Now then....

Does holistic dog food take the biscuit?

I was in a pet shop two days ago and stumbled across some holistic dog food. What, I thought, is holistic about dog food? Is it infused with the channeled teachings of archangels? Did Dr Emoto bless it? Has it been Reiki'd before leaving the factory?

All this amid previous concerns about the misuse of our special word 'holistic' especially in the beauty industry and in politics and the 'joined-up' thinking lobby.

We ought to know on this site. Who came up with the term? How should it really be used? And is it time we reclaimed it?

For clues, take a look at www.hedolistic.com or www.loliboom.co.uk, but whatever why not shed some of your light (oh go on then - love AND light while you're about it!) on this topic....

Last edited: 2-11-2006 01:29:52 PM

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Hi there Carl,
Yes... it seems that the word holistic is quite fashionable these days, and is quickly being hi-jacked in the same vein as 'Aromatherapy' - used to sell everything from air freshener to tissues. Its the way of the market place unfortunately.
Its generality of use certainly is mis-leading when it comes to selling products.
Possibly the dog food was organic and didn't contain pesticides- you didn't mention this so possibly it wasn't and they substituted the word holistic for its generality and vagueness.

Now I'll take you up on the Beauty bit!
My original training was as a Beauty Therapist (a long time ago!) In those days it was the only place -up north anyway, I could go to learn Aromatherapy.
I accept that there are many reasons why the proffession has rightly got a bad press- but I'd like to say that its not fair to tar us all with the same brush!

In my first job back in the 1980's no one had hardly heard of Aromatherapy or Complementary Therapies .We specialised in Skin problems and had great success by treating the whole person- looking at the clients diet and lifestyle etc. Although we were a pioneering salon in those days- the Holistic approach is much more common place now - ( so we'll have a less of Beauty Therapist bashing - Thankyou!)
Jayne

Last edited: 3-11-2006 04:13:22 AM

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Hey - no bad feelings on the beauty therapy front - I'm sure it can, and needs to be, holistic.

My concern is when the claim is "holistic" in error or if the term is just used as a meaningless marketing tag.

I want to know what people think the word/term really means, so that we can 'hold' the truth of it...

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Hi Carl,

To me the term holistic means looking at the whole picture, mind, body, spirit, emotions, the sum greater than the parts. acknowledging and embracing all parts of the whole.

Have never thought about holistic pet food before.

Love Kim x

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Hi I'm new to the site and just came across your post on holistic dog food. As someone who teaches people how to feed their dogs and cats a natural diet, these foods cause me no end of questions. They are usually (but not always) wheat free. (A common allergen for dogs) They claim to be a natural food, containing herbs as a preservative instead of chemicals, although they still have a long shelf life. Although many are better than some of the other brands of pet food, they are not really the most biologically appropriate foods for our animals in my opinion. And yes it is a huge stretch of the imagination to consider them holistic.

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Hi there, I am Gaynor AKA W*HolisticUK

Chuckles @ "Holistic Dog Food"

I work with wholistic paradigms and facilitate the learning of our freshly hijacked word "Holistic"

At present I have a course available which is not for profit and is banked with the NOCN (Open College Network)

I emphasize the W* in wholistic in all my work
www.universal-learning.co.uk

I have at present a petition lodged with No 10 about informing government what the real and deeper meaning of the word W*Holistic means.

I also write up about the W*Holistic Paradigms on myspace blogs and will bring them over here too..

Warm regards Gaynor AKA W*HolisticUK

Last edited: 4-09-2007 09:10:43 AM

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