According to research, 71% of doctors take up to or fewer than 10 hours of nutrition teaching across their degrees, and only 61% feel prepared to address nutrition issues.
It would be understandable if you thought that data applied to veterinarians. It actually is about physicians for people, reported by Venya Patel on NutritionInsights.com, citing an expert from the Physicians Association for Nutrition (PAN) International.
This seems to be another (unfortunate) area where companion animal nutrition closely aligns with human nutrition. Though I’ve not seen recent, similar data for veterinarians, I know that, at many vet schools, students take only one nutrition class as part of their education and training. That may be changing, but my guess is that a current survey among veterinarians would still show a relatively low level of nutrition education, training and knowledge.
Parallels between human and veterinary medicine
The expert interviewed by Patel, Sumati Bajaj, a nutrition knowledge specialist, emphasized the importance of diet as a preventive health tool. “Despite this, current health care systems remain largely reactive, structured around diagnosing and treating disease once it has developed, rather than embedding prevention, including nutrition and healthier food environments, into routine care,” she said. This seems to match up with the most common M.O. for veterinary care.
The lack of nutrition knowledge for physicians doesn’t help, Bajaj added. “This means that even when health care professionals recognize the importance of diet, they may lack the confidence, tools or system support to translate that knowledge into meaningful, patient-centered care.”
It all starts, she explained, with how medical education programs are accredited; she cited an article in a BMJ journal showing only 45% of medical education accreditation documents mention nutrition. That influences what medical schools prioritize and shapes what future doctors are expected to know when they enter practice. I imagine a similar scenario exists with veterinary education curricula and accreditation.
And, even if physicians want to spend time on patients’ diets and nutrition, health care systems aren’t set up to allow for that. “With the demands of a clinician’s responsibilities, they may often lack the time, tools and incentives to bring nutrition into routine care,” Patel wrote, then quoted Bajaj again: “The first step is to make nutrition easier to include in routine care, rather than expecting already overstretched clinicians to take on another complex task without support.”
The idea is not that every physician needs to also be a dietician. “It means every doctor should have enough nutrition competence to recognize diet-related risk, start an informed conversation, provide basic evidence-based guidance and refer appropriately,” Bajaj said.
Again, the parallels with veterinary medicine are striking. When I took our two kittens for their first visit to our veterinarian (who has years of experience, a wonderful “bedside” manner and took the absolute best care of our previous cat through his last few years and end of life), she asked what they were eating — and that was the extent of the discussion about their diets. I’m not faulting her, just pointing out the reality: She still had to examine two squirming kittens, go over their vaccination and deworming schedules and discuss the timeline for future procedures, such as neutering.
Does the popularity of fresh pet food provide an opening?
For physicians, the way to plug the nutritional knowledge gap is through something Bajaj called culinary medicine, which seems to be a relatively new concept being tested by PAN International and others.
Could an equivalent work with veterinary care and nutrition? I’m not sure, but I am somewhat encouraged by new initiatives and products recently launched by pet food companies. Interestingly, most seem to be within the fresh category.
For example, late in 2025, Freshpet appointed a veterinary research head to, in part, guide the company’s scientific communications to veterinarians. In June of this year, the Farmer’s Dog announced a partnership with the University of Georgia College Veterinary Medicine to establish a three-year small animal clinical nutrition residency. This will be the company’s second university residency sponsorship; the first, announced in June 2025, was with the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine.
Of course, larger, more established pet food companies, such as Nestle Purina, Mars or Hill’s Pet Nutrition (or their divisions, such as Royal Canin) have long funded and partnered with veterinary schools, though that hasn’t seemed to move the needle much in terms of veterinarians’ nutritional knowledge.
Perhaps the growing interest in and popularity of non-traditional pet food formats provides an opening? Royal Canin just launched Fresh Veterinary Diets, its first fresh (yet fully cooked) therapeutic diet portfolio. From my knowledge, it’s one of the few such veterinary pet food lines out there.
“Veterinarians are having more conversations than ever with pet owners about fresh feeding approaches, particularly when managing a dog’s health condition,” said Jennifer Cullen, general manager, U.S. Veterinary Business Unit, Royal Canin North America, in a company press release.
In other words, market demand could be the impetus behind a new movement that may lead to a better connection between nutrition and veterinary care.
