About this episode

The episode explores the gaps in canine nutrition research, particularly regarding raw feeding and fresh food diets.

What if one of the biggest problems in canine nutrition is that we’ve barely studied fresh food at all? In this deep and thought-provoking conversation, I sit down with veterinarian and researcher Dr. Anna Hielm-Björkman from the University of Helsinki’s DogRisk research group - one of the only independent, university-connected teams in the world researching raw feeding and fresh food diets in dogs. But this episode isn’t about telling you what you should feed your dog. It’s about asking a much bigger question: How do we actually know what we know about canine nutrition? Together, we explore how pet food research is conducted, why so much of it focuses on ultra-processed diets, and what happens when fresh and raw food are finally brought into the scientific conversation. Dr Anna shares her own journey from conventional veterinary medicine into a more integrative approach to canine health — including acupuncture, nutrition, and preventative care — and why she became passionate about researching the relationship between food and chronic disease. We also dive into: why there is still surprisingly little independent long-term research on canine nutrition, how veterinary nutrition…

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