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Did you know that enzymes play a vital role in your overall health? Previously I discussed how food combining can help with bloating and indigestion and this knowledge of enzymes will help you further avoid this problem. So, just what are enzymes and how do they help your digestive system? Let’s find out. enzymes What Is An Enzyme? There are three types of enzymes: metabolic, digestive and food but I’ll just focus on the digestive and food enzymes here. Enzymes are proteins which are created from amino acids. It can take 100 to 1,000 amino acids to create an enzyme! The amino acids are strung together like beads on a necklace. Imagine folding that necklace multiple times. That’s how an enzyme is created, each one unique in its shape and purpose. What Do Enzymes Do? The job of enzymes is to break molecules apart, along with putting them back together in order to get the chemical reaction needed to allow a cell to work effectively. This process allows digestive enzymes to break down the foods you eat and distribute them into the blood stream as nutrients. While there are many enzymes there are three main enzymes that aid in this process: lipase breaks down fats, carbohydrases breaks down carbohydrates, while protease breaks down, you guessed it, proteins. Each enzyme is located in various parts of the digestive system, some in the same area. Lipase is located in both the pancreas and small intestine, carboyhdrases in the salivary glands, pancreas and small intestine, protease in the stomach and small intestine. So, you can see that if your digestive system is digesting a protein (which takes the longest to digest) and carbohydrate at the same time, you’re going to put a massive burden on your body. This is why combined eating is important. Our Health and Enzymes Every cell in your body relies on digestive enzymes to function optimally. Digestive enzymes supply the body with not only nutrients but energy as well. Without enough enzymes your body is subject to various issues. Say for instance you’re lactose intolerant, it’s because you lack the enzyme lactase. Others may lack the enzyme protease and become vegetarians, but still cannot digest plant based proteins. The other issue that comes from lack of protease is the risk of mental health problems. Mental health problems may also occur in those who lack the enzymes to digest sugars such as lactase, sucrase and maltase. Not only do enzymes break down the foods you eat they also rid your body of old or diseased cells and tissues so it essentially helps you detoxify. Without the proper amount of enzymes the body is forced to pull them from other cells which compromises the immune system. This can lead to not only mental issues, as mentioned above, but your outer appearance and overall health. How We Get Enzymes Your body naturally contains enzymes but they deplete over time. For this reason it’s important to make sure you’re constantly replenishing your enzymes. You can do this by eating raw plant based foods which contain natural enzymes. Our society consumes way too much processed foods and not enough raw food. When we do eat our fruits and vegetables most of the time it’s from a can, frozen or cooked. If plant based foods are heated at around 48°C (wet heat) you’ve just killed all the enzymes! The same holds true if they’re dry heated at 65°C. So the best way for you to get the enzymes you need is to eat 70%-75% raw plant based foods. Chew, Chew, Chew It’s important to chew your food properly as well. Your saliva contains an enzyme called amylase that starts to break down starches. It also sends a message to your stomach to get ready. This triggers the enzymes in your digestive system and it’s a reason why not to chew gum as it sends a false message to your body and wastes enzymes. You should also not drink while eating because this sends a message to the enzymes to stop working. Key Takeaways Enzymes are vital for the health of your digestive system and overall wellbeing. Try not to kill all your enzymes by cooking them! Aim to eat 70% raw plant based foods to feed your body with health promoting enzymes. Chew your food properly and avoid chewing gum. For more natural health tips visit our blog at: http://www.alkalife.com.au/blog
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