In a perfect world, a fresh, whole food diet would be all that our dogs need.

And for a long time, that was the hope — that rotating proteins, adding variety, and aiming for “balance over time” would naturally meet our dogs’ nutritional needs. But the reality is almost always more nuanced. As a pet health professional focused on long-term wellness, I approach nutrition with both reverence for whole foods and a sharp lens on where they fall short in today’s world. 

Let's face it — we’re feeding animals living in a very different environment than they did even a few decades ago. Due to reasons ranging from soil depletion and farming practices, to toxin exposure, chronic stressors, and rising disease rates, even well-intentioned fresh diets can fall short when it comes to key nutrients, therapeutic support, and bioavailability.

Here’s why I believe that strategic, targeted supplementation isn’t just helpful anymore. It’s essential.

1. Soil Depletion Has Changed Our Food, And Our Dogs’ Nutrition

Modern agriculture has dramatically altered the nutritional profile of the foods we grow and the animals we raise.

Intensive farming practices have stripped our soils of essential minerals over time. A landmark study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition compared USDA food composition data for 43 garden crops from 1950 and 1999, and found significant declines in essential nutrients including calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamin C, and riboflavin (6-38% lower in 1999 vs. 1950) (Davis et al., 2004).

This isn’t just a human health issue. Dogs that eat meats from intensively farmed animals or produce grown in depleted soils are also getting less nutrition, even when eating whole, “natural” foods. A free-range, herbivorous animal grazing on mineral-rich native land simply isn’t the same as a feedlot animal raised on monocrops of soy and corn.

Supplementation, in this context, becomes a way to replace what nature used to adequately provide, but no longer does.

2. Even Fresh Diets Can Have Nutritional Gaps

Feeding fresh doesn’t automatically mean your dog’s diet is complete or balanced.

Many well-intentioned pet parents follow simplified fresh feeding models, like the 80/10/10 prey model raw, that focus on macronutrient ratios (muscle meat, organs, bone) without addressing micronutrient requirements.

But fresh food is only as good as its formulation, and often falls short in key areas unless carefully designed. Some of the most common deficiencies seen in homemade and prey-model diets include:

• Vitamin E: A fat-soluble antioxidant rarely present in adequate levels in raw meats
• Manganese: Essential for joint health and enzyme function, but typically missing unless plant-based foods are included
• Zinc: Critical for skin, coat, and immune function, but its absorption can be easily blocked by high levels calcium and phytates
• Vitamin D: Dogs cannot synthesize it from sunlight like humans can, and rely entirely on food. It's often lacking in homemade diets unless fatty fish is used, which comes with its own sourcing and safety challenges 
• Iodine: Crucial for thyroid function, but absent unless seaweed or iodine-containing supplements are included
• Magnesium: Often under-supplied in raw and cooked diets, especially when low in leafy greens or plant-based sources

Even when fresh foods are rotated and varied, these imbalances can persist, because rotation does not automatically guarantee nutritional completeness . Many essential nutrients, particularly water-soluble vitamins and trace minerals, are not stored in the body, meaning our dogs require their intake on a consistent basis for optimal health and function.

A fresh diet should be the foundation. But it’s not the finish line. Strategic supplementation ensures the foundation becomes a complete structure — one that supports optimal cellular function, health and longevity.

3. Some Nutrients Just Aren’t Absorbed Well from Food

Certain nutrients, even when present in food, are not bioavailable — meaning the body can’t absorb or use them efficiently.

• Take Curcumin, the active compound in turmeric. It has powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, but studies have shown that it has extremely poor bioavailability from whole turmeric, due to rapid metabolism and poor absorption in the gut (Anand et al., 2007).
• The same goes for Quercetin, a flavonoid known for its antihistamine, anti-inflammatory, and cardiovascular benefits. Quercetin from food is absorbed at a rate of 2-5% or less in most cases (Manach et al., 1995).

To get a therapeutic effect — especially for dogs dealing with inflammation, allergies, or oxidative stress — we need concentrated, well-formulated supplements that enhance absorption.

