The Missing Link in Pet Biohacking: Why Fresh Cooked Food Trumps Raw for Your Four-Legged Family
Dr. Ruth Roberts
AUGUST 2025
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As biohackers, we obsess over every detail of our nutrition, curating our diets to achieve peak performance and longevity. Yet, when it comes to our beloved dogs and cats, many of us are missing a fundamental piece of the wellness puzzle: the transformative power of fresh, whole-cooked food.
The Biohacker's Blind Spot
In the biohacking community, there's been a surge of interest in raw feeding for pets, driven by the belief that it mimics their ancestral diet. While this approach has merit, it overlooks a crucial evolutionary fact: dogs have been eating cooked food alongside humans for over 30,000 years.
After three decades as an integrative veterinarian, I've discovered that optimal pet health, like human health, truly begins in the bowl. The challenge isn't finding the most exotic or expensive approach. It's implementing a simple, sustainable system that delivers consistent results.
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The Evolutionary Truth About Pet Nutrition
Here's what most pet parents don't realize: while Homo sapiens appeared about 50,000 years ago, dogs (Canis familiaris) evolved around 30,000 years ago from the same progenitor species as modern wolves, well after humans discovered fire and began cooking food. This means our canine companions have been consuming cooked food for millennia, not raw prey.
Dogs and wolves share approximately 99.9% of their DNA. They're so genetically similar that they can still interbreed and produce fertile offspring. What’s really interesting from a nutritional standpoint: despite dogs being much closer genetically to wolves, the 30,000+ years of co-evolution with humans have resulted in significant functional differences. Dogs have improved their ability to digest starches (they have more copies of the amylase gene than wolves), and their entire digestive physiology has adapted to the cooked, varied diet they've shared with humans.
Why Fresh Cooked Food Outperforms Raw
From a biohacking perspective, cooked food offers several advantages over raw options:
Enhanced Bioavailability: Cooking breaks down cellular structures, making nutrients more accessible and digestible. This is the same principle that allowed early humans to develop larger brains.
Safety Without Compromise: While raw food advocates argue that dogs' digestive systems can handle bacteria, I've observed that the vast majority of food-related illness in pets comes from commercial dry food. I've also witnessed pets sickened by improperly handled raw diets.
Practical Sustainability: Raw feeding requires significant freezer space, careful handling protocols, and substantial financial investment. Fresh, cooked food offers the benefits of whole food nutrition without the logistical challenges and environmental impact.
The Microbiome Revolution: Fiber and Polyphenols
As biohackers, we understand the critical role of the microbiome in overall health. The same principles apply to our pets. The Original CrockPET Diet leverages the power of diverse plant compounds to optimize gut health in ways that raw meat alone cannot achieve.
The vegetables in my protocol, particularly those from the Brassica family (kale, cabbage, broccoli), provide essential polyphenols that feed beneficial bacteria and support immune function. These plant compounds act as prebiotics, creating an environment where healthy microbes thrive while pathogenic bacteria struggle to establish dominance.
The inclusion of legumes, like kidney beans and pinto beans, adds another layer of microbiome support. These foods provide both soluble and insoluble fiber, creating the perfect environment for beneficial bacteria to flourish. The fiber also slows glucose absorption, creating a remarkably low glycemic impact despite the inclusion of whole grains.
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The Perfect Macro Balance
I've designed The Original CrockPET Diet around a balanced macronutrient profile: one-third each of protein, fats, and carbohydrates (including vegetables). This balance provides sustained energy without the blood sugar spikes associated with high-carbohydrate commercial foods.
The whole grains I recommend (brown rice, quinoa, millet) work synergistically with the vegetable fiber to create a slow-release energy system. Unlike ultra-processed grains that cause inflammation, these whole food sources provide B vitamins, minerals, and additional fiber that support digestive health.
The fiber content from vegetables and legumes creates such effective glucose buffering that even diabetic dogs often see improved blood sugar control on this protocol. It's the same principle we apply in human nutrition: fiber-rich whole foods create metabolic stability.
The Feline Exception: Honoring the Obligate Carnivore
When working with cats, we must respect that cats are true obligate carnivores, meaning they must consume animal protein to obtain essential amino acids like taurine. Unlike dogs, cats have not evolved the same capacity to process starchy carbohydrates effectively.
For feline patients, I dramatically reduce or eliminate starchy carbohydrates from the diet.
The recipe focuses primarily on high-quality protein with minimal vegetables, usually just enough to provide some fiber and micronutrients without overwhelming their carnivorous digestive system. The macronutrient profile shifts to emphasize protein and fat, with carbohydrates making up less than 10% of the total calories.
The Science Behind the Simplicity
What makes this approach revolutionary is its accessibility. The basic recipe requires just 15 minutes of prep time, then the slow cooker or Instant Pot does the rest. A typical batch includes three pounds of cooling protein (turkey, pork, or beef), Brassica vegetables for their cancer-fighting phytonutrients and prebiotic fiber, seasonal vegetables for variety and micronutrients, legumes for additional fiber and plant protein, appropriate whole grains for dogs (none for cats), a healthy fat source like olive oil, and essential fats with proper calcium supplementation.
The entire batch costs roughly $15 to $20 and feeds two 50-pound dogs for four days, comparable to premium commercial foods but with dramatically superior nutrition and microbiome support.
Making the Shift
As biohackers, we understand that optimal health requires investment, attention, and sometimes challenging conventional wisdom. The same principles that guide our personal wellness journeys can transform our pets' lives. The path to pet longevity and vitality isn't found in expensive raw food delivery services or prescription diets. It's simmering away in your slow cooker, creating a microbiome-supporting, metabolically-balanced meal that your pets will love and thrive on.
From breakthrough insights in pet wellness to in-depth features like our profile of Dr. Ruth Roberts — integrative veterinarian and expert on fresh-cooked nutrition for pets — Biohack Yourself Journal is available at Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Indigo/Chapters, Kroger, Publix, Albertsons, H-E-B, Meijer, Raley’s, and leading wellness centers across the USA and Canada.
