Enzymes

(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)

Enzymes are a fairly recent nutritional discovery made by biochemists in the 1930’s. “Enzymes are complex proteins that act as catalysts in almost every biochemical process that takes place in the body.” (Nourishing Traditions, 2001 by Sally Fallon) Enzymes are referred to as “substances that accelerate and precipitate the hundreds of thousands of biochemical reactions in the body that control life’s processes. If it were not for the catalytic action of enzymes, most of these reactions would take place far too slowly to sustain life.” (Prescription For Nutritional Healing, 1997).

Both Fallon’s book Nourishing Traditions and the Balch’s Prescription For Nutritional Healing cites a physician and pioneer in enzyme research, Dr. Edward Howell, who calls enzymes the “sparks of life.” Dr. Howell has pointed out that humans and animals on a diet comprised largely of cooked food, particularly grains, have enlarged pancreas organs, while other glands and organs, notably the brain, actually shrink in size (Nourishing Traditions, 2001). Enzymes serve a very important purpose in the body.

Enzymes are essential for digesting food, stimulating the brain, providing cellular energy, and for repairing all tissues, organs, and cells. Enzymes are even used to repair our DNA and RNA. Gabriel Cousens adds to this in Conscious Eating (2000), “The research suggests they [enzymes] also balance and enhance the immune system; help to heal cancer, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid diseases, and arthritis.” (535) Life as we know it could not exist without the action of enzymes, even in the presence of sufficient amounts of vitamins, minerals, water, and other nutrients. (Prescription For Nutritional Healing, 1997).

However, in order for enzymes to function properly, they need to be paired up with certain vitamins and minerals. Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions (2001) points out that, “(Enzyme) activity depends on the presence of adequate vitamins and minerals and minerals, particularly magnesium. Many enzymes incorporate a single molecule of a trace mineral—such as manganese, copper, iron or zinc—without which the enzyme cannot function.”

There are three major classifications of enzymes: food, digestive, and metabolic enzymes. The food enzymes are the ones most often considered in planning nutritional choices. Sally Fallon tells us, “[Food enzymes] are present in ample amounts in many raw foods, and they initiate the process of digestion in the mouth and stomach.” (Nourishing Traditions 2001) Food enzymes are extremely sensitive to heat, however. So even if you’re eating foods rich in enzymes, if these foods are cooked at temperatures of 118°F or more, 100% of the enzymes will be destroyed.

The high levels of enzymes present in raw foods are part of the reason why people on primarily raw food diets have been shown to benefit from high levels of health. In 12 Steps To Raw Food (2002), Victoria Boutenko illustrates what happens to the body when it is given raw and cooked food. When you eat a raw apple, the apple is filled with enzymes. “As you enjoy the flavor and texture of the apple, the enzymes (likened to little handy-men with suitcases full of magic healing tools) work on your body… You feel good and full of energy because the apple carries the enzymes within it to digest itself.” (4) On the other hand, if you were to eat a cooked apple, such as a cooked apple pie, you would enjoy the tastes while eating it, but would then feel tired and heavy afterwards. Boutenko explains this: “Inside your body your enzymes have to leave their work, maybe cleaning the liver, protecting you from tumors and evacuating toxins here and there, to come digest the cooked apple that does not have any enzymes of its own.” (5)

As noted in Gabriel Cousens’ book Conscious Eating (2000), studies have been performed on animals which show the difference in their enzyme levels when they eat raw and cooked foods. Dogs in one study who normally ate raw food were given cooked food for one week. After this week, the enzyme levels in their saliva increased greatly. After one week back on raw food, their enzyme content of their saliva went back to its normal low level. This study shows that the dogs had to use enzymes from their bodies’ reservoirs in order to digest cooked food, which doesn’t have the enzymes to digest it, as does raw food. There are many researchers who have come to believe that people have a set number of enzymes and that when these are fully depleted through eating a cooked food diet, their bodies are no longer able to function properly and such people then become ill. Victoria Boutenko quotes findings from Dr. Edward Howell, a leading intuitionalist, in 12 Steps To Raw Food (2002) which support the theory that we have a limited supply of enzymes. Dr. Howell has found that the average American has only 30% of their enzymes left at the age of 40. Boutenko notes that even though such people can physically survive, they have to give much of their energy to detoxifying the body and therefore they become less sensitive to both themselves and others.