Gastrophysics for pets: Tackling the growing problem of overweight/obese dogs
Spence C.
While the growing global obesity crisis in humans has attracted a great deal of attention from the media and healthcare professionals alike, the rapid increase in weight problems reported amongst pets is now attracting widespread recognition too. In humans, the emerging science of gastrophysics offers a number of concrete suggestions as to how people can be nudged into eating less by means of the enhanced multisensory design of both foods and the environments in which they choose to eat. In this narrative review, the potential relevance of gastrophysics to helping tackle the growing problem of overweight and obese domestic dogs is reviewed. This involves discussion of both the important similarities and difference in the way in which people and their pets perceive food, and the likely role of various product-extrinsic factors on consumption in the two cases. Nevertheless, despite the differences, a number of suggestions for future research are forwarded that may help to address the growing problem of overweight pets, and the behaviours that give rise to it.