4. Absorption Challenges: Gut Health Matters More Than You Think

There’s a crucial difference between what a food contains, what’s bioavailable, and what’s actually absorbed.

For example, in dogs with gut dysbiosis, enzyme deficiencies, inflammation, or leaky gut, even highly bioavailable nutrients may not be absorbed. Studies have shown that inflammation in the intestinal lining reduces active transport of nutrients like B12, zinc, and folate (Krebs et al., 2006).

This is especially true in dogs with:

• Post-antibiotic gut dysbiosis
• Chronic GI disorders
• Food intolerances
• Aging-related digestive decline

In such cases, using targeted supplements in gentle, highly-bioavailable, and easily absorbable forms, can help bridge the gap and ensure that the required nutrients actually reach the cells that need them.

5. Therapeutic Levels Often Aren’t Realistic Through Food Alone

Certain conditions demand nutritional support beyond what food alone can offer.

If a dog is recovering from illness, surgery, dealing with joint disease, immune suppression, or chronic gut issues, the goal isn’t just maintenance — it’s therapeutic intervention. That means doses of nutrients that go far beyond what’s present in food.

For example:

• Dogs with degenerative joint disease require daily therapeutic doses of Glucosamine and Chondroitin, which are nearly impossible to achieve through cartilage-rich foods alone, without overfeeding or compromising dietary balance.
• Omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) for inflammation control require precise dosing and ratios. Choosing whole fish over a high-quality omega-3 supplement to meet these needs would come with risks of heavy metal contamination, environmental toxins like PCBs and dioxins, and of course overfeeding. 
• Milk thistle, burdock root, and other liver-supporting herbs aren’t things most of us have in our kitchen — and even if we do, we can’t ensure purity, potency, or safe dosage.

Trying to meet these needs with food alone can lead to overfeeding, imbalanced nutrient ratios, digestive distress, or even safety concerns.

6. The Environmental Burden on Modern Dogs 

Our dogs are navigating a world that’s vastly different from the one their wild ancestors lived in — from pesticide residues to air pollution, indoor chemicals, microplastics, and over-vaccination stress.

All of this creates oxidative stress and toxic load that the body needs help processing.

The detoxification pathways, including liver, kidneys, skin, lymphatics, and gut, rely on nutrients like glutathione, B vitamins, zinc, and sulfur-containing amino acids to function properly. These systems are also supported by medicinal herbs like:

• Milk thistle (liver cell regeneration)
• Burdock root (lymphatic and hepatic support)
• Dandelion root (bile flow and kidney support)

These herbs can be incredibly supportive, but only when they’re clean and therapeutically potent. Because they’re deep-rooted plants, milk thistle, dandelion root, and burdock root are all prone to absorbing heavy metals, pesticide residues, and other soil contaminants. It's not always easy to find these herbs in their natural form at a therapeutic quality, especially when wildcrafted or loose herbs aren’t regulated or consistently tested.

That’s exactly where high-quality supplements come in: they offer these herbs in clean, standardized, safe, and accessible forms, with reliable dosing and consistency.

Chronic exposure to toxins can also actively deplete your dog’s natural nutrient reserves, increasing the need for antioxidants, minerals, and liver-supportive compounds just to maintain baseline health.

Supplementation Isn’t a Shortcut. It’s an Optimization Tool.

The goal of targeted supplementation is not to replace food. It’s to optimize it.

A fresh, whole food diet provides the foundation, but supplements help fine-tune, repair, and support, based on what your individual dog needs at the time.

Think of supplements like your dog’s wellness toolbox. You don’t need to use every tool every day. But when your dog needs nutritional support, joint support, liver drainage, antioxidant defense, or therapeutic support, you reach for the right tool and know you’re using it with intention.

Our dogs are living in a world filled with depleted soils, ultra-processed foods, chemical exposure, and biological stressors. In this world, thoughtful supplementation isn’t a trend. It’s a necessity. When used correctly, it can make the difference between “getting by” and truly thriving — not just today, but long into your dog’s senior years.