The science behind Visionary Pet Foods: peer-reviewed research and the story behind it
Apr 19, 2026
The science behind Visionary Pet Foods: peer-reviewed research and the story behind it
Most pet food companies invest heavily in marketing. We invested in research.
This post discusses the findings of that research, its publication, and why we decided to fund it ourselves. It's also about a question that has driven everything we've built at Visionary Pet Foods — one that began long before KetoPet Sanctuary existed.
The industry talked about genetics. I talked about food
When I was a child, my dogs routinely lived into their late teens. They were fed simply and well. As I got older, I watched other people's dogs get sick and die young — and the explanation was almost always genetics. The pet food industry was very good at talking about genetics. Nobody was talking about food.
I spent time working with Morris Animal Foundation, where I helped launch the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study — one of the most ambitious longitudinal canine health studies ever undertaken, designed to track thousands of golden retrievers over their entire lives to understand what drives disease and longevity. The study was set up to examine genetics, lifestyle, and diet.
Food was eventually dropped as a primary variable. The study's major funders were large pet food companies. Once food was removed from the research agenda, I left.
If the industry wasn't going to fund honest research into what dogs eat, we would do it ourselves.
The question that started everything
The Warburg Effect — first described by Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Otto Warburg in the 1920s — established that cancer cells have a fundamental metabolic abnormality. Unlike healthy cells, which can use either glucose or fat for energy, cancer cells are almost entirely dependent on glucose. They consume it at rates up to 200 times higher than normal cells, even when oxygen is readily available.
The implications for cancer treatment had been studied in humans for decades. A ketogenic diet — very low in carbohydrates, high in fat — dramatically reduces circulating glucose, effectively cutting off the primary fuel supply that cancer cells depend on.
We read the research and asked a question that, remarkably, almost nobody in veterinary medicine had asked: Does the Warburg Effect apply to dogs?
That question became KetoPet Sanctuary. And the answer, it turned out, was yes.
KetoPet Sanctuary: the research
In 2014 we co-founded KetoPet Sanctuary — a non-profit organisation that rescued dogs with terminal cancer from kill shelters and investigated whether a ketogenic diet could improve their outcomes. Over seven years and $7 million of independent research, we studied what happened when dogs ate the way their biology was designed — very low carbohydrate, high fat, high quality animal protein.
We operated our own PET scanner — Positron Emission Tomography — for $50,000 per month. At the time, PET scanning was almost exclusively a human medical technology. Perhaps one veterinary college in the country had access to one. We had our own.
PET scanning works by detecting how cells metabolise glucose. By scanning dogs before, during and after their ketogenic protocol, we could see in real time whether tumours were still metabolising glucose — direct, measurable evidence of whether the dietary intervention was working at a cellular level. This is the Warburg Effect made visible.
We also operated a Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) chamber — flooding tissues with oxygen to create an environment hostile to the low-oxygen conditions that cancer cells depend on. Used alongside the ketogenic diet, the combination targets cancer metabolism from two directions simultaneously.
Dogs from outside the ranch came to us for both. No charge. It wasn't about the money. It was about the data — and about giving every dog we could the best possible chance.
At KetoPet Sanctuary, we housed 60 dogs and ran structured 300-day programmes combining ketogenic nutrition, HBOT and standard of care. What we found exceeded our expectations.
What the published research showed
The research was documented in a three-part series published in IVC Journal — Innovative Veterinary Care, a peer-reviewed publication read by integrative veterinary professionals worldwide.
Part 1 established the scientific framework — documenting that dogs can achieve and sustain nutritional ketosis, and outlining the methodology used at KetoPet Sanctuary to measure blood glucose and ketone levels in dogs on a ketogenic diet.
Part 2 presented the clinical results from our 40-dog open-enrolled cancer study — showing that a ketogenic diet used as adjunctive therapy could meaningfully improve survivorship beyond initial prognosis for several cancer types.
