Why Food Enzymes are Important

by Howard F. Loomis Jr., D.C.

Plant enzymes are important because they are capable of digesting food before the body’s own digestive process begins. In other words, plant enzymes can enhance the digestion of food and the delivery of nutrients to the blood even if you have a compromised digestive system. The same cannot be said of animal enzymes such as pancreatin.

Everyone agrees that proper nutrition is crucial to the maintenance of a healthy body. However, most healthcare practitioners overlook the true cause of many nutritional disorders. It is assumed, quite mistakenly, that digestion occurs automatically and the correction of a nutritional disorder simply requires matching the right nutritional supplement to the condition. For example, vitamin C for colds, vitamin A for viruses and herbal laxatives for constipation. While this treatment may relieve patient symptoms, the relief is only temporary because the underlying problem of faulty digestion is ignored. Healthcare practitioners who want to effectively manage health problems that are related to nutritional imbalances must consider each person’s ability to digest food. Unfortunately, most clinicians give little or no thought to the role of enzymes in digestion, despite overwhelming evidence of their importance.

Enzymes are present in all living animal and plant cells. They are the primary motivators of all natural biochemical processes. Life cannot exist without enzymes because they are essential components of every chemical reaction in the body. For example, they are the only substance that can digest food and make it small enough to pass through the gastrointestinal mucosa into the bloodstream. Three very broad classifications of enzymes are:

1. Food enzymes - occur in raw food and, when present in the diet, begin the process of digestion

2. Digestive enzymes - produced by the body to break food into particles small enough to be carried across the gut wall

3. Metabolic enzymes - produced by the body to perform various complex biochemical reactions

In the 1930s, Edward Howell, MD, the food enzyme pioneer, found that there is a difference between plant enzymes and those that are produced by the body. He was convinced that plant enzymes in food and supplements have a different function in human digestion than that of the body’s own digestive enzymes. With this theory, he began isolating and concentrating plant enzymes from their sources. He found the difference is that food enzymes begin digesting food in the stomach and will work for at least one hour before the body’s digestive system begins to work. For this reason, enzymes should be considered essential nutrients. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and food manufacturers are removing them from food to gain shelf-life.

Dr. Howell was particularly impressed by the way the ingestion of raw food slowed the progress of chronic degenerative diseases and spent his professional life postulating and then validating his theories.

The original article can be found at the Food Enzyme Institute.

10 Tips to Improve Digestion

By: Sydney Shorb, RN-BSN, Certified Functional Nutrition Counselor

Exercise

It takes healthy muscle tone all around the abdomen for food to digest properly and to help move food through our digestive tract. Increasing exercise can improve digestion, even if you don’t change what you eat. 

Don’t Overeat 

Overeating of any food is taxing on the digestive system and can affect the rate of digestion. It requires the body to expend a lot of energy, adds stress to the system and forces the body to try to use too many nutrients at once. Practice moderation and only eat until you are three-quarters full.

Take Time for Gratitude 

When you take a few moments before you eat to pause and reflect, either with blessings or gratitude, you are activating the cephalic phase of digestion. Your brain signals saliva to release and stokes your digestive fires. Both are key to proper digestion. 

Reduce or Eliminate Processed Foods 

These so-called foods are challenging for the digestive system. The body has to supply its own energy and nutrients in order for these products to metabolize, robbing the body of nutrients rather than supplying any. Stick to whole foods as much as possible. 

Chew Your Food

Chewing thoroughly will help any food digest. We complicate digestion whenever we eat on the run or gulp down our food. Slow down, savor your food and chew it up! (Saliva contains a lot of enzymes that aid in digestion.) 

Boost Stomach Acid 

Many people have low stomach acid. Heartburn, belching or gas, fatigue, headaches and much more can all be a result of low stomach acid. Gently boost stomach acid by adding freshly-squeezed lemon juice to your water or by drinking one tablespoon of raw fermented apple cider vinegar in water each morning. 

Eat More Fiber 

Fiber helps keep your colon healthy. It makes stool soft and bulky, speeds transit time through the colon, dilutes the effects of any toxic compounds and helps to remove bad bacteria from the colon. Make sure you get both soluble fiber, which absorbs toxins and unneeded cholesterol, and insoluble fiber, which hastens elimination. 

