/or herbs to feed each individual based on age, species, inborn tendencies, geographical location, personality, and current disharmony or disease process.

Deficiency conditions in our pets can be treated with fortifying foods. These are foods that will strengthen a bodily substance or function and are useful in treating chronic disharmonies; Qi (Energy) tonics and Yin (Female Life force) tonics are cooling. Palatable Qi tonifying foods for cats and dogs are beef, chicken, lentils, mackerel, molasses, sweet potato, pumpkin and squash.

The opposite of Deficiencies in the body are Excess or Stagnation conditions. In these instances, regulating foods will help with circulation of Qi/Energy and Blood, relieve Stagnation, and counteract strong heat or cold conditions as well as drain fluids or phlegm.

Food Therapy in TCM makes use of the energetics of food plus Pattern Differentiation to diagnose what our pets are experiencing as disease (dis-ease). Treatment is based upon counteracting the pattern of disharmony. For instance, if a dog has loose stools, weakness, shortness of breath, pale moist tongue, and a weak pulse, a diagnosis of Spleen Qi Deficiency would be made. The treatment principle would be to tonify the deficient Spleen Qi/Energy by prescribing appropriate Chinese Herbal Medicines and feeding tonifying foods such as chicken, oats, quinoa, and yams. If the animal also has a cool, weak back, Yang (Male Life force) deficiency, while cooking the chicken add cinnamon for this deficiency to produce a Yang tonic. The possibilities are endless. If herbal formulas (the appropriate herbs/spices) are added when cooking, then food is indeed the medicine, as Hippocrates suggested. And the probabilities are exponential!

Most Food Therapy cooking at home is done in a crock-pot and can make meals suitable for beast and man, if individual animal and human needs and tastes are observed. There are also bonus recipes for those brave users of pressure cookers, including a basic chicken recipe for Canine Carnivores – for dogs that are not allergic to chicken or garlic. Of course, as in all cooking procedures, kitchen safety and meat hygiene must be strictly observed.

Now, you may be wondering, "So how do I find out what kind of diet is best for MY pet?" A veterinarian trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine can personally evaluate your pet and with the information she gains from a full exam and the history provided by you, she can help you decide which diet is best for your pet’s well being. Your cooking abilities and willingness to follow directions are a major factor when it comes to Food Therapy for your pets. Just like the food you put in your body, the foods you put into your pet’s body can help them live a longer, healthier and happier life. Isn’t that what we all want for the ones we love?