Here’s what you need to know about ingredients, nutrients and common terminology for your cat's diet.
Amino acids: Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and their derivatives. Proteins contain a total of about 20 amino acids, only 8 to 10 of which, according to the animal species concerned, must absolutely be provided to the body by food. The others are biochemically synthesized by the body.
Anti-nutritional factor: Molecules contained in a food limiting or altering the intestinal absorption of one or several nutrients. Anti-nutritional factors are usually destroyed by cooking.
Antioxidants: Antioxidants are organic molecules that enable the body to fight the destructive action of free radicals, unstable and dangerous elements derived from oxygen and produced permanently by the body.
Beta-carotene: Beta-carotene and carotenoids are vitamin A precursors that give that lovely orangey-red colour to plants. But it is its role as a powerful antioxidant that makes it such a useful nutrient.
Biotin: Biotin was discovered at the turn of the last century with the research on a disease called "egg white disease": the consumption of large amounts of raw egg whites induced skin lesions, hair loss and neuromuscular disorders. By cooking the whites, associated with yeast distribution, the illness could be cured, since it was due to the fact that biotin, a vitamin included in yeasts, was destroyed by an anti-biotin substance present in raw egg whites. Biotin is involved in the catabolism (chemical breakdown reactions) of glucose, fatty acids and some amino acids. It is essential for the synthesis of some other fatty acids.
Calcium: Calcium is a major mineral element. It plays two important roles in the body: it is a basic component of the skeleton, giving it solidity, jointly with phosphorus. It also contributes to information transfer between cells and to nerve impulse transmission.
Carbohydrates: Organic compounds essentially used to provide energy, some of them maintaining a structural role while others help keep the digestive tract clean. Carbohydrates are divided into two groups according to their composition: - simple carbohydrates, also called “sugars” (glucose, fructose, saccharose, lactose, etc.) found in fruit, honey, milk, sugar and derived products - complex carbohydrates, including starches (energy source) and dietary fibers (for overall hygiene of the digestive tract).
Carnitine: Carnitine is a non-essential amino acid normally made by the body from two essential amino acids, lysine and methionine. It only becomes essential in food under certain circumstances, when, because of a disease or a physiological problem, the body can no longer synthesise enough of it for its need. Like all amino acids, its chemical structure allows two forms of molecules, called D and L, only L-carnitine being active and thus effective.
Casein: Casein is a protein extracted from milk – it's what makes milk white. It is isolated by milk coagulation to separate it from the other milk compounds (lactose for instance, the main sugar in milk) liable to upset the digestion of cats and dogs. It is one of the most valuable nutritional sources of essential amino acids.
Cellulose: Cellulose is a very large molecule consisting of thousands of glucose units linked together by stronger chemical bonds than those found in starch. However, in nutrition, the term includes all soluble or in-soluble fibrous plant substances (cellulose per se, hemicelluloses, pectins, lignin, oligosaccharide fibers).
Chelates: Chelates are natural organic molecules used in nutrition as supports to fix trace elements and thus improve their digestibility significantly. This molecule can be either a carbohydrate or a protein, according to the trace element being carried.
Chondroitin: Chondroitin sulfate is a carbohydrate molecule entering into the composition of proteoglycans that are in turn basic elements in the formation of joint cartilage.
Cobalt: Cobalt is a minor mineral element. This trace element is one of the components of vitamin B12, which makes it an anti-anemia element contributing to the formation of blood hemoglobin.
Collagen: Collagen is a protein and a major component of connective tissues: tendons, aponeurosis, articular capsula, cartilage, bone matrix, etc. Crude collagen is very difficult to digest and can cause diarrhea, but once cooked it is a source of highly digestible proteins.
Copper: Copper is a minor mineral element. In the body, copper works in conjunction with iron, contributing to the intestinal absorption and haemoglobin inclusion of iron. It is also an active element in many enzymes, particularly those that promote cell oxidation phenomena.
Dietary fibers: Components found in plants, including cellulose, hemicelluloses and pectins, that cannot be assimilated by the body. Although of no direct nutritional value, dietary fibers are nevertheless very important: insoluble fibers facilitate intestinal transit while soluble or fermentable fibers help protect the intestinal wall and fight against bacteria that cause diarrhea.
Energy: In order to function smoothly, an animal's body needs the energy contained in its food (whether animal or vegetable in origin). During digestion, food is broken down into nutrients that, once absorbed and metabolized by the body, provide energy. In a premium cat or dog food: - 1 gram proteins provides about 4 calories. - 1 gram carbohydrates provides about 4 calories(excluding fibers). - 1 gram lipids provides about 9 kilocalories. Energy requirements: The varying amount of energy required to compensate for the body’s daily energy losses. This amount depends on age, physiological status (growth, gestation, lactation, etc.), physical activity, size of animal (in dogs) and castration, if any (in cats).
