Nutritionist's Note: Why We Don't Use Legumes

Soybeans, chickpeas, lentils and peas are common in commercial pet food, and in human cooking too.

So why do Real Power's animal nutritionists refuse them?

The main concern is that most legumes contain several anti-nutritional factors. These are formed from the plant's own components or metabolites — self-protective substances developed through evolution that are hard to remove completely during production. In dog and cat food they impair the digestion, absorption and utilisation of nutrients and can cause adverse physiological reactions.

There are many plant-derived anti-nutritional factors. Those that commonly affect canine and feline digestion, such as protease inhibitors, reduce protein digestibility and utilisation and can unbalance amino-acid metabolism, affecting health.

And the higher the proportion of plant protein, the higher the proportion of certain anti-nutritional factors. Chasing "high protein" for its own sake is meaningless — what matters is the proportion of animal protein.

Real Power selects world-class ingredients to give pets a high proportion of quality animal protein. The entire dog and cat range contains no legumes, and — applying nutritional-medicine principles — we use the individual and combined properties of ingredients and supplements to deliver all-round health care.

❚ Further reading: Why we don't use wheat