A question I often receive from clients is my opinion on diets and a frequently asked question is about the value of raw diets.

Raw diets are just that- diets with a combination of both uncooked meats and vegetables. If a client is set on a raw diet, the key word I use is CAUTION.  My personal opinion is strongly against raw diets for several reasons.

One of my most important jobs as a veterinarian is for the protection of both animal and human health. The veterinary profession is not only responsible for example for safeguarding our patients against rabies by vaccination but also by protecting those pets, we protect their owners from contacting rabies. Food, particularly meats are a source of several bacterial and parasitic agents. Many have received attention recently such as e coli and salmonella. Several other infectious agents can be spread in food.

In short, cooking and hygiene are the best means of preventing food born illnesses.  Chicken in particular is an extremely common source of salmonella and cooking is the best means to kill the organism. This goes for not only us, but our pets.

Vegetables have cell walls which can prevent nutrients from being absorbed. Even light cooking breaks down cell membranes allowing the vitamin rich nutrients to more easily be absorbed. This is less of a factor in farm animals such as cows, goat sheep and horses that have gastrointestinal tracts armed with the anatomy and bacterial populations to break down cellulose and cell membranes easily. Dogs, cats, and for that manner humans don't possess the ability to break down plant material in the same manner(my dog passes the grass he eats undigested).   While some roughage is good (fiber) , cooking makes nutrients in vegetables bioavaliable.

 Cooking should not be confused with overcooking.  For my clients who prefer to cook for their pets, I prefer crockpot cooking. With a crockpot, foods are cooked at a low temperature slowly overa long period.  Nutrients are less destroyed or denatured (the argument some have for raw diets) and the infectious agents I worry about as a public health professional are destroyed if the food is properly cooked.  More like our bodies were designed- to slowly cook (digest) our diet.

 I recommend one of several high quality commercial diets (natural preferred) or for my more holistic clients who like to cook, a BALANCED crockpot  cooked diet .

While I know of some cases of "raw fed" patients, I feel the same nutrients can be fed without the exposure to possibly infectious agent and feel there is no reason to feed raw diets. The goal is to deliver nutrition as completely as well as safely as possible.