Enzyme: An organic molecule with the ability to speed up or trigger biochemical reactions in the body.
Essential amino acids: Some amino acids - 8 of them - cannot be synthesized by the body. This means they have to be provided by the diet in suitable amounts and proportions. Essential amino acids is an apt description, since, without them, the body cannot achieve any normal proteic synthesis.
Fatty acids: Fatty acids are the main constituents of lipids. They are characterized by the number of carbon atoms they possess, hence the expressions short-, medium- or long-chained fatty acids. They can be saturated (no double chemical bond between 2 carbons) or unsaturated (with 1 to 6 double bonds). Though the latter, more fragile, are subject to rancidity, they include many fatty acids that are essential to vital functions.
Folates: Discovered in the middle of last century, folic acid is a water-soluble vitamin stored in the animal's liver. For some years now, it has been better known as vitamin B9, but folates used to be called vitamin M or vitamin Bc or L. casei factor. Folates are closely involved in all aspects of protein metabolism as well as in the synthesis of the molecules making up the genetic material (DNA).
Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS): Fructo-oligosaccharides are special carbohydrates classified as fermentescible fiber. They are not digested, but nevertheless rapidly fermented under the effect of intestinal bacteria, resulting in the release of small-sized fatty acids (known as volatile fatty acids) that 1) acidify the intestinal medium. 2) are excellent nutrients for cell maintenance and renewal and 3) line the walls of the large intestine.
Glucosamine: Glucosamine is a carbohydrate molecule entering into the composition of proteoglycans that are in turn basic elements in the formation of joint cartilage.
Hormones: Substances without which the various organs could not work together, secreted by the endocrine glands (thyroid, pancreas, adrenal glands, etc.) and carried by blood. Target organs or cells are dependent on them for their activity, as hormones stimulate or inhibit their functioning.
Ingredients: The “visible” elements (the raw materials of food) in a recipe. An ingredient can be a source of several nutrients and improved by eliminating its components with no nutritional value. Kilocalorie: The unit of energy used in calculating an animal’s energy requirements and the food’s energy density. 1 kilocalorie = 1,000 calories = 4.18 kilojoules.
Iodine: Iodine is a minor nonmetallic mineral element. This trace element is a component of the thyroid gland hormones, making their synthesis possible.
Iron: Iron is the indispensable component of hemoglobin, a pigment that carries oxygen in the red blood cells, and of myoglobin, which does the same in the muscles. This is why blood and muscles are red. Iron also fulfils many enzymatic functions, pertaining to cell respiration in particular.
Lipids: The main component of fat, lipids have a high energy content in a small volume (fats, oils). They also play a functional role in the body by means of the vitamins dissolved in them (vitamins A, D, E and K) and the presence of essential life-sustaining lipid molecules (indispensable or essential fatty acids).
Magnesium: Magnesium is a major mineral element, an alkaline-earth metal known in nutrition as a mineral macroelement because of the large amounts needed by the body. Magnesium, like calcium and phosphorus, is a component of the skeleton to which it imparts solidity, though to a lesser degree than they do. It is also essential to the good working order of the nervous system and contributes to the overall energy of the body.
Mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS): Mannan-oligosaccharides belong to the large category of fibers, which means they are non-digestible carbohydrates. Just like FOS, they are effective against harmful bacteria living in the intestinal lumen, but have a different mode of action. They are composed of two sugars: glucose and mannose.
Metabolism: All the biochemical processes occurring in a living being so that it may develop and survive. Some reactions make construction processes possible by means of synthesis (anabolism), others are degradation or breakdown processes (catabolism).
Micronutrients: Nutrients present in tiny amounts in food (vitamins, trace elements). Nutrients: Simple mineral elements or organic molecules that are the components of food, each one of them being essential to the functioning of the body. According to the condition of the latter, preparing a balanced food involves making a complex jigsaw, each piece of which is a different nutrient. Nutrients are divided into families: protides – lipids, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins – without forgetting the most important one of all: water. Nutrients are prime elements, just like there are prime numbers, from which all conceptions of a balanced diet must derive.
Niacin: Vitamin PP is thus named because it prevents pellagra, a skin disease that makes the skin rough. It was identified in 1935 but we now know that an essential amino acid, tryptophan, also enables the body to produce it. Activated niacin triggers all the body's oxidation-reduction reactions, essential to the production of energy from fats and sugars.
