Where There Is Life – There Are Enzymes

You are alive because enzymes make it possible. Enzymes are the foundation of energy and the life force in all living things. Without enzymes, seeds would not sprout, fruit would not ripen, leaves would not change color, and you would not exist. Enzymes are responsible for building, detoxifying, and healing your body. They are the force that allows your body to digest and absorb food. Enzymes also regulate tens of thousands of other biochemical functions that take place every day in your body. These functions include breathing, growing, smelling, tasting, stimulating nerves, defending your body against disease, regulating hormones, and building organs, glands, and tissues. Even your thinking involves enzymes.

What are Enzymes

Enzymes are composed of long chains of amino acids held together by peptide bonds. Amino acids are derived from protein and serve as carriers for vital enzyme activity factors. Coenzymes, which come from essential vitamins and minerals, are needed for enzymes to function effectively. Vitamins are usually a structural component of enzymes. Enzymes are activated by trace mineral content. The activation produces electrical charges so that attractions and repulsions of charged particles occur within the enzymes.

Cooking Food Kills All Enzymes

The most serious threat to the body’s supply of natural enzymes is the habit of eating cooked and processed foods. Cooking or processing food over 118 degrees totally destroys the enzymes in the food. You will not find enzymes in foods that are in a box, bottle, or can. Cooking also contributes to nutrient loss. Pasteurization, sterilization, radiation, freezing, and microwaving either render food enzymes inactive or alter their structure.

Early Signs of Enzyme Deficiency

Early signs of enzyme deficiency are digestive complaints such as heartburn, gas, bloating and belching. Other symptoms may include headaches, stomach aches, diarrhea, constipation, chronic fatigue, yeast infections, and nutritional deficiencies. Because these symptoms are so prevalent, many people consider them to be normal. However, they are an indication that the body cannot process the food eaten. Digestive problems concern the stomach, intestines, colon, liver, pancreas, and gallbladder.

Death Begins in the Colon

Enzymes and fiber are essential for proper digestion and elimination. Sadly, the typical American diet is generally significantly lacking in these requirements. Fiber acts as a bulking agent and speeds transit time of food in the digestive tract. These actions prevent metabolic waste from creating toxic by-products. A major benefit of fiber is that it binds acids to bile and carries the bile along with excess fats out of the body. Fiber helps to lower cholesterol, reduce the risk of heart disease, lower blood pressure, improve blood sugar, and promote the growth of friendly intestinal flora. It also promotes bowel regularity, aids digestion, and helps to keep the bowel clean.

Fiber cannot do its job effectively unless enzymes do theirs. Over time, hard-to-digested high-protein foods (such as cooked meat and other enzyme-deficient foods) exhaust the digestive organs until they can no longer function efficiently. This results in the accumulation of partially digested food in the bowel. By middle age many people have as much as 20 pounds of undigested, putrefactive food in their colon. Toxins produced from this putrefactive buildup are reabsorbed into the bloodstream, creating autointoxication, or self -poisoning. This results in a dramatically weakened immune system and can lead to serious debilitating health problems including colon cancer. Supplemental food enzymes taken with meals and between meals can work to help eliminate the accumulation of toxic wastes in the stomach and colon.

Blood Under the Microscope

Enzymes act as scavengers of foreign substances throughout the body preventing joints from gumming up and arteries from clogging. Enzymes in the body’s white blood cells are responsible for destroying foreign, disease-producing substances in the blood and lymph. During illness and infection, white blood cells increase to fight off pathogens. When cooked foods are eaten, the body reacts just as though we had an acute illness. Within 30 minutes of eating cooked foods, our white-blood-cell count increases dramatically. This means that the immune system is being unnecessarily called into action virtually every time we eat.

Studies show that mobilization and increase of white blood cells do not happen when raw food is consumed. Molecules from improperly digested proteins and fats that are small enough to get into the blood, but too large to get into the cells, are called floating immune complexes. They are now considered toxic invaders in the body instead of nutrients.

The dark field microscope is a viable technology used for live blood analysis. This microscope can magnify a tiny drop of blood 15,000 times and can give an accurate picture of floating immune complexes. Let’s take a look at some of the unhealthy conditions we can see under this microscope. We see red blood cells sticking together, which results in a lack of surface area and creates low oxygen content. This can lead to chronic fatigue, migraine headaches, and poor circulation. We see cholesterol and uric acid crystals, which could eventually lead to arthritis or gout. We see plaque due to undigested fats, which can lead to arteriosclerosis. We see free radical damage, which can have devastating consequences. It takes a concentrated effort from white blood cells to digest floating immune complexes and protect our body from other toxic invaders. Meanwhile the organs, tissues, and glands are robbed of their rightful share of needed enzymes.

Enzymes and Weight Loss

One of the primary keys to weight loss may simply be the action of enzymes. Dr. David Galton at Tufts University School of Medicine tested people weighing 230-240 pounds. He found that virtually all of them were lacking lipase enzymes in their fatty tissues. Lipase, found abundantly in raw foods, is a fat-splitting enzyme that aids the body in digestion, the storage and distribution of fat, and the burning of fat for energy. Lipase activity breaks down and dissolves fat throughout the body. Without lipase, fat stagnates and accumulates in the organs, arteries, and capillaries. You will see it on hips, thighs, buttocks and stomach, etc.

A good example of the importance of lipase activity lies in an interesting experiment with pigs. Veterinarians fed one group of pigs only enzyme-rich raw potatoes and another group enzyme deficient cooked potatoes. The pigs eating the raw potatoes did not get fat. However, the pigs eating cooked potatoes gained weight rapidly. The regular use of digestive food enzymes that include lipase with meals often results in shedding excess pounds.

Sugar

What about sugar? Unprocessed raw sugar contains enzymes, chromium, and B vitamins and is easily digested and assimilated. White processed sugar contains no enzymes, no B vitamins, and no chromium. In order for the body to metabolize processed sugar, the missing vitamins and chromium must be stolen from the body’s own tissue stores. If large quantities of white sugar are eaten, then not only are the body’s enzymes depleted, but we suffer B vitamin and chromium deficiencies. Chromium is an essential mineral needed by the body to support efficient insulin function. Insulin regulates the metabolism of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Studies show a relationship between obesity and chromium deficiencies. B vitamins are considered coenzymes essential to the metabolism of all cells.

Candidiasis and Allergy Relief

Candidiasis adversely affects the endocrine system and nervous system and has a devastating effect on the immune system. Candidiasis is an overgrowth of common yeast that lives in the intestinal track. Yeast overgrowth is triggered by the killing off of friendly bacteria in the intestinal tract, which generally keeps it under control. It is estimated that at least 50% of the population may be affected by this condition.

Candidiasis and allergies affect millions of people. Cause and prevention of both conditions are similar. Allergens and antigens such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, and yeast are most often proteins. They enter the body via the digestive tract. Allergens may also be breathed into the body via the lungs. Protease is a digestive enzyme needed in tremendous quantities to digest and eliminate these toxic invaders, not only in the digestive tract but in the bloodstream as well. Most antigens, including yeast, can be eliminated by taking supplemental enzymes with meals and between meals. It is also advisable to take supplements that will help to reestablish friendly intestinal flora.