Enzymes, A Living Super Power in Your Food

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What You Can Do Today to Get More Enzymes:

1.   Add a raw organic fruit or vegetable in your lunch box
2.  Try creating a raw vegetable salad as a dinner side

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Enzymes serve a variety of important functions within the human body. They strengthen your immune and circulatory systems. They accelerate the process by which your body converts food into energy, thus increasing metabolism. They fight aging, and help lower your cholesterol.

Is this starting to sound like an info-mercial? Relax. I’m not going to sell you a mandolin slicer. But I would like to hammer this point: virtually every chemical reaction that takes place in your body requires enzymes.

ENZYMES

Over 2,500 different kinds of enzymes are found in living things. All enzymes are proteins, very special kinds of proteins that act as catalysts. Enzymes give our body chemistry its vitality, literally giving our metabolism a jump start. Plus, as molecules that enable the breaking down of our food, they also play a critically important role within our digestive system. Enzymes in our saliva allow us to break apart starches. Enzymes in our stomach help us break apart proteins. Enzymes in our intestines help us break apart fats, proteins, and carbohydrates of all kinds.
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Here’s a quick run-down of the benefits:

DIGESTION – Enzymes serve your digestive system by helping to break down food molecules. They speed up the process by which your body converts what you eat into usable energy. Tennis, anyone? You’ll need enzymes for that.

IMMUNITY – Enzymes give your immune system a boost. White blood cells use enzymes to destroy viruses and bacteria.

Enzymes help to prevent the following:

Maldigestion and malabsorption
Pancreatic insufficiency
Steatorrhea (diarrhea due to fat malabsorption)
Celiac disease
Lactose intolerance
Thrombotic disease
Acute sinusitis
Post-operative recovery
Sports injuries
Adverse food reactions

COOKING KILLS ENZYMES

Whether you bake it, broil it or fry it in the pan, enzymes are lost. And your body (good sport that it is) will need to compensate by producing enzymes.

Whole foods, on the other hand, carry bacteria (the good kind) rich with enzymes. Fruits and vegetables are your best bet. Try to avoid processed foods, additives, preservatives and other chemicals.

Other benefits include: more energy, and less time spent in the kitchen preparing meals. If you do nothing else today, for crying out loud: eat a carrot!

If you’re the technical sort here’s a quick reference of enzyme types and their potential benefits:

AMYLASE works to breakdown carbohydrates i.e. starches, sugars
BROMELAIN taken from pineapple plant, helps break down proteins
HCL hydrochloric acid stimulates pancreatic secretion, activates pepsin and sterilizes the stomach from bacteria and parasites
LACTASE needed to break down lactose found in milk products
LIPASE works to break down fats into fatty acids and glycerol
OX BILE improves fat digestion, stimulates bile flow, aids gallbladder
PANCREATIN contains protease, amylase, and lipase, functions in the intestine and in the blood
PAPAIN extracted from papaya fruit, aids in protein digestion
PEPSIN breaks down proteins, function depends on availability of HCL
PROTEASE works to breakdown protein into amino

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