Zoobiquity?
Held in Sydney yesterday, I was very excited to attend the first ever conference where human and animal scientists and practitioners got together to present their findings in relation to the ailments that commonly afflict modern day humans and animals.
Not surprisingly the focus was on obesity, diabetes, diet and teeth. Having made the insane six am flight from Avalon airport to Sydney that morning, all this talk about food just made me ravenous by morning tea. To my horror, plates of fancy biscuits were the only food in sight. The caterers obviously were not wised up to the conference topics.
I felt quite proud that by the close of the day, there had been few surprises even though the whole conference was extremely interesting. I wondered if everyone else in the audience and vets in general were of the same opinion. Apparently not. Maybe in our integrated approach to health with interests in acupuncture, diet, herbal medicine, chiropractic and other physical therapies, I had developed a broader outlook. Maybe, the exposure of being part of a special group of Animal Biomechanical Practitioners where veterinarians, chiropractors and osteopaths came together to share our knowledge and skills opened our minds.
Anyway the take home messages for me were:
Paleo diets work for weight loss but accelerated the rate of ageing in the body.
Wild dogs and cats have just as much gum disease as domestic dogs and cats but their teeth were cleaner.
Our human animal bond equates feeding our pets with love for our pets. Hence the rise in obesity and diabetes.
The multinational food companies of humans (and pets) rule the world (I already knew that).
Feeding starving children in third world areas predisposes them to obesity and its related diseases. No idea what the solution is here. Maybe feed the mother and give her a source of income? Maybe fix the wars and politics in those countries?
Build bike paths to tackle obesity (Yay! but I knew that too)
Older people are getting less fat while younger people are getting fatter faster.
Arriving home later that same night, I ate two apples (home grown) and went to bed….