Nutrition: The process of providing or obtaining the food necessary for health and growth. The nutrients contained in the food are extracted, absorbed and then used as "fuel" by the body for growth, repair, movement, thinking and other functions. In essence, nutrition maintains and sustains life.
Nutritional balance in food: Nutritional balance in food provides the energy constantly required required by the body, the materials needed to permanently build and renew organs as well as providing small amounts of those substances that are essential to the smooth functioning of the biological phenomena permanently occurring in the cells.
Omega 3 fatty acids: Fatty acids in the omega 3 series are biologically essential fatty acids that the body cannot synthesise; this family is derived from linolenic acid, a fatty acid with 18 carbon atoms and 3 double chemical bonds. Two other longer chained but just as essential fatty acids also derive from linolenic acid: EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid).
Omega 6 fatty acids: The omega 6 series of fatty acids are biologically essential fatty acids that the body cannot synthesize; this family is derived from linolenic acid, a fatty acid with 18 carbon atoms and 2 double chemical bonds. Two other longer chained but just as essential fatty acids also derive from linolenic acid: gammalinolenic acid and arachidonic acid.
Pantothenic acid: Lipman's discovery of pantothenic acid as a component of a pivotal molecule for cellular power production (coenzyme A) was rewarded by the Nobel Prize in 1953. This underlines how important this vitamin is. Pantothenic acid is a component of the coenzyme A, which is involved in nearly every metabolic activity (carbohydrates, lipids, protides) producing energy for the body's cells.
Phosphorus: Phosphorus is a major nonmetallic mineral element. Phosphorus has many equally important roles: it imparts solidity to the skeleton when associated with calcium; it is a component of the cell membrane, and an element without which energy cannot be provided to the body (via ATP-adenosine triphosphate).
Polyphenols: Polyphenols form a large group of molecules found widely in the vegetable kingdom. They have been the focus of research for a few years because of their powerful antioxidant properties for the body. By fighting against free radicals within the cell, and especially by protecting DNA against possible destruction or induced mutations, polyphenols effectively act as a shield for intracellular defences.
Potassium: Potassium is a major mineral element. This mineral element is essential to the functioning of the cell, maintaining, with sodium, the pressure balance between the inside and the outside of the cell as well as participating in the cell's energy metabolism.
Proteins: Proteins are chained molecules composed of amino acids linked together by chemical bonds and positioned in a perfectly set order that determines the nature and roles of each protein. Proteins can be animal or vegetable, pure or linked to carbo-hydrates or lipids (heteroproteins).
Pyridoxine: Pyridoxine or vitamin B6 was discovered and isolated only in the middle of last century, and research is still ongoing to better understand its roles in the body, as there's so many of them. Vitamin B6 acts as a coenzyme in many enzymatic systems, thus playing many roles in metabolisms (that of amino acids in particular).
Riboflavin: Once confused with vitamin B1, riboflavin was discovered in 1937 and it's only since the 1980s that certain diseases are known to be linked to a vitamin B2 deficiency, as it induces insufficiently specific symptoms. It is soluble in water. Riboflavin is what is called a coenzyme (a substance indispensable to an enzyme's activity), required for many biochemical reactions: energy production from fats, amino acid catabolism, cell "power plant" activity.
Selenium: Selenium is a minor nonmetallic mineral element. Selenium is an antioxidant trace element that, in synergy with vitamin E, protects cell membranes.
Starches: Starches are carbohydrate molecules in which thousands of glucose molecules are linked together by simple chemicals bonds. Starches are only used to provide energy to the animal, after being degraded by the digestive process to help the intestine gradually absorb the glucose molecules.
Sugar: With no qualifier, this term usually refers to saccharose (beet or cane sugar), but it could just as well refer to glucose (grape sugar), fructose (fruit sugar) or lactose (milk sugar).
Superoxide dismutase (SOD): Superoxide dismutase is an enzyme generally present in each cell. It acts as an intracellular anti-oxidant. Therefore, as a nutrient, it belongs to the group of antioxidant molecules.
Sodium: Sodium is a major mineral element that is essential for the cell to function properly. It maintains the pressure balance between the inside and the outside of the cell, and plays major roles in the cell's energy metabolism. Sodium is also the element that regulates water balance and the sensation of thirst or urinary elimination. Its role is very closely interlinked to that of potassium.
Sulpher: Sulphur is a major nonmetallic mineral element. It is found in the body mainly in its organic form, incorporated into sulphur amino acids (methionine, cystine and cysteine), and its roles are therefore linked to that of the latter.
