The Vet Blast Podcast presented by dvm360
Nov 3, 2026 · 30 min · 11 segments
On this episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, Host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, is joined by Valerie J. Parker, DVM, DACVIM (SAIM, Nutrition), clinical professor at The Ohio State University, and Rene…
OK, let's while we have you here, too, let's let's put a little number on a bag.
So that's balls normalizes everything to a caloric basis, grams or milligrams per 100 kcals instead of as fed percentages.
So explain to the audience why the number printed on the bag can quietly mislead a really good veterinarian.
Yeah, this is one of the most common misconceptions we face, and it is something that I will shout from the rooftop for anyone who is willing to listen.
When we're comparing diets, nutrients specifically, we really need to compare them on an even playing field, apples to apples, if you will, right? So the percent as fed does not allow you to compare diets of different caloric densities and the biggest example would be comparing a more calorically dense dry kibble diet to a high moisture food and that can be a canned food that could be a fresh food but let's just think about a single nutrient as an example let's think about protein a lot of people care a lot about how much protein their pets are eating right If you take an example of, I'm going to put a specific name to a bag here.
It's a very popular maintenance diet, right? And that 30 means it's 30% as fed protein.
So 30% means that for every 100 grams of food, 30 grams of that is protein.
But what does that mean on a grams per 100-calorie basis? When we do the math, and there are equations, and Vetspo even has this equation, there's a calculator on the tool that vets can convert a percentage fed to a grams or milligrams per 100-calorie basis.
When we convert that 30% to a grams per 100 calorie basis, we get a little less than 7 grams of protein per 100 calories, which is a nice moderate protein diet.
Now, on the flip side, if we look at one of the many fresh diets on the market right now, And you might look at the packaging and say, oh, it has 7% protein.
That must be really low protein, right? Because the caloric density is so much less, it's a fourth of the caloric density than the kibble.
When we do that conversion, we actually find that this one fresh diet has about the same, if not a little bit more protein, eight grams of protein per 100 calories.
And so again, The percents, whether it be protein, whether it be fat, whether it be phosphorus, they're not going to allow you to compare diets, again, of different caloric densities.
And even dry diets can have such different caloric densities if it's a high calorie, calorically dense maintenance diet versus, let's say, a lower calorie weight loss diet.
The percents will just mislead you, which is why we always want to compare nutrients on that even playing field.
And what do you think is the single most common comparison mistake that you see in practice? Is it that one or is there another one?
OK, let's while we have you here, too, let's let's put a little number on a bag.
So that's balls normalizes everything to a caloric basis, grams or milligrams per 100 kcals instead of as fed percentages.
So explain to the audience why the number printed on the bag can quietly mislead a really good veterinarian.
Yeah, this is one of the most common misconceptions we face, and it is something that I will shout from the rooftop for anyone who is willing to listen.
When we're comparing diets, nutrients specifically, we really need to compare them on an even playing field, apples to apples, if you will, right? So the percent as fed does not allow you to compare diets of different caloric densities and the biggest example would be comparing a more calorically dense dry kibble diet to a high moisture food and that can be a canned food that could be a fresh food but let's just think about a single nutrient as an example let's think about protein a lot of people care a lot about how much protein their pets are eating right If you take an example of, I'm going to put a specific name to a bag here.
It's a very popular maintenance diet, right? And that 30 means it's 30% as fed protein.
So 30% means that for every 100 grams of food, 30 grams of that is protein.
But what does that mean on a grams per 100-calorie basis? When we do the math, and there are equations, and Vetspo even has this equation, there's a calculator on the tool that vets can convert a percentage fed to a grams or milligrams per 100-calorie basis.
When we convert that 30% to a grams per 100 calorie basis, we get a little less than 7 grams of protein per 100 calories, which is a nice moderate protein diet.
Now, on the flip side, if we look at one of the many fresh diets on the market right now, And you might look at the packaging and say, oh, it has 7% protein.
That must be really low protein, right? Because the caloric density is so much less, it's a fourth of the caloric density than the kibble.
When we do that conversion, we actually find that this one fresh diet has about the same, if not a little bit more protein, eight grams of protein per 100 calories.
And so again, The percents, whether it be protein, whether it be fat, whether it be phosphorus, they're not going to allow you to compare diets, again, of different caloric densities.
And even dry diets can have such different caloric densities if it's a high calorie, calorically dense maintenance diet versus, let's say, a lower calorie weight loss diet.
The percents will just mislead you, which is why we always want to compare nutrients on that even playing field.
And what do you think is the single most common comparison mistake that you see in practice? Is it that one or is there another one?
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