How Enzymes WorkIt helps to understand how enzymes work so you'll know which kind you need for each meal. Enzymes work according to the foods they digest. So protease helps to digest proteins, amylase breaks down carbs etc.Protease breaks the protein chains down into amino acids. Amylase breaks carbohydrates down into glucose and simple sugars. So we really need enzymes with everything we eat. If they are not in the food (which is now usually the case), then we need to take some enzymes with every meal. Enzymes are naturally in everything edible. They make the food edible. All meats have protease and all vegetables have cellulase etc. If the food is not eaten, enzymes start the breakdown process anyway which allows the food to return to the ground very quickly. People have gotten very 'smart' in that they found ways to kill the enzymes, making the foods last longer. Over 100 yrs ago they found that adding certain acids to the foods would allow them to can the foods and keep them 'fresh' for years. They later found that they were slowly poisoning people with the acids and they found other ways to kill the enzymes. Microwaves kill enzymes quickly, cooking food kills the enzymes in the food too. Enzymes start dying at 118 degrees. They are pretty much all destroyed by the time they reach 180 degrees. The easiest modern way to keep 'fresh' foods longer is irradiation. Pretty much all fresh foods in the stores today, including 'organic' foods have been irradiated. That has benefits such as killing e-coli and other bacteria that may be on the food. but it has the serious consequence in that that was likely the ONLY source of enzymes people had up until now since we cook and process almost everything we eat. Now even fresh fruits and vegetables have no enzymes. So this all has the digestive system working overtime. Already people don't chew (the first step in digestion) and then they take anti-acids so the acid isn't there to break down the foods. They drink ice cold beverages with their food so that it slows digestion. They mix fruit and meat which digest at different rates. There are a ton of other things that really challenges the digestive system. By the time the food does leave the stomach it is still in much need of being broken down further in order for the body to use it. The food goes into the duodenum from the stomach and there it is assessed as to whether it is ready to be absorbed. If it is not, the pancreas goes to work on it (after the gallbladder dumps bile to neutralize the acidity of the food) The pancreas detects that the food must be broken down more and starts pumping out pancreatic enzymes. That is the last step of digestion and the last ditch effort at breaking the food down. If this doesn't work, the food will go thru undigested. The pancreas must now do the work of all the other systems that failed. Meanwhile, there is so much sugar in the food that it must simultaneously pump insulin into the bloodstream. It is working double time at every meal and between each meal as people snack on sugary sweets. (They just announced the results of a study this week showing a correlation of drinking two sodas a day and having pancreatic cancer. It is easy to see why the pancreas is so stressed and so many are getting diabetes. It is also interesting that the pancreas is the only endocrine and exocrine gland. It produces a juice that goes directly into the bloodstream without a duct and it has a duct to put enzymes directly into the duodenum - all at the same time by the same organ.) Most of us dont need pancreatic enzymes. They sell them all over but if you take them, your body will stop making those enzymes. Really we need the plant based enzymes that are suppose to come in our foods. The only way to get them now is in a supplement or grow your own foods. Probiotics are good bacteria that also help to break down foods to a cellular level. If we dont get those foods broken down well enough, we can end up with leaky gut syndrome - a damaged digestive tract that allows these undigested pieces of food into the blood stream. These food particles are then seen as invaders and our body creates antibodies to attack them. The next time we eat the food, it is recognized as an invader and the immune system kicks in and we have an allergic reaction. As the problem continues, more and more foods get on the list of those we can't eat. The undigested foods also feed and harbor the unwanted bacteria. That is another reason probiotics help get things back in balance. Then we have to break the vicious cycle of the system getting worse and worse. It all ends in malabsorption and the body thinking it is starving. It is calling out for what it wants or what it needs. Many often end up eating more and more trying satisfy it. Compare your enzyme formula to this one to see if you are getting everything you need. This is the best formula I have found and for only 20 cents per capsule. I found to get anywhere near this amount from other formulas would cost 60 cents to a dollar each meal. The chart also explains how enzymes work according to their type and the type of food they break down.
how enzymes work |
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