Side By Side: Using Eastern Food Therapy to ensure purposeful pet nutrition

Eastern Food Therapy is the thousands-of-years-old idea that food is medicine. Rooted in traditional Chinese medicine, the basic thought is that specific ingredients and food preparations can balance the body’s energetic properties (Yin and Yang) to promote health and wellness. There are three classes of food — warming, cooling and neutral — that can counteract a body’s specific imbalances. Long used on the human body, the idea is now in the pet space, and some pet food companies are using the practice to create their own formulas aimed at helping animals live their best lives.