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Health
& Nutrition Newsletter Vol. 107 Issue 10 B
THE CHALLENGE OF DIGESTION |
28 October 2007 |
Health
Freedom Resources
www.healthfree.com, Call:
727-443-7711, ron@healthfree.com
- An Introduction to Enzymes
- Two Categories of Enzymes
- What Happens Without Food Enzymes?
- Enzyme Supplements and Your Body's Natural Enzymes
- Experience a Boost in Digestive Your Ability and Health!
THE CHALLENGE OF DIGESTION
Have you ever felt tired after a meal? That's because digestion requires a large
amount of energy. When any form of cooked or processed food is eaten, the body
must supply all of the enzymes to digest that food. Fresh, uncooked food, however,
contains the right amount of enzymes to help digest itself, demanding fewer
pancreatic enzymes, and therefore less energy from the digestive tract. Eating a
lot of cooked or processed foods can force your digestive organs to work overtime.
Some common consequences of poor digestion are heartburn, gas, bloating,
constipation, and sluggishness.
Recently, research scientists have found evidence that impaired digestion, as
well as decreased enzyme activity in the blood, is directly related to the aging
process and many of the illnesses and chronic degenerative conditions so prevalent
in modern society. These studies suggest that as we age, the number of enzymes
and their activity levels decrease.
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An Introduction to Enzymes
About two centuries ago, as modern medicine was developing, the role of enzymes in metabolic processes was discovered. You may be asking, "What are enzymes?"
Enzymes are proteins that are found in all living things, either within the cells or dissolved
in the fluids surrounding all cells. As biological catalysts, enzymes reduce the amount
of energy required for chemical reactions. Because of this, enzymes make it possible
to control metabolic reactions which would otherwise either not take place under normal
physiological conditions, or which would only take place very slowly. The body's entire
metabolic process is based on the activation, inhibition, and control of enzymes. In this
way, the incredible energy that creates and maintains all life comes from enzymes.
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Two Categories of Enzymes
In the human body there are thousands of different enzymes. In fact, there are so
many enzymes present in the body that enzyme activity cannot be separated from
the process of life itself. Enzymes are involved in every single chemical reaction that
occurs in the body.
Enzymes can be grouped into two main categories. The first category consists of metabolic enzymes, which are present in every cell, tissue, and organ in the body,
and act as catalysts in the moment-to-moment functioning of living cells.
They are responsible for keeping the body in proper balance by controlling virtually
every chemical reaction associated with metabolism. Because of this, metabolic
enzymes are the very basis of the life process.
The second category of enzymes is digestive enzymes. Examples of these digestive enzymes are protease, which digests protein;
amylase, which digests starch; and lipase, which digests fat. You get your digestive enzymes from two sources: your body and your food.
The body uses its own energy and resources to manufacture digestive enzymes. The salivary glands in the mouth, the gastric glands in the stomach, and specific cells in the pancreas
secrete the enzymes that work to digest the proteins, fats, and sugars present in any
food that is eaten.
The other source, food enzymes, come from raw foods such as fruits and vegetables. Most fresh-grown foods contain enough active enzymes to
digest the proteins, starches, or fats found in that food. This makes digestion of these
raw foods much easier for the body. For example, avocados and nuts have naturally
occurring lipase or fat-digesting enzymes, while oats have a high amount of amylase,
or starch-digesting enzymes. The contribution of food enzymes to the digestive process
is extremely important and too often overlooked.
What does this mean? Enzymes are at the heart of two very important elements of life:
metabolism and digestion. The enzymes found naturally in fresh raw foods help break
those foods down, making digestion much easier for the body.
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What Happens Without Food Enzymes?
A lack of food enzymes results in poor digestion, which can be the indirect cause of
many health problems. The constant day-to-day stimulation of the immune system
by unwanted unbroken-down food particles puts undue stress on the immune system and tires the whole body. This often explains the fatigue many people experience following a meal.
Furthermore, some food particles can trigger the production of antibodies that may
cross-react with proteins in the body, leading to autoimmune disorders. Putrefaction
in the gut of undigested food may endanger the integrity of the intestinal wall,
allowing various environmental toxins present in food to find their way into the blood
and the body. In this way, unnecessary stress is created for our bodies because our
cells have to work overtime to get rid of potentially harmful toxins.
When food is cooked or otherwise processed with heat, enzymes are destroyed and can no longer play their role in the process of predigestion. Under such conditions,
food that passes into the intestine has not been properly predigested, and cannot be
efficiently handled by the pancreatic enzymes.
These undigested particles may be harmful to health in two ways. First, they will
become fuel for unfriendly intestinal bacteria, which can lead to intestinal fermentation,
bloating, and discomfort (intestinal toxemia). But more importantly, undigested particles
of food may cross the intestinal wall and reach the blood stream where they are identified
as foreign substances by the immune system. When this happens, the body's immune
system wastes precious defense resources on a "false alarm" rather than defending the
body from true hazards. Such a phenomenon was identified nearly half a century ago
and is referred to as food leucocytosis (which is a food-driven increase in white blood cells).
What does this mean? Digestion without the proper enzymes will eventually lead to an overloaded
immune system, and cause the introduction of unwanted toxins into the body.
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Enzyme Supplements and Your Body's Natural Enzymes
Whether or not food enzyme supplements are taken, the digestive system works to secrete more
than two gallons of digestive enzymatic juice every single day. By adding a few hundred milligrams
of natural food enzymes, you can initiate effective predigestion in the stomach so the small
intestine and your own pancreatic enzymes can properly handle the food when it gets there. This predigestion
phase is essential for the effective digestion and the absorption of nutrients.
Actual digestion of food takes place when food particles contact the intestinal wall and are
caught by the intestinal enzymes.
Supplemental digestive enzymes are taken to prepare
the food so that it is in a suitable form for proper processing by the enzymes embedded in
the wall of the intestine. Enzymes supplements can make the difference in predigestion so the body will be able to digest and absorb properly the food you eat. The enzyme supplements you take do not replace your body's naturally
secreted enzymes. Supplemental enzymes are needed simply to replace the enzymes that
are always destroyed by cooking and processing food. Also we tend to lose some of our enzyme-making ability as we age so supplements replace vital enzymes that may not be available. .In modern society, it is also common to eat when not really hungry, or to eat more than we really need when we eat socially or emotionally or from habit.
What does this mean? Taking food enzyme supplements will not destroy your body's natural
digestive enzyme supply, but will give you vitaly needed catalysts for your digestion and health.
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Experience a Boost in Digestive Your Ability and Health!
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over long periods.
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Available now A Dynamic Replacement of Enzymes Missing from Foods or Your Body.
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We
enjoy hearing from people! Feel free to call us or email us with your questions about health matters. Office hours are 10 am to 6 pm Monday - Friday. 727-443-7711 Address emails to ron@healthfree.com Send us your experiences and testimonials!
Ron Radstrom, President
Health Freedom Resources
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