Taurine: Taurine is an amino acid containing sulphur which can be found in most animal tissues, and concentrates in the muscles. Taurine enables the liver to synthesise bile salts. It also works by regulating calcium flows inside and outside the cells, thus affecting the functioning of the heart. Lastly, it is a powerful cell antioxidant.
Thiamin: Thiamin, the chemical molecule that cures beriberi, thus became the first vitamin to be known as such. Soluble in water, it is found mainly in the heart, kidneys, liver and the brain. Thiamin is an essential molecule involved in numerous complex biochemical reactions generating energy in the cells. But it is especially indispensable to the nervous system which cannot function without it, as it is an essential component of what is called a neurotransmitter (a molecule enabling nerve impulse progression between neurones).
Tyrosine: Tyrosine is an amino acid known as "aromatic" (because it contains a chemical cycle including 6 carbon atoms in its structure) which is not indispensable to the body. Indeed the body has normally the ability to synthesise tyrosine from another amino acid which is indispensable in the diet: phenylalanine. A genetic disease is known in humans in which the enzyme that makes this conversion possible is lacking, which induces a tyrosine deficiency with major mental and neurological disorders, associated with hair and coat depigmentation.
Vitamin: A vitamin is an organic substance needed by the body, with no energy value of its own, and that the animal cannot synthesize in sufficient amounts to function normally. Therefore, an adequate daily supply of it must absolutely be provided by the diet.
Vitamin A: In the Antiquity, some visual disorders were treated by giving people liver to eat. Vitamin A was isolated in 1913 and its incidental chemical structure in 1931: it is a long-chained alcohol soluble in fats. Absorbed by the small intestine, it is stored in the liver. Beta-carotene is one of its precursors that is changed into vitamin A by the body.
Vitamin B12: The anti-anaemic properties of calf liver were discovered in 1925 and were thought at the time to be related to an "extrinsic dietary factor" that was isolated only in the middle of last century and called vitamin B12. Its originality lies in the fact that it is the only vitamin that requires the integration of a mineral element into its chemical formulation: cobalt. A coenzyme involved in many essential biochemical reactions, vitamin B12 plays a vital role with respect to protein synthesis and red blood cell production.
Vitamin C: Although scurvy, the result of vitamin C deficiency, has been known since the dawn of time in man (sailors in particular ate lemons as a prophylactic), ascorbic acid is not a vitamin C in cats and dogs for they can synthesise it in normal conditions. Ascorbic acid fulfils a variety of vital functions in the body, such as neutralisation of free radicals (effect against oxidative stress), iron metabolism and some anti-infectious immune reactions.
Vitamin D: Vitamin D plays an essential role with respect to the regulation of calcium and phosphorus metabolisms. It increases intestinal absorption of calcium and phosphorus, optimizes calcium uptake (or release) in the bones and diminishes phosphorus losses in the urine. It also plays an important role in other organs, mammary gland, placenta, muscles, pancreas, skin, etc.
Vitamin E: Vitamin E protects against free radicals and is an antioxidant nutrient for the cell. It is a vitamin soluble in fats, stored in the fatty tissues of the body, the liver and muscles. A biological antioxidant, vitamin E protects cells from the effect of free radicals. As such, it protects cell membranes, fights against the biological effects of stress and strengthens the immune system.
Vitamin K: Vitamin K is what is known as a "cofactor" in many enzymes, which means that the latter can have no effect without it. Therefore it is indispensable to some intermediate factors in blood coagulation. Reportedly it also plays a role in the protein metabolism allowing calcium uptake by the bones.
Water: H2O, the most famous of organic molecules, is the principle component of the animal's body, with 75% at birth and 60% at adulthood. It is the most important life-sustaining nutrient, in terms of absolute and relative value. It is involved in all the major physiological functions of the body. Body fats contain 15% water, the skeleton 50%, muscles 75% and blood 83%.
Zeolites: Zeolites are clays, natural mineral elements com-posed of microscopic laminas of aluminium silicate. They have been used for a few years to treat diarrhea, just like, for instance, smectite (another clay). Zeolites are insoluble mineral salts that, by comparison with other clays are highly porous, (as they can absorb 50% their own volume) and have an extremely large exchange area (over 100m2 per gram). Zeolites have three main effects in the animal's digestive tract:
•They form a protective film on the surface of the intestinal mucosa;
•They absorb excess water;
•They absorb toxic substances.
In no way do they hinder the mechanisms of digestive absorption and they improve bone solidity by promoting calcium uptake.
Zinc: Zinc is a minor mineral element. Zinc is a coenzyme in many metabolic systems. It is essential for carrying vitamin A in the bloodstream and also plays an important reproductive role. Lastly, it is a basic element in skin integrity and therefore in the beauty of the coat.
