Why Digestive Enzymes are Critical to Your Health
by Vin Miller
Good health is dependent on properly digesting and absorbing the food we eat, and in turn, this ability is dependent on the availability of digestive enzymes. Although you’ve probably heard of digestive enzymes, chances are that your diet is deficient in them and that your potential for optimal health is being compromised as a result.
Enzymes are proteins that facilitate chemical reactions. Nearly every biological function of a cell depends on enzymes, and as such, they’re critical to our health. Similar to the theory that mammals are limited to approximately 1 billion heartbeats, it’s also believed that we have a limited capacity for enzyme production. Based on this theory, anything that puts unnecessary demand on the body to produce enzymes, such as a diet that’s deficient in them, could compromise health and shorten lifespan.
Enzymes Aren’t Just For Digestion
As I already mentioned, enzymes facilitate nearly all cellular activity which means that they support the function of organs, glands, and all other types of tissue that are critical to life. When digestive enzymes are not obtained through diet and the body must manufacture more of them to compensate, this infringes on the resources that are available to produce the metabolic enzymes that are needed to support these other important functions. Because of this, it’s desirable to regularly eat food that’s rich in enzymes and minimizes this unnecessary burden.
The activity of enzymes often depends on a variety of external factors such as temperature and pH, and when such external conditions are not appropriate, enzymes will remain inactive. This conditional behavior is what allows foods to be digested by the very same enzymes that they naturally contain. Research has shown that the digestive system recognizes when these enzymes exist in the food we eat, and in response, is able to conserve resources by limiting production of additional enzymes. As such, foods that are rich in enzymes are easier to digest because they reduce the burden on the digestive system, and by doing so, they also preserve the body’s capacity to produce metabolic enzymes.
In addition to breaking down the food we eat, digestive enzymes are also important to immune function. They help to break down bacteria, viruses, parasites, and damaged cells, all of which can pose a significant threat to our health. Furthermore, when digestive enzymes are obtained through diet, the resulting conservation in digestive effort reduces the chance of immune function being impaired by a limitation in capacity to produce metabolic enzymes.
Why the Modern Diet is Deficient in Enzymes
The enzymes naturally found in food are destroyed at 118 degrees Fahrenheit. As such, cooked food is generally lacking in enzymes and forces the body to compensate by producing more of its own. Because most processed foods are highly refined and exposed to high temperatures, they’re typically depleted of enzymes as well. Unfortunately, these two categories of food are staples of the modern diet. The pancreas produces most of the digestive enzymes that are needed to compensate for such a diet, and research has shown that such a burden causes it to enlarge which is generally recognized as a warning sign of overuse and dysfunction.
Natural whole foods are the foundation of a truly healthy diet, and consuming them raw will provide a natural supply of digestive enzymes that will relieve the body of unnecessary burden. In turn, the additional resources that remain will be available to produce the metabolic enzymes that will help to fight illness, prevent disease, slow aging, and promote optimal health.
Incorporating Digestive Enzymes Into Your Diet
Consuming more raw food to benefit from a natural external supply of digestive enzymes doesn’t mean that you need to become fanatical about eating everything raw. In fact, some vegetables can interfere with digestion and absorption when eaten raw, and some anthropologists believe that the cooking of meat has made important contributions to our evolution including a significant increase in brain size. In my opinion, the best way to incorporate digestive enzymes into your diet is to find a compromise between cooked and raw. An additional benefit of doing so is that raw foods are very easy to prepare and will reduce your cooking time.
Enzymes aren’t the only nutrients that are damaged or destroyed by heat, so the more you cook your food, the less nutritious it will be. I eat all fruit and nearly all vegetables raw, and although I typically cook meat, I do so at a low temperature of 225 degrees Fahrenheit or below. On occasion, I’ll eat beef or fish completely raw. Although some might say this increases the risk of infection, I believe this is much less of a concern with the quality of food that I buy. Either way, this is one of the many decisions in life that you’ll have to take accountability for and make yourself.
Another simple and natural way to take advantage of digestive enzymes is to chew more thoroughly. Saliva naturally contains enzymes that break down carbohydrates and fat, so the more time you spend chewing, the more of a chance these enzymes will have to predigest the food you eat. Furthermore, thorough chewing will break down food more completely, result in more surface area being exposed to enzymes, and in turn, reduce digestive burden.