Drink Water

It’s one of the top nutrients for digestion. The stomach needs water for digestion, especially for the health of the mucosal lining, which supports the small intestine bacteria for proper digestion and absorption of nutrients. Lack of water in the digestive system can result in ulcers, indigestion, heartburn, fatigue, brain fog, memory loss, and constipation. 

Add in Probiotics 

We need good bacteria to strengthen the immune system, reduce chronic inflammation, help remedy leaky gut and more. You can introduce probiotics with supplements or with raw fermented food like sauerkraut or kefir. 

Bring in Digestive Enzymes

You need three categories of enzymes: lipase for fat breakdown, amylase for carbohydrate breakdown, and protease for protein breakdown. The best source of enzymes are from foods that are in their live, raw or sprouted form. Supplementing with digestive enzymes is also a good option if digestion is impaired. 

Sydney Shorb, RN-BSN, CFNC

Syney loves to view food as medicine and truly believes that everything is connected, we are all unique, and diet and lifestyle matter.

5 Essentials for a Healthy Life

By: Karen Cino, Naturopathic PhD, Master Herbalist, MS - Nutrition, CNHP

We’d all like to have a “health span” that equals our life span. Lifestyle choices (like nutrition, activity, and how we manage stress) can help overcome our genetic weaknesses. Here are five ways to help increase your health span:

Reduce inflammation

Chronic inflammation, which can be caused by poor nutrition and excessive stress, affects many parts of the body and injures cells. We might feel the effects of chronic inflammation when it causes pain in a specific area, but are less likely to recognize when that same inflammatory process impacts other areas, such as the brain. We may notice some fatigue or cognitive changes, but we don’t identify it as inflammation.

Reworking your diet to cut inflammatory foods is essential. Consider herbal remedies such as turmeric or Boswellia or even a proteolytic enzyme such as TRMA to help keep inflammation in check. CBD is another way to help keep inflammation in check, especially if it impacts the brain. 55Plus has an excellent formula with no THC and turmeric to quickly reduce inflammation.

Balance your gut flora

Beneficial gut bacteria maintains the lining of the digestive tract and keeps dangerous compounds from circulating throughout the body. Factors like poor diet, stress and infections can damage the gut lining. Once the intestinal wall is compromised, inflammatory compounds seep into the rest of the body, leading to a variety of health issues. Be on the lookout for the symptoms of flora imbalance and leaky gut, such as diarrhea, constipation, intestinal pain and bloating, chronic joint pain or headaches.

To support the microbiome over time, maintain a diet rich in probiotic foods and plenty of prebiotic foods (fiber that feeds the beneficial flora), including onions, jicama, raw dandelion greens and bananas. Taking a daily probiotic is another option.

Digest your food

Weak digestion, or the inability to break down foods, results in lowered nutrition and ultimately health issues. We often crave what we can’t digest. Our cells need the nutrients and if we don’t digest it well enough, we keep craving it. Ultimately, we begin to avoid that food because of all the stored waste of it, making us feel sick. Ask yourself, “What did I use to crave but now avoid?” If we don't digest proteins we will tend toward blood pressure issues. If we don’t digest carbs, we will tend towards anxiousness and poor mental clarity. If we don’t digest fats, we will often develop hormone imbalances. Most of our health issues are digestion and elimination related. Plant based enzymes wit meals can improve the breakdown and assimilation of our foods.

 Manage stress

It is said stress is out number one health problem as chronic stress leads to a wide range of health issues. Nearly half of all adults suffer adverse health effects from stress. Stress promotes inflammation, slows wound healing, and suppresses cell-mediated immune function. Prolonged stress increases cortisol levels which damages brain cells, weakens the immune system and breaks the body down. Digestion and the immune system will slow down from chronic stress. Stress creates anaerobic dominance which causes the muscles to become sore due to lactic acid build up.

To help manage your stress load, spend time in nature, meditate or deep breath. Supplements for adrenal support or adaptogens, such as ashwagandha, can be very helpful to rebalance. There are wonderful homeopathic remedies to help with stress as well.

Keep moving

Exercise also helps mitigate the aging effects of stress. Any exercise you do -regularly, whether that’s yoga, strength training, or cycling, will help you metabolize stress -hormones, maintain better energy, and offset chronic inflammation.

But note, while regular exercise is essential, exercising too often or too aggressively without adequate recovery can actually increase stress for the body. Remember to cool down and consume proteins to help the body recover more quickly.

Karen Cino, PhD

Karen enjoys helping others find their way back to health and wholeness so they can live their full potential.