Amino acids: Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and their derivatives. Proteins contain a total of about 20 amino acids, only 8 to 10 of which, according to the animal species concerned, must absolutely be provided to the body by food. The others are biochemically synthesized by the body.
Anti-nutritional factor: Molecules contained in a food limiting or altering the intestinal absorption of one or several nutrients. Anti-nutritional factors are usually destroyed by cooking.
Antioxidants: Antioxidants are organic molecules that enable the body to fight the destructive action of free radicals, unstable and dangerous elements derived from oxygen and produced permanently by the body.
Beta-carotene: Beta-carotene and carotenoids are vitamin A precursors that give that lovely orangey-red colour to plants. But it is its role as a powerful antioxidant that makes it such a useful nutrient.
Biotin: Biotin was discovered at the turn of the last century with the research on a disease called "egg white disease": the consumption of large amounts of raw egg whites induced skin lesions, hair loss and neuromuscular disorders. By cooking the whites, associated with yeast distribution, the illness could be cured, since it was due to the fact that biotin, a vitamin included in yeasts, was destroyed by an anti-biotin substance present in raw egg whites. Biotin is involved in the catabolism (chemical breakdown reactions) of glucose, fatty acids and some amino acids. It is essential for the synthesis of some other fatty acids.
Calcium: Calcium is a major mineral element. It plays two important roles in the body: it is a basic component of the skeleton, giving it solidity, jointly with phosphorus. It also contributes to information transfer between cells and to nerve impulse transmission.
Carbohydrates: Organic compounds essentially used to provide energy, some of them maintaining a structural role while others help keep the digestive tract clean. Carbohydrates are divided into two groups according to their composition: - simple carbohydrates, also called “sugars” (glucose, fructose, saccharose, lactose, etc.) found in fruit, honey, milk, sugar and derived products - complex carbohydrates, including starches (energy source) and dietary fibers (for overall hygiene of the digestive tract).
Carnitine: Carnitine is a non-essential amino acid normally made by the body from two essential amino acids, lysine and methionine. It only becomes essential in food under certain circumstances, when, because of a disease or a physiological problem, the body can no longer synthesise enough of it for its need. Like all amino acids, its chemical structure allows two forms of molecules, called D and L, only L-carnitine being active and thus effective.
Casein: Casein is a protein extracted from milk – it's what makes milk white. It is isolated by milk coagulation to separate it from the other milk compounds (lactose for instance, the main sugar in milk) liable to upset the digestion of cats and dogs. It is one of the most valuable nutritional sources of essential amino acids.
Cellulose: Cellulose is a very large molecule consisting of thousands of glucose units linked together by stronger chemical bonds than those found in starch. However, in nutrition, the term includes all soluble or in-soluble fibrous plant substances (cellulose per se, hemicelluloses, pectins, lignin, oligosaccharide fibers).
Chelates: Chelates are natural organic molecules used in nutrition as supports to fix trace elements and thus improve their digestibility significantly. This molecule can be either a carbohydrate or a protein, according to the trace element being carried.
Chondroitin: Chondroitin sulfate is a carbohydrate molecule entering into the composition of proteoglycans that are in turn basic elements in the formation of joint cartilage.
Cobalt: Cobalt is a minor mineral element. This trace element is one of the components of vitamin B12, which makes it an anti-anemia element contributing to the formation of blood hemoglobin.
Collagen: Collagen is a protein and a major component of connective tissues: tendons, aponeurosis, articular capsula, cartilage, bone matrix, etc. Crude collagen is very difficult to digest and can cause diarrhea, but once cooked it is a source of highly digestible proteins.
Copper: Copper is a minor mineral element. In the body, copper works in conjunction with iron, contributing to the intestinal absorption and haemoglobin inclusion of iron. It is also an active element in many enzymes, particularly those that promote cell oxidation phenomena.
Dietary fibers: Components found in plants, including cellulose, hemicelluloses and pectins, that cannot be assimilated by the body. Although of no direct nutritional value, dietary fibers are nevertheless very important: insoluble fibers facilitate intestinal transit while soluble or fermentable fibers help protect the intestinal wall and fight against bacteria that cause diarrhea.
Energy: In order to function smoothly, an animal's body needs the energy contained in its food (whether animal or vegetable in origin). During digestion, food is broken down into nutrients that, once absorbed and metabolized by the body, provide energy. In a premium cat or dog food: - 1 gram proteins provides about 4 calories. - 1 gram carbohydrates provides about 4 calories(excluding fibers). - 1 gram lipids provides about 9 kilocalories. Energy requirements: The varying amount of energy required to compensate for the body’s daily energy losses. This amount depends on age, physiological status (growth, gestation, lactation, etc.), physical activity, size of animal (in dogs) and castration, if any (in cats).
Enzyme: An organic molecule with the ability to speed up or trigger biochemical reactions in the body.
Essential amino acids: Some amino acids - 8 of them - cannot be synthesized by the body. This means they have to be provided by the diet in suitable amounts and proportions. Essential amino acids is an apt description, since, without them, the body cannot achieve any normal proteic synthesis.
Fatty acids: Fatty acids are the main constituents of lipids. They are characterized by the number of carbon atoms they possess, hence the expressions short-, medium- or long-chained fatty acids. They can be saturated (no double chemical bond between 2 carbons) or unsaturated (with 1 to 6 double bonds). Though the latter, more fragile, are subject to rancidity, they include many fatty acids that are essential to vital functions.
Folates: Discovered in the middle of last century, folic acid is a water-soluble vitamin stored in the animal's liver. For some years now, it has been better known as vitamin B9, but folates used to be called vitamin M or vitamin Bc or L. casei factor. Folates are closely involved in all aspects of protein metabolism as well as in the synthesis of the molecules making up the genetic material (DNA).
Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS): Fructo-oligosaccharides are special carbohydrates classified as fermentescible fiber. They are not digested, but nevertheless rapidly fermented under the effect of intestinal bacteria, resulting in the release of small-sized fatty acids (known as volatile fatty acids) that 1) acidify the intestinal medium. 2) are excellent nutrients for cell maintenance and renewal and 3) line the walls of the large intestine.
Glucosamine: Glucosamine is a carbohydrate molecule entering into the composition of proteoglycans that are in turn basic elements in the formation of joint cartilage.
Hormones: Substances without which the various organs could not work together, secreted by the endocrine glands (thyroid, pancreas, adrenal glands, etc.) and carried by blood. Target organs or cells are dependent on them for their activity, as hormones stimulate or inhibit their functioning.
Ingredients: The “visible” elements (the raw materials of food) in a recipe. An ingredient can be a source of several nutrients and improved by eliminating its components with no nutritional value. Kilocalorie: The unit of energy used in calculating an animal’s energy requirements and the food’s energy density. 1 kilocalorie = 1,000 calories = 4.18 kilojoules.
Iodine: Iodine is a minor nonmetallic mineral element. This trace element is a component of the thyroid gland hormones, making their synthesis possible.
Iron: Iron is the indispensable component of hemoglobin, a pigment that carries oxygen in the red blood cells, and of myoglobin, which does the same in the muscles. This is why blood and muscles are red. Iron also fulfils many enzymatic functions, pertaining to cell respiration in particular.
Lipids: The main component of fat, lipids have a high energy content in a small volume (fats, oils). They also play a functional role in the body by means of the vitamins dissolved in them (vitamins A, D, E and K) and the presence of essential life-sustaining lipid molecules (indispensable or essential fatty acids).
Magnesium: Magnesium is a major mineral element, an alkaline-earth metal known in nutrition as a mineral macroelement because of the large amounts needed by the body. Magnesium, like calcium and phosphorus, is a component of the skeleton to which it imparts solidity, though to a lesser degree than they do. It is also essential to the good working order of the nervous system and contributes to the overall energy of the body.
Mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS): Mannan-oligosaccharides belong to the large category of fibers, which means they are non-digestible carbohydrates. Just like FOS, they are effective against harmful bacteria living in the intestinal lumen, but have a different mode of action. They are composed of two sugars: glucose and mannose.
Metabolism: All the biochemical processes occurring in a living being so that it may develop and survive. Some reactions make construction processes possible by means of synthesis (anabolism), others are degradation or breakdown processes (catabolism).
Micronutrients: Nutrients present in tiny amounts in food (vitamins, trace elements). Nutrients: Simple mineral elements or organic molecules that are the components of food, each one of them being essential to the functioning of the body. According to the condition of the latter, preparing a balanced food involves making a complex jigsaw, each piece of which is a different nutrient. Nutrients are divided into families: protides – lipids, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins – without forgetting the most important one of all: water. Nutrients are prime elements, just like there are prime numbers, from which all conceptions of a balanced diet must derive.
Niacin: Vitamin PP is thus named because it prevents pellagra, a skin disease that makes the skin rough. It was identified in 1935 but we now know that an essential amino acid, tryptophan, also enables the body to produce it. Activated niacin triggers all the body's oxidation-reduction reactions, essential to the production of energy from fats and sugars.
