Using Traditional Chinese Medicine to Find the Right Foods for Your Dog
A dog parent is often concerned they may not be feeding their dog the right food. Finding the right food for your dog is not just about choosing a food made with high quality, healthy ingredients, however, it is also about choosing a food with ingredients that are appropriate for your dog, specifically. Dogs' dietary needs can vary somewhat depending on age, breed, or health problems, so it is important to find the kinds of foods that are optimal for your dog and will assist in maintaining a balanced body.
A brief study of Chinese medicine can be helpful in determining how to find the optimal foods for your dog based on their specific needs. Chinese medicine maintains that all foods have energetic properties and certain foods have the ability to alleviate or exacerbate personality traits, disease symptoms, and behaviors. Foods and beings are therefore grouped into "hot" or "cold" energy categories. Hot natured beings do better with foods in the cool or neutral category, and cold natured beings do better with foods in the warm or neutral category.
To apply this to a dog's diet, obviously the first thing one must do is determine whether a dog is hot or cold natured. Hot natured dogs have the tendency to be nervous and on edge. They may have very red tongues, pant excessively, or often look for cold floors to lie on. These animals have low energy during the summer heat and are excessively thirsty. They will most likely avoid warm beds, couches, or carpets when possible. Conversely, cold natured dogs are generally cool, calm, and collected. They may have pale tongues that are often very moist. Cold natured dogs prefer a warm place to sleep and wish to be covered or cuddled for warmth. They tend not to like being out in the cold. Cold natured dogs also tend to be slower moving and are often sleepy. By looking at these distinct, opposite characteristics of hot and cold natured pets, hopefully you can figure out which category your dog fits into best.
Once you determine if your dog is hot or cold natured, you can look into which foods are best for him or her. The temperature category a food fits into is not based on the temperature the food is served at, but the way the food makes the body feel when it is consumed. Cooling foods, for example, have properties that help cool down the psyche and body. These kinds of foods can be used to aid with inflammation or hot spots. Warming foods, on the other hand, are often used to aid in digestion. They can help improve circulation and can ease the pain of arthritis when it is worsened by cold weather.
Other categories also exist. There are foods that are considered "neutral," and these foods are used to harmonize the diet and balance the more extreme qualities of the other foods. Foods can even be considered "dry" or "moist." Dry foods can be used to eliminate the excess of a particular substance in the body whereas moist foods can be used to stimulate the production of the same substance in case of a deficiency.
It is incredibly helpful to enlist the aid of a certified dog nutritionist in finding the best foods for your dog, but if you have an idea of which category your dog might fall in, here are some foods you can start feeding to get started:
Warming foods: tuna, turkey, salmon, lamb, venison, chicken, chicken liver, shrimp, trout, oats, cabbage, squash, kale, quinoa, dried ginger, cayenne
Cooling foods: clams, duck, egg, tofu, pork, millet, barley, wheat, whole wheat bread, lettuce, celery, broccoli, spinach, tomato, kelp, banana, rabbit, cod, crab, cucumber, mushroom, seaweed, apple, cranberry, kiwi, lemon, mango, orange, pear, strawberry, watermelon
Neutral foods: beef, beef liver, chicken gizzards, rabbit, sardine, string beans, aduki beans, kidney beans, yam, polenta, rice, corn, rye, potato, beet, turnip, carrot, eggs, cod, brown rice, goose, tripe, quail, catfish, herring, mackerel, salmon, sardines, cauliflower, peas, pumpkin, pineapple, pomegranate, raspberry, papaya, cheese, milk, peanut oil, sesame seeds, chicken eggs, peanut
Foods that moisten: potato, sardines, tofu, wheat, pork, mussel, citrus, barley, string beans, dairy, sugar, yeast, wheat, roasted peanuts, bananas, concentrated juices
Foods that dry: lettuce, turnip, asparagus, amaranth, rye, mackerel, celery, garlic