The Value of Digestive Enzyme Supplements
Although I prefer to error on the side of obtaining nutrients from whole foods rather then supplements, I think digestive enzymes are worth consideration, especially if most of the food you eat is cooked or processed. While most supplements are intended to provide vitamins or minerals that aren’t adequately obtained through diet, digestive enzymes facilitate the ability to obtain more of these nutrients from the food we eat, and they reduce digestive burden in the process.
The digestive enzymes in supplements originate from animals or plants. Although both are beneficial, many people prefer plant enzymes because they have been shown to be more effective. In addition, it’s difficult to verify the quality of animal enzymes and be sure that they haven’t been taken from unhealthy livestock that were raised in factory farm conditions.
Although there are many different digestive enzymes, they all fall fit into the categories of proteases, carbohydrases, and lipases which respectively break down proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Most supplements contain a combination of digestive enzymes from each category, and the higher quality brands usually list them by active units rather than grams and are also free of unnecessary fillers and additives. Depending on your nutritional individuality, it may be beneficial to find a supplement that combines these different types of enzymes in proportions that match your typical meal.
Additional Information
For more information about digestive enzymes and how our limited capacity to produce them affects our health, I highly recommend reading Enzyme Nutrition by Dr. Edward Howell. Although this book was written more than twenty years ago, it still provides a very compelling argument for the significant importance of digestive enzymes and is one of the most informative and influential resource on the topic.
Another interesting book that was written more recently is Everything You Need to Know About Enzymes by Tom Bohager. This book provides more detail about the specific enzymes used in supplements and explains how they can also be used without food to help resolve a number of health issues.
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Thanks for the article! I am considering using proleolitic enzymes (taken away from food). What is your opinion of this type of enzyme blend? VitalZym used to be the typical product, but I am considering trying Zymesscence because you don’t have to take as many per day. Systemic enzymes are used to lyse away fibrin and any type of fibrosis taking place in the body (scar tissue, etc.).
Do you think it’s a waste of money? They can be pricey.
Hi Sharona,
I included Tom Bohager’s book in the article because I think the idea of using enzyme supplements for purposes other than digestion is interesting and seems to be promising. However, I don’t know a lot about it and can’t really offer much of an opinion on the products you mentioned.
In my opinion, using enzyme supplements in this manner seems to have good potential for addressing specific conditions, but in regard to using them on a regular basis to support optimal health, I would need to be convinced that doing so is necessary for someone who consumes quality nutrition and follows healthy habits. Without this type of outlook, it’s easy to get caught up in the hype surrounding supplements and end up taking dozens of them a day and spending a lot of money in the process. Furthermore, it’s still important to consider the potential long term effects even with natural supplements, and in many cases, such information isn’t available.
Hi Vin, this is really interesting. About 6 months ago a read an article on enzymes and as a result I started taking both digestive and systemic enzyme supplements. I realize raw food is the best but I each so much cooked food that I think I need to supplement.
Hi Stephen, thanks for your comment!
I agree that it’s a good idea to use digestive enzymes if you’re eating a lot of cooked food. Why not try to add more raw vegetables into your diet?
Hi Vin,
You are one smart cookie. I just wanted to let you know how interesting I find your topics. You really get it!
I loved both the books you mentioned. A couple of years ago, I took proteolytic enzymes in place of anti inflammatory medication. The enzymes were incredibly powerful and helpful with the effects of my sad, little leaky gut which was causing me such grief at the time.
I recommended the proteolytic enzymes to a client of mine who had completely severed his achilles tendon. His healing was dramatic (yes, he still needed surgery, but the doctors were astounded by his quick ability to regain full function).
We get our enzymes from fermented food now. I try to eat more fermented veggies than fresh ones because I have seen how dramatic the healing effect can be. I used to take digestive enzymes, but eating fermented food has been more helpful in my case.
Thank you, Tara!
Thanks for sharing your experience with proteolytic enzymes. As I mentioned in my response to Sharona, they seem to have a lot of potential to help resolve specific issues, and I’d like to think that they’re a much safer and perhaps more effective choice than NSAIDs.
I’m a big fan of fermented food also, especially as a natural source of probiotics.
Hi Vin,
I have a success story to share about enzymes and probiotics as part of a total routine, but let me give you a bit of history first:
I’ve been reading some of the articles on your website and I’m very impressed. Your information is well researched and backs up so much of what I’ve been learning, too.
