Enzyme Depletion

Indigestion and Heartburn??

Most people don’t realize it, but enzymes are a vital element in maintaining good health. Enzymes are responsible for EVERY reaction in the human body. Without enzymes, we simply die.

When enzyme production is insufficient, we can ALSO have many health problems.
What does that have to do with you? Everything! Enzymes are only found in LIVE, uncooked, unprocessed foods. Every type of food there is has its own enzyme contained in it which actually DIGESTS the food. When you see food “spoiling,” you are seeing the results of enzymes at work, among other things. Enzymes are responsible for the actual digestion of the food we eat.

You might be asking, “If our bodies produce enzymes, why do we need to be concerned about getting them in our diet?” The answer is, our body has a limited ability to produce quality enzymes.Every time our pancreas is called on to produce enzymes, we are “using up” that ability to produce a good copy of the enzyme.It is not unlike a mold used in manufacturing products. The mold is good for X number of copies before it has to be replaced with a new mold. Wear and tear makes it unusable at some point.

Nature designed our systems to work WITH the enzyme content in foods provided in the natural world. When we eat raw food, it goes to the upper portion of our stomach where it is held for approximately 1/2 hour. It is primarily here where DIGESTION occurs. We have all been led to believe that the “acids” in our stomach digest the foods.This is not correct. IT IS WITHIN THE FOODS WE SHOULD BE EATING THAT ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR “DIGESTING” THE FOOD.

Once the food has been acted upon by the enzymes, the material drops down into the lower portion of the stomach where additional enzymes may go to work. The hydrochloric acid within the stomach does one primary thing. It lowers the pH of the stomach contents soOTHER enzymes can go to work on different material. The point is,when there are NO ENZYMES within the food we eat, we set up a nasty series of events.

Imagine this scenario. We eat a meal consisting of meat, potatoes,boiled vegetables and say a glass of milk. There are NO enzymes of this food, so it sets in the top portion of the stomach. Imagine what happens to food that is ground up and set in a warm, place for 1/2 hour. If you are fortunate, you won’t experience bloating and gas formation right away. You know, that “full,” “indigestion”feeling? Indigestion is EXACTLY THAT, INDIGESTION.

When we eat foods that have no enzymes, our body is immediately called upon to produce the enzymes we ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE in order to gain any nourishment at all from the foods we eat. Our pancreas normally produces metabolic enzymes which basically take of all the processes the body must have going on every minute. Everything from our cells being able to live and produce energy, cleaning our systems, to providing a strong immune system. Suddenly, this enzyme production for METABOLISM is interrupted we have to produce massive amounts of enzymes JUST IN AN ATTEMPT TO DIGEST THE FOOD WE JUST ATE.

The pancreas empties its enzymes into the upper portion of the small intestines. The enzymes have too little time to properly digest the food at this point and much of it passes into the small intestine UNDIGESTED. You see, your body DOES NOT WANT PROTEINS, FATS OR CARBOHYDRATES.It wants AMINO ACIDS, FATTY ACIDS AND SIMPLE SUGARS.So, imagine again, what happens to the undigested portions of the food within the entire length of the small and large intestines.

What food is properly broken down is absorbed as nutrients.The remainder, which is quite a sizable portion of what we eat,simply goes through the process of PUTRIFACTION. This is a fancy for ROTTING. This process gives off gas, harmful waste products and damages the good bacterial culture within the colon. The pancreas, being FORCED to produce massive amounts of enzymes, usually 2-3 times a day, far more than it was intended to do, gradually looses its ability to produce enzymes. With this, the entire metabolic system is slowly affected along with it. The process, the degenerative changes we experience, the breakdown in our immune systems,ALL RESULT OVER TIME FROM THIS ONE THREAT.

Imagine, if you will, 40, 50, 60 years of that scenario taking place in our bodies. The CONTINUOUS RELEASE OF TOXINS THAT OUR BODY MUST DEAL WITH, AND THE STRAIN ON THE IMMUNE SYSTEM AS A DIRECT RESULT. On top of that, every meal we eat without enzymes causes a strain on the immune system just through the fact that white blood cells(WBC) contain enzymes that are used to digest and destroy foreign invaders and dead material our bodies get rid of.When our food is enzyme deficient, we cause an increase in WBC production which strains the immune system.

Another aspect to this is the CONTINUOUS DEPLETION OF METABOLIC ENZYMES WITHIN THE BODY.Enzymes within the blood stream and throughout the body help clean the system, break down fats, and harmful materials.Think about what might happen if these enzymes are not there,and you have 40, 50, 60 years of the effects of accumulated fats within the system, and the damage the waste products which build up in the system cause? Is it any wonder heart disease is the leading killer in this country?
There’s only one enzyme that can break down fats within the body, and that is LIPASE. Without lipase, you DON’T DIGEST FAT, YOU STORE IT. If this storage is within the tissues, you get fatter. If is within the arterial walls of the circulatory system, you get heart disease. That is just the beginning.

I’ve mentioned many times in the past, good health OR bad health isn’t something that suddenly “happens.” Whether we experience good health or bad health is ALL A RESULT OF OUR LIFESTYLE AND DAILY HABITS WHICH PRODUCE THE END RESULT. You simply can’t abuse the system like that for so many years and NOT EXPECT THERE TO BE SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE DONE IN THE PROCESS.

What’s the answer? You have several choices. The most important is to change your lifestyle to improve this situation. The simple facts are, if you eat foods that have been processed or cooked above 118 degrees, you can rest assured that there are NO ENZYMES WITHIN THE FOOD, since enzymes are easily destroyed by heat.

You also can’t expect to eat a full course meal of cooked foods, and then to eat a “raw” salad, expecting the enzymes within the salad “digest” your entire meal. In almost every case, foods contain enzymes to SELF DIGEST. No more.One of several exceptions is Papaya, which is rich in enzymes,but not all we need or can use.

Another choice is to ignore this basic truth and do nothing.The results of this decision are being experienced by millions of people all over the country. The U.S. has the best medical system on the planet, yet we Americans have the worst health of any modern nation on earth. DOESN’T THAT TELL YOU THAT SOMETHING IS WRONG?

One choice is to understand this threat of ENZYME DEPLETION,and HOW PROPERLY ADDRESS IT. The research involving enzymes is growing daily. The medical profession is even using enzyme therapy for stroke and heart attack victims. WHY?BECAUSE ENZYMES DISSOLVE THE CLOTS RESPONSIBLE FOR STROