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.
Getting Enzymes From Food
The main way to obtain enzymes from the diet is from eating raw foods. The other alternate way is from taking enzyme supplements. Food sources containing enzymes in high amounts include: avocados, papayas, pineapples, bananas, and mangoes. Sprouts are the richest source (Prescription For Nutritional Healing, 1997). Sally Fallon also recommends extra virgin olive oil, other unrefined oils, raw honey, grapes, kiwis, and mangoes.
Grains, nuts, legumes and seeds are rich in enzymes, as well as other nutrients, but they also contain enzyme inhibitors. Unless deactivated, these enzyme inhibitors can put great strain on the digestive system. Different methods of deactivating the enzyme inhibitors include: sprouting, soaking in warm acidic water, sour leavening, culturing and fermenting. All of these processes are or have been used in traditional societies, and they serve to make the nutrients in grains, nuts and seeds more readily available (Nourishing Traditions, 2001).
There are different substances contained within the enzymes themselves that help to digest different nutrients. For example, there are proteases for digesting protein, lipases for digesting fats and amylases for digesting carbohydrates. If you are taking any digestive enzyme supplements, you should choose one that contains all of the major enzyme groups—amylase, protease, and lipase. A handy recipe for making your own digestive enzymes is given in Prescription For Nutritional Healing, (1997). By drying papaya seeds, placing them in a pepper grinder, and sprinkling them on your foods, you have effectively made your own digestive enzyme. A peppery taste is normal.
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.”
Fermentation Breeds Enzymes
Sally Fallon holds a similar view on enzymes as the authors of The Columbia Encyclopedia Of Nutrition. She cites examples of the benefits of culturing and fermentation that have been used in the diets of traditional cultures worldwide. “Almost all traditional societies incorporate raw, enzyme-rich foods into their cuisines—not only vegetable foods but also raw animal proteins and fats in the form of raw dairy foods, raw fish and raw muscle and organ meats. These diets also traditionally include a certain amount of cultured or fermented foods, which have an enzyme content that is further enhanced by the fermenting and culturing process.”
If you are interested in learning how to ferment and culture your own foods, I’d highly recommend a book called Wild Fermentation (2003) written by Sandos Ellix Katz. The book runs the whole gamut of culturing and fermentation including: the health benefits of fermented foods, vegetable ferments, bean ferments, dairy ferments (and vegan alternatives), breads, fermented grain porridge and beverages, wines, beers, and vinegars (http://www.wildfermentation.com).
Back in the pre-industrialized society days, people would make all their alcoholic beverages using fermentation techniques and it was, for them, a great way to preserve their grain harvests since they didn’t have refrigeration. Besides that, fermenting the grains helped make them easier to digest. The beers and wines made through this type of process actually had some health value, unlike most of the alcohol we drink today. A great book to check out if you’re interested in learning to make your own brews in this fashion is called Sacred And Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets Of Ancient Fermentation (1998) by Stephen Harrod Buhner.
Enzyme Therapy
Enzyme therapy uses enzymes from food or from supplements to treat health conditions. The use of foods with high levels of enzymes to treat illnesses was practiced by the indigenous peoples of Central and South America, Africa, and India (Conscious Eating, 2000). The indigenous peoples of Central and South America, for example, used the leaves and fruit of pineapples and papayas for therapeutic treatments. Enzyme therapy is used for people with health conditions because enzymes are needed for the body’s systems to function properly, including the immune system. It is important to note that there are certain times when it is best not to take enzyme therapy. In Conscious Eating (2000), Gabriel Cousens outlines these as: before one goes into surgery, during pregnancy, people with allergies, people taking anti-coagulants or thrombocyte aggregation, and people with congenital disturbances in blood coagulation.