Part 3 translated the findings into practical application — demonstrating that nutritional ketosis is achievable for dogs in a home environment, not just under controlled research conditions, and providing guidance for dog owners and veterinary professionals on implementation.
The headline finding: 55% of dogs who completed the KetoPet programme went on to experience a quality of life far beyond their original cancer prognosis — continuing to walk, play, and thrive well past what their diagnosis suggested was possible.
To put that in context
AAFCO — the body that sets pet food standards in the United States — requires a minimum of 8 dogs, housed in a controlled environment, fed the test diet for 26 weeks. At the end of the trial, four basic blood markers are measured: haemoglobin, packed cell volume, alkaline phosphate and albumin. That is the industry standard for nutritional validation.
We validated our approach with 60 dogs over 7 years. We measured blood glucose and ketone levels throughout — not just at the end. We tracked cancer outcomes over 300-day programmes. We monitored coat condition, energy levels, body composition, and quality of life continuously. We operated a PET scanner to visualise tumour metabolism in real time. We supported hundreds of additional dogs eating low-carb diets at home. And we published everything in peer-reviewed veterinary journals so that any veterinarian, researcher or informed dog owner could read the methodology, examine the data and reach their own conclusions.
We're not saying this to diminish other brands. We're saying it because dog owners deserve to know what "validated" actually means — and to be able to judge for themselves what level of evidence they want behind the food they feed their dog every day.
From cancer research to a much bigger discovery
The cancer application was where we started — because that's where the need was most urgent. But what the research revealed about low-carbohydrate nutrition has implications that extend far beyond oncology. And this is where the real light bulb moment happened.
At KetoPet we were focused on ketosis as a therapeutic tool for cancer and seizure dogs. It worked. But what we kept observing — across dog after dog — was that the benefits of low-carbohydrate feeding went far beyond the dogs that were sick. Dogs eating a low-carb, ketogenic diet were healthier across every measurable marker. Better coat condition. Clearer skin. More stable energy. Healthier weight. Fewer digestive issues.
The conclusion was unavoidable: a low-carb diet doesn't just help sick dogs get better — it sets healthy dogs up for life.
This matters enormously for how dog owners think about nutrition. Most people only start thinking seriously about what they feed their dog after a diagnosis. But metabolic disease, allergies, itchy skin, chronic inflammation, obesity, diabetes — these conditions don't appear overnight. They develop slowly, over years of feeding a diet the body was never designed to process. By the time symptoms appear, the damage is already done.
Feed low carb from the start, and you dramatically reduce the likelihood of ever reaching that crisis point. The number of dog owners who have told us they've saved significant money at the vet since switching to a low-carb diet is remarkable — and it makes complete sense. A dog whose metabolism is functioning the way it was designed to function is simply less likely to get sick.
This shifted our thinking from "keto for sick dogs" to "low carb is the key for all dogs" — with keto as the optimal expression of that principle. Not every dog needs to be in full nutritional ketosis. But every dog benefits from dramatically reducing digestible carbohydrates in their diet.
The AAFCO label fight — a win that wasn't
As this understanding spread through the dog owner community, a group of dedicated pet parents and advocates took it directly to AAFCO — pushing for total carbohydrate content to be listed on pet food labels. It was a genuine grassroots campaign, and it worked. AAFCO agreed to add carbohydrates to the new Pet Nutrition Facts label format.
But the pet food industry had its say in how that requirement was written — and the result is largely meaningless in practice.
The carbohydrate figure on the new labels will show total carbohydrates — not net carbs. And total carbs includes dietary fibre, which dogs cannot digest and which has no effect on blood sugar or insulin response.
The number that actually matters is net carbs — total carbohydrates minus dietary fibre. That's the figure that tells you how much of the food will directly raise your dog's blood glucose and drive the metabolic problems associated with high-carb feeding. A food can show a seemingly reasonable total carbohydrate figure while still containing a very high net carb load — exactly the kind of confusion the industry benefits from maintaining.