Nutrition: The process of providing or obtaining the food necessary for health and growth. The nutrients contained in the food are extracted, absorbed and then used as "fuel" by the body for growth, repair, movement, thinking and other functions. In essence, nutrition maintains and sustains life.
Nutritional balance in food: Nutritional balance in food provides the energy constantly required required by the body, the materials needed to permanently build and renew organs as well as providing small amounts of those substances that are essential to the smooth functioning of the biological phenomena permanently occurring in the cells.
Omega 3 fatty acids: Fatty acids in the omega 3 series are biologically essential fatty acids that the body cannot synthesise; this family is derived from linolenic acid, a fatty acid with 18 carbon atoms and 3 double chemical bonds. Two other longer chained but just as essential fatty acids also derive from linolenic acid: EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid).
Omega 6 fatty acids: The omega 6 series of fatty acids are biologically essential fatty acids that the body cannot synthesize; this family is derived from linolenic acid, a fatty acid with 18 carbon atoms and 2 double chemical bonds. Two other longer chained but just as essential fatty acids also derive from linolenic acid: gammalinolenic acid and arachidonic acid.
Pantothenic acid: Lipman's discovery of pantothenic acid as a component of a pivotal molecule for cellular power production (coenzyme A) was rewarded by the Nobel Prize in 1953. This underlines how important this vitamin is. Pantothenic acid is a component of the coenzyme A, which is involved in nearly every metabolic activity (carbohydrates, lipids, protides) producing energy for the body's cells.
Phosphorus: Phosphorus is a major nonmetallic mineral element. Phosphorus has many equally important roles: it imparts solidity to the skeleton when associated with calcium; it is a component of the cell membrane, and an element without which energy cannot be provided to the body (via ATP-adenosine triphosphate).
Polyphenols: Polyphenols form a large group of molecules found widely in the vegetable kingdom. They have been the focus of research for a few years because of their powerful antioxidant properties for the body. By fighting against free radicals within the cell, and especially by protecting DNA against possible destruction or induced mutations, polyphenols effectively act as a shield for intracellular defences.
Potassium: Potassium is a major mineral element. This mineral element is essential to the functioning of the cell, maintaining, with sodium, the pressure balance between the inside and the outside of the cell as well as participating in the cell's energy metabolism.
Proteins: Proteins are chained molecules composed of amino acids linked together by chemical bonds and positioned in a perfectly set order that determines the nature and roles of each protein. Proteins can be animal or vegetable, pure or linked to carbo-hydrates or lipids (heteroproteins).
Pyridoxine: Pyridoxine or vitamin B6 was discovered and isolated only in the middle of last century, and research is still ongoing to better understand its roles in the body, as there's so many of them. Vitamin B6 acts as a coenzyme in many enzymatic systems, thus playing many roles in metabolisms (that of amino acids in particular).
Riboflavin: Once confused with vitamin B1, riboflavin was discovered in 1937 and it's only since the 1980s that certain diseases are known to be linked to a vitamin B2 deficiency, as it induces insufficiently specific symptoms. It is soluble in water. Riboflavin is what is called a coenzyme (a substance indispensable to an enzyme's activity), required for many biochemical reactions: energy production from fats, amino acid catabolism, cell "power plant" activity.
Selenium: Selenium is a minor nonmetallic mineral element. Selenium is an antioxidant trace element that, in synergy with vitamin E, protects cell membranes.
Starches: Starches are carbohydrate molecules in which thousands of glucose molecules are linked together by simple chemicals bonds. Starches are only used to provide energy to the animal, after being degraded by the digestive process to help the intestine gradually absorb the glucose molecules.
Sugar: With no qualifier, this term usually refers to saccharose (beet or cane sugar), but it could just as well refer to glucose (grape sugar), fructose (fruit sugar) or lactose (milk sugar).
Superoxide dismutase (SOD): Superoxide dismutase is an enzyme generally present in each cell. It acts as an intracellular anti-oxidant. Therefore, as a nutrient, it belongs to the group of antioxidant molecules.
Sodium: Sodium is a major mineral element that is essential for the cell to function properly. It maintains the pressure balance between the inside and the outside of the cell, and plays major roles in the cell's energy metabolism. Sodium is also the element that regulates water balance and the sensation of thirst or urinary elimination. Its role is very closely interlinked to that of potassium.
Sulpher: Sulphur is a major nonmetallic mineral element. It is found in the body mainly in its organic form, incorporated into sulphur amino acids (methionine, cystine and cysteine), and its roles are therefore linked to that of the latter.
