Supplemental Enzymes
Digestive enzymes make up the majority of commercially available enzymes. They come from various natural sources as scientists are unable to manufacture enzymes synthetically. These enzymes are available over the counter in capsule, powder, tablet, and liquid forms. Digestive enzymes should ideally be coming from your diet. However, as people age, their bodies’ ability to produce enzymes decreases, so the authors of Prescription For Nutritional Healing (1997) highly recommend that older people supplement their diets with digestive enzymes. In Conscious Eating (2000), Gabriel Cousens also recommends that people with acute and chronic illnesses supplement enzymes to their diets because research has found that people with such conditions are enzyme deficient.
An argument against taking supplemental enzymes comes from The Columbia Encyclopedia Of Nutrition (1988) by the Institute Of Human Nutrition, Columbia University College Of Physicians And Surgeons. The authors say, “Some people have advocated taking enzymes with their foods to aid digestion. Unfortunately, for the most part, this does not work. The enzyme itself will usually be destroyed by the acid in the stomach and will be useless thereafter.”
To counter that, in Prescription For Natural Healing (1997) we find the advise that people taking supplemental enzymes should “make sure to choose a product that is enteric coated—that is, coated with a protective substance that allows [it] to pass intact through the stomach acid to be absorbed in the small intestine.” So, here they have proposed that there is a solution to the enzymes being destroyed in the stomach acid. However, again in the Columbia Encyclopedia Of Nutrition, we are told that “Enzymes can be useful in food processing and may convert some foods to a more digestible form before they are ingested. An example of this is yogurt, which may contain enzymes produced by naturally occurring bacteria which break down the lactose. However, this occurs before you eat the yogurt.”
Angiotensin converting enzyme is used to lower blood pressure because it makes the blood vessels narrower. An abnormal inhibitor enzyme many need a papaya enzyme known as papain to balance the digestion back out. Muscle mass can still be gained by eating raw foods. The enzymes in raw foods tend to stay alive longer than that of highly processed foods. Some enzymes aid in the natural digestion of protein rich food. Many symptom s can be helped by proper nutrition. Enzymes such as amylase or lactase can sometimes be imbalanced in people who do not eat a lot of dairy products. The function of papain, the immunoassay enzyme found in papaya fruit, is to aid in the breakdown of proteins into amino acids.