Dr. Gerstmar's Thoughts on Health, Happiness, and Well-Being from Aspire Natural Health

My wife and I are the proud caretakers of 2 cats and 2 dogs.  About 5 years ago we stumbled into the raw diet for pets.  It made a lot of sense to us, considering the physiology and natural habits of dogs and cats: dogs and their wolf ancestors are primarily carnivores and cats are exclusively carnivores.  Looking at a generic bag of dog food the primary component is wheat along with a whole lot of junk ingredients.  In our quest to keep our pets healthy, we had transitioned from supermarket kibble to high end dog and cat food.  When we learned about the raw diet we slowly transitioned to a raw meat diet for both our cats and dogs.  The changes we have seen after adopting this diet have been phenomenal.

We had been told by our vet that one of our dogs would need bilateral hip replacement (due to hip dysplasia) at around age 6 and who was very unlikely to survive past 9.  She is now 11 years old with both natural hips intact.  One of our cats who was on the road to having teeth removed due to periodontal (gum) disease has all his teeth and his gums are in great shape (and truth be told we have never brushed his teeth).  The vet was absolutely shocked at the change.  Our other cat lost his behavior problems and has become a much more mellow, friendly cat since stopping the junk food.  And here’s perhaps the least and most important change: their poop does not smell.  The difference in the odor of their feces from kibble to raw meat is night and day.  Most noticeably our 2 litter boxes used by our 2 indoor cats only begin to stink after a week or so (versus 2 or 3 days when they are on kibble).

That’s the good news, a dramatic improvement in physical and mental well-being for our four pets.  The bad news, like any therapeutic eating plan, a raw meat diet is a pain in the butt.  We order 50 lbs boxes of turkey and chicken necks special order from our butcher, usually ordering 2-3 months worth at a time.  Then we defrost the boxes and re-bag the necks into gallon freezer bags and refreeze them in a garage freezer we keep for the purpose, transferring them to the fridge for daily feeding.  It’s a lot of work, and every once in a while my wife and I look at each other and really question whether it’s worth it.

Recently we ran out of raw meat and our butcher was backordered so we transitioned back to kibble.  Within a few days the litter boxes stunk, the dogs themselves began to smell noticeably ‘doggy’, both the dogs and cats fur began to lose its shine, and one of our cats began manifesting behavior problems again.  Even for a Naturopathic doctor, someone who knows the tremendous difference food can make, the change was shocking.

Over dinner a week ago my wife and I were talking about the huge changes we saw in our pets.  If a change from a junk food to a high-quality diet could make such a tremendous change in our pets, what changes would we see in ourselves if we did the same thing?  We both are in a good health, and eat a pretty good diet.  But we were curious,  and so we decided to do just that.

In the month of March I will be transitioning to a diet free of sugar, gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, and citrus foods (the five most common reactive foods I see in my practice are: gluten, dairy, eggs, soy and citrus).  In future posts I will be talking about making the transition, and detailing my experiences on this therapeutic eating plan.  I invite you to follow along to any extent you wish.  If you would like to join me through cyberspace, I invite you to post your experiences in the comments section through the month of March.

For those of you in the Seattle area who are interested and would like more intensive support, I will be offering a series of support classes over the month of March.  This is a prototype in design, and is currently 4-5 thirty to sixty minute group classes where we meet weekly to share information and support one another.  Because this is the first class and we will be working the bugs out, we are discounting the cost to $100 for the series.  A minimum of 5 participants are required for the series to go forward, so if you are interested or would like more information please email us right away at info@aspirenaturalhealth.com.

Stay tuned for future posts in the next 10 days as I lay out my planning for the month of March.

Do you have any thoughts or opinions?  We’d love to hear them.  Please post them in the comments section below?