I have had fibromyalgia and adrenal fatigue most of my life. I began making the connection between my health and processed foods around 1996 and began eliminating processed stuff. Though I ate it rarely, I haven’t touched fast food at all in probably 13 years now. However, I was still being fooled by all the lies about eating a “healthy” low-fat diet and lots of “healthy” bread and whole grain pasta and processed vegetable oils. So I thought I was eating well, but actually wasn’t.
Then in 2006 I had a “health crash” and was told I’d had an episode of remitting-relapsing MS. This sent me back to the internet and researching where, thankfully, I began learning about the myths of cholesterol (which you covered beautifully, by the way), and the lies about the “heart healthy” diet and “healthy” canola oil and other things I thought I was doing right. At that time I couldn’t walk any distance and had trouble standing for more than a few minutes. Though I’d been doing yoga since 1988, I found I had a lot of stiffness, even in postures I’d been doing for 18 years.
Basically, I ended up going about as all natural as you can in this day and age. I stopped using chemical laden deodorants, shampoos, toothpastes and soaps, for example, as they all contain endocrine disruptors like parabens and phalates. I now only wear make up on special occasions since make-up is unregulated and full of chemicals and lead. I do not drink any juices or juice-based drinks (aside from a little shot glass of pure acai or wheatgrass here and there) and thankfully, I always hated soda, so that was never an issue. I began buying more and more organic vegetables and fruit. I added more meat and protein to my diet. I went wheat free/gluten free, which made a huge difference. I don’t eat cakes, cookies and pancakes, etc, so there’s no worry for me to deal with gluten free substitutes. I eat no breads or pastas. I eat mostly raw or lightly steamed vegetables and very little fruit. I eat nothing with sugar at this point and nothing artificial or industrially processed. The only salt I will use is natural sea salt and I basically cook whatever I eat. I almost never eat anything outside my home. Another big one- I never eat soy! Not even soy lecithin which is found in just about everything processed.
In the past 3 1/2 years of detoxing from my former life, I have seen my health improve in leaps and bounds. I have so much energy today. I am having many pain free days and little stiffness if any. Many people ask me how they can improve their situation by following what I do. The fact is, its hard to do what I do because it literally requires a 24/7 commitment. Everything from drinking enough water to never making an exception on eating stuff on the “no-no” list.
I’m always asked what supplements I take. I used to take a whole bunch of supplements but today, I only take a few. 1. probiotics (the expensive, high quality kind in the fridge), 2. Wobenzyme enzyme therapy 3. Methyl B-12 5000 (every 5 days I take one) 4. 100% pure acai supplement by Genesis Today called Acai 100 and 5. calcium lactate right before, and during “certain time of the month” (as recommended by my natropath).
I think if I could only take one supplement, it would have to be the Wobenzyme. Any quality enzyme will due, but that is the one thing I’d never want to live without. My chiropractor first told me about Wobenzyme for the fibromyalgia in 2002 but I dismissed it thinking it was expensive and not believing it would be much help. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Enzyme therapy has helped probably as much as everything else I’ve done combined. I can’t recommend it enough for a host of ailments. The power to lower inflammation is crucial to all aspects of good heath.
My natropath also recommends enzymes for people with chronic pain and even the fibromyalgia specialist (who is an organized medicine doctor) gave me the “thumbs up” on taking the enzymes for my condition. I have never taken any prescription drugs and I refuse to in the future. I see other people with fibromyalgia adding all these chemicals in food and personal care products and prescriptions to their body and their health is worse than mine was when I crashed! I say, detox your life and take those enzymes for at least a year before you think this isn’t working. It takes time to get all the junk out of the body that was put in for years, but its worth it to feel good and young again and get rid of so much inflammation.
Hi Mrs. Jones, thanks for sharing your amazing story and congratulations on persevering your way towards such great improvements!
Similar to your experience with your doctors, when I was being treated for chronic fatigue syndrome, I didn’t like how they recommended a wide variety of supplements and medications without adequately addressing basic lifestyle factors, particularly diet. This is what eventually provoked me to abandon the treatment. Like you, I achieved much better results on my own.
I’ve made many of the same changes that you have and I agree that it’s a nonstop commitment. However, the initial change is the difficult part, and once this is past, it’s basically just a way of life. Although I think I might be a bit more lenient with myself than what you’ve described, I haven’t had much trouble at all maintaining the healthier habits that I’ve implemented. I think it’s important for people to realize this so that they’re not overwhelmed with discouragement when faced with the difficulty and discomfort of change. It does get easier!
Thanks again for sharing your story, I’m sure many people will be inspired by it!