How Can We Preserve Our Enzyme Potential?
Because it is absolutely necessary to replenish our enzyme stores, we can do this by
ingesting them through two different sources: through raw food or supplemental digestive
enzymes. Food enzymes exist naturally in raw food. If the food is cooked, however, the
high temperature involved in the cooking process will destroy the enzymes. Cooking
eliminates 50% - 80% of the vitamins and minerals in food. It also destroys and denatures
50% of proteins, making them harder for the body to digest and utilize. Pasteurization,
homogenization, micro-waving and other processing, all degrade food, extinguishing enzymes.
Interestingly, fresh-grown, raw food contains exactly the perfect mix of digestive enzymes
to help break it-self down. In fact, we can witness the enzyme process of fruit and vegetables
breaking themselves down as they ripen. If left uneaten, they will eventually brown,
digesting and decomposing themselves to return back to the earth from which they came.
Why Do I Need To Supplement With Digestive Enzymes?
Unfortunately, eating raw fruits and vegetables will not provide an adequate “deposit” to our bodies’ enzyme account since they only contain enough enzymes to begin the digestive process of their own particles. To help digest all the cooked food we eat, and in order to spare more of our metabolic enzymes for rebuilding and repairing the rest of our body, we can take digestive enzymes in supplement form. Supplemental digestive enzymes can be derived from plants or animals. Because of their ability to aid digestion throughout the entire digestive process as well as support the endocrine system, plant enzymes are generally more useful to the body than any other type of enzyme supplement.
Each Type of Digestive Plant Enzyme functions to break down a different type of food:
- Protease: Breaks down protein into amino acids
- Lipase: Breaks down fat particles
- Amylase: Breaks down starch into glucose
- Cellulase: Breaks down fiber in foods.
- Lactase: Breaks down milk sugar (lactose)
- Maltase: Breaks down malt sugar
- Sucrase: Breaks down sucrose (sugar)