Food Energetics for Your Pet
You crave variety in your life and in your food. It’s fun and it’s healthy. And just like you, your beloved pet enjoys and benefits from diversity in its diet too.
It’s about balance. Feeding your pet a range of quality, healthy foods keeps its appetite and energy levels up and its immune system strong.
A Chinese Medicine Approach to Eating – Even for Your Pet
Of course, one of the most basic rules of nutrition and digestive health is that too much of anything can be bad. A large, rare steak once in a while. But not every night. A scoop of ice cream here and there. But not a salad bowl full! Moderation in eating is something you’ve learned by becoming aware of what makes your body feel comfortable and energized.
In the Chinese medicine tradition, foods have a Chi (energy). The constant interplay between Yin (positive) and Yang (negative) energies is what creates and maintains balance in our world. Foods can be either Yin, Yang, or neutral. And a balance of all three is needed to bring you optimum health and well-being.
Too much food that is either Yin or Yang can upset the body’s natural equilibrium. Illness and discomfort are thought to stem from an imbalance of these two energies in the body. Another, maybe more ‘traditional’ way of looking at this food energetics? You can think of the PH levels of foods just like the Chi of foods. Acidic foods need to be balanced with more alkaline foods, both for flavor and for health.
Warming and Cooling Foods
When it comes to feeding your pet and keeping it happy and healthy, this concept of balance is just as valid. It’s not only the ingredients on the label or the list of added nutrients that is important, it’s the way that certain foods make your pet feel.
In traditional Chinese medicine, it is thought that Yin (cold) or Yang (hot) energy is absorbed from the foods we eat. These warming (Yang) and cooling (Yin) properties in foods don’t necessarily equate to actual temperatures, spiciness, or preparation methods. Instead, they have more to do with the balance of ingredients and the effects of these ingredients on the body.
For your pet then, energetic diversity is key. Making sure that your dog or cat is enjoying a balance of warming and cooling foods will help its digestive and immune systems, its comfort and its happiness. Plus, it’ll keep its taste buds excited and alive.
And there’s the added bonus from focusing on the Yin and Yang of your pet’s diet: it brings it that thing we all love and cherish in life and food, variety.
Help Your Pet’s Chi with Identity ® Pet Nutrition
At Identity Pet Nutrition, we offer a range of high-quality proteins that are warm, cooling, and neutral to help you discover your pet’s balance for optimal health and wellness.
Here is a list of the proteins available in our pet food products and how they might affect your pet’s constitution and, yes, chi!
Yin: Cooling Proteins [For Balancing a Warm Pet/Warm Days]
- Turkey
- Duck
Neutral Proteins [Any Day]
- Pork
- Beef
- Salmon
- Herring
- Quail
Yang: Warming Proteins [For Balancing a Cold Pet/Cold Days]
- Chicken
- Lamb
Click here to discover and purchase the right foods for maintaining your pet’s optimal health and happiness.