Until net carb disclosure becomes mandatory, dog owners need to calculate it themselves: total carbohydrates minus dietary fibre, taken from the guaranteed analysis panel. That number — kept as low as possible — is the single most important figure on any dog food label.
What the blood glucose data showed
Dogs fed a low-carb, ketogenic diet at KetoPet maintained average blood glucose levels of 63 mg/dl compared to 93 mg/dl for dogs on standard high-carb diets — a 32% reduction. Lower average blood glucose means reduced insulin demand, reduced inflammatory signalling, and reduced metabolic stress across the entire body.
These aren't benefits that only matter for sick dogs. They're benefits that matter for every dog — at every life stage. And they accumulate over a lifetime of feeding, which is exactly why starting early matters so much.
Innovative Veterinary Care (IVC) Journal recognised the broader significance
In 2023, IVC Journal published two additional articles specifically about Visionary Pet Foods and the application of low-carb, ketogenic nutrition to everyday canine health — "Why a Keto Diet Is a Good Choice for Dogs" and "Visionary Keto Pet Foods Delivers Good Health" — extending the KetoPet research findings into practical guidance for pet owners and veterinary professionals.
For a pet food brand to be featured in a peer-reviewed veterinary journal five times across two separate publications is genuinely unusual. We don't say that to boast. We say it because it matters to know that what we're telling you isn't marketing. It's published, peer-reviewed science that the veterinary community can read, scrutinise, and evaluate for themselves.
Why Visionary Pet Foods exists
Visionary Pet Foods wasn't started because we saw a market opportunity. It was started because the dog owners who had been following our research and feeding their dogs low-carb, ketogenic diets at home kept asking us the same question: is there a simpler way to do this?
Making a genuinely low-carb, ketogenic diet at home is time-consuming. Getting the macronutrient ratios right, sourcing quality ingredients, ensuring nutritional completeness — it's entirely possible, and we've always supported people who want to do it. But it's not easy to sustain long-term.
So we created Visionary Pet Foods — not to replace home feeding, but to give people a validated, convenient alternative. And we want to be clear about one thing: we spent 7 years validating the diet before we sold a single bag. Most pet food formulations take months. We took 7 years — because we weren't willing to put our name on something we hadn't proven worked.
Every purchase of Visionary Pet Foods also directly funds KetoPet's ongoing research and education mission. No other commercial pet food brand funds independent non-profit canine nutrition research. We do — because that's why we exist.
We no longer operate the ranch in Texas. However, we continue to help dog owners and their dogs every day — through KetoPet's educational resources and Visionary Pet Foods. The mission hasn't changed. Only the format has.
Why we built this — the simple version
I grew up with dogs that lived into their late teens. There's no reason that shouldn't be the norm. The industry kept talking about genetics. We talked about food. We spent $7 million proving we were right. And then we made the food.
Feed low carb. Feed real meat. Give your dog's metabolism a chance to work the way it was designed to — and the results will speak for themselves.
The research, in full
All five IVC Journal publications are publicly available:
- KetoPet Sanctuary: Ketosis, Cancer and Canines — Part 1
- KetoPet Sanctuary: Ketosis, Cancer and Canines — Part 2
- KetoPet Sanctuary: Ketosis, Cancer and Canines — Part 3
- Why a Keto Diet Is a Good Choice for Dogs
- Visionary Keto Pet Foods Delivers Good Health
We also maintain a full bibliography of the peer-reviewed research that informed our work at KetoPet — spanning ketogenic nutrition, cancer metabolism, epilepsy, inflammation, and longevity — at ketopet.org.
This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified veterinarian regarding your dog's specific dietary needs.
Sierra was given 3–5 weeks to live after being diagnosed with osteosarcoma. Six months after starting a ketogenic diet through KetoPet Sanctuary, she was still alive, active, and showing no signs of metastasis. Read her full story here.
