Several pet food companies have included inositol in their vitamin list for decades. One estimate is that 10% of pet foods contain this ingredient. However, inositol is not currently recognized as an essential nutrient by Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) nutrient profiles. So why would companies add it as an ingredient to their foods and do so with no fanfare? Does it have some other benefit?
Interestingly, when one reviews early vitamin and amino acid research, inositol shows up repeatedly. Studies reported in the 1940s and 1950s to determine requirements for the B vitamins, amino acids, cholesterol, choline and others all included inositol in their micro-ingredient mixes. Many of these studies fed purified and semi-purified diets so perhaps it provided a missing element to these specialized formulas, though little mention is made in these articles as to why inositol was there.
