WHY ARE THERE SO MUCH PROTEINS IN SLIM 37 ?

Slim 37 is a product for cats that are likely to become overweight. Within the Feline Nutrition range, it is the least fatty product (10 %), et the one that brings the most vegetable fibers (11 %). Among the products of the market that are sold as "light products", this is the least energetic one (3500 kcal/kg).

1st goal: to maintain the palatability

Such a formulation risks to be specially unpalatable for cats. Actually, cats are rather attracted towards high-fat, low-fiber products, that are closer to its natural carnivorous diet. In practise, a lot of cat owners give up the idea to control their cat's bodyweight because it refuses to consume any kind of light product. Veterinarians who prescribe such diets are very careful concerning the palatability criterion for two reasons:

• they could be criticized by the cat owners for having pushed them to buy an inadapted product for their animal,
• starving for a long time is a serious threat over the cat's health, because of the risk of fat accumulation in the liver.

An important quantity of top-quality proteins is a way to make up for the lack of palatability due to the formulation. In Slim 37, proteins come from 4 different protein sources: chicken, turkey, fish and egg. All these ingredients have shown very positive results in palatability tests done in the Research Center of St Nolff. Thanks to its richness in proteins, its exclusive aromas, and to the Savour Pack packaging, Slim 32 is way more palatable than the previous product, C 32. Slim 37 is as palatable as Fit 32.

2nd goal: to limit the starch level

The fat restriction leads to increase the starch and/or the protein level of the diet. A low-protein diet would induce an even more important rise of the starch content. Such an important level of starch would be very nuisible to a good digestive tolerance. On the contrary, with 37 % proteins, the starch level of Slim 37 stays limited around 27 %.

3rd goal: to preserve the muscular mass

When the energetic intake is limited, the body uses its reserves to produce energy. Fat cannot be lost without inducing a loss of lean tissue, i.e proteins from muscular origin. In man, the target is to limit the loss of lean tissue under 25 % of the total bodyweight loss.

The cat is unable to "spare" proteins. It uses a lot as a source of energy. If the energetic restriction goes with a low proteic intake, the cat will "consume" its own constitutive proteins. Then, there is a risk of:

• rapid muscular loss
• digestive troubles
• degeneration of the health state, with weakened immunitary defenses and longest time for healing of the injuries.

A high protein intake allows to minimize the loss of lean tissue for the animal.

What is to fear from proteins ?

Proteins represent about 40 % of the energy brought by Slim 37: it is the same level as the one of the natural cat's preys. Then, the cat is very well adapted to these high protein levels.

Contrary to a very common idea, nobody has been able to give any evidence that a high daily proteic consumption could be responsible for the apparition of renal diseases in the cat, neither for any kind of diseases. The ageing process of the kidney is not accelerated by a high-protein diet. Only a minority of cats suffer from renal diseases and require a proteic restriction. But, as long as no clinical symptom can make suspect such a problem, the proteic restriction stays useless.

Conclusion

Thanks to its richness in proteins, Slim 37 allows to:
• guarantee a very good palatability,
• minimize the muscular loss when some weight is lost,
• limit the starch content, not always very well tolerated by the cats.

Donated by the Borg Cardona and Co. Ltd. visit Borg Cardona website