Taurine: Taurine is an amino acid containing sulphur which can be found in most animal tissues, and concentrates in the muscles. Taurine enables the liver to synthesise bile salts. It also works by regulating calcium flows inside and outside the cells, thus affecting the functioning of the heart. Lastly, it is a powerful cell antioxidant.
Thiamin: Thiamin, the chemical molecule that cures beriberi, thus became the first vitamin to be known as such. Soluble in water, it is found mainly in the heart, kidneys, liver and the brain. Thiamin is an essential molecule involved in numerous complex biochemical reactions generating energy in the cells. But it is especially indispensable to the nervous system which cannot function without it, as it is an essential component of what is called a neurotransmitter (a molecule enabling nerve impulse progression between neurones).
Tyrosine: Tyrosine is an amino acid known as "aromatic" (because it contains a chemical cycle including 6 carbon atoms in its structure) which is not indispensable to the body. Indeed the body has normally the ability to synthesise tyrosine from another amino acid which is indispensable in the diet: phenylalanine. A genetic disease is known in humans in which the enzyme that makes this conversion possible is lacking, which induces a tyrosine deficiency with major mental and neurological disorders, associated with hair and coat depigmentation.
Vitamin: A vitamin is an organic substance needed by the body, with no energy value of its own, and that the animal cannot synthesize in sufficient amounts to function normally. Therefore, an adequate daily supply of it must absolutely be provided by the diet.
Vitamin A: In the Antiquity, some visual disorders were treated by giving people liver to eat. Vitamin A was isolated in 1913 and its incidental chemical structure in 1931: it is a long-chained alcohol soluble in fats. Absorbed by the small intestine, it is stored in the liver. Beta-carotene is one of its precursors that is changed into vitamin A by the body.
Vitamin B12: The anti-anaemic properties of calf liver were discovered in 1925 and were thought at the time to be related to an "extrinsic dietary factor" that was isolated only in the middle of last century and called vitamin B12. Its originality lies in the fact that it is the only vitamin that requires the integration of a mineral element into its chemical formulation: cobalt. A coenzyme involved in many essential biochemical reactions, vitamin B12 plays a vital role with respect to protein synthesis and red blood cell production.
Vitamin C: Although scurvy, the result of vitamin C deficiency, has been known since the dawn of time in man (sailors in particular ate lemons as a prophylactic), ascorbic acid is not a vitamin C in cats and dogs for they can synthesise it in normal conditions. Ascorbic acid fulfils a variety of vital functions in the body, such as neutralisation of free radicals (effect against oxidative stress), iron metabolism and some anti-infectious immune reactions.
Vitamin D: Vitamin D plays an essential role with respect to the regulation of calcium and phosphorus metabolisms. It increases intestinal absorption of calcium and phosphorus, optimizes calcium uptake (or release) in the bones and diminishes phosphorus losses in the urine. It also plays an important role in other organs, mammary gland, placenta, muscles, pancreas, skin, etc.
Vitamin E: Vitamin E protects against free radicals and is an antioxidant nutrient for the cell. It is a vitamin soluble in fats, stored in the fatty tissues of the body, the liver and muscles. A biological antioxidant, vitamin E protects cells from the effect of free radicals. As such, it protects cell membranes, fights against the biological effects of stress and strengthens the immune system.
Vitamin K: Vitamin K is what is known as a "cofactor" in many enzymes, which means that the latter can have no effect without it. Therefore it is indispensable to some intermediate factors in blood coagulation. Reportedly it also plays a role in the protein metabolism allowing calcium uptake by the bones.
Water: H2O, the most famous of organic molecules, is the principle component of the animal's body, with 75% at birth and 60% at adulthood. It is the most important life-sustaining nutrient, in terms of absolute and relative value. It is involved in all the major physiological functions of the body. Body fats contain 15% water, the skeleton 50%, muscles 75% and blood 83%.
Zeolites: Zeolites are clays, natural mineral elements com-posed of microscopic laminas of aluminium silicate. They have been used for a few years to treat diarrhea, just like, for instance, smectite (another clay). Zeolites are insoluble mineral salts that, by comparison with other clays are highly porous, (as they can absorb 50% their own volume) and have an extremely large exchange area (over 100m2 per gram). Zeolites have three main effects in the animal's digestive tract:
•They form a protective film on the surface of the intestinal mucosa;
•They absorb excess water;
•They absorb toxic substances.
In no way do they hinder the mechanisms of digestive absorption and they improve bone solidity by promoting calcium uptake.
Zinc: Zinc is a minor mineral element. Zinc is a coenzyme in many metabolic systems. It is essential for carrying vitamin A in the bloodstream and also plays an important reproductive role. Lastly, it is a basic element in skin integrity and therefore in the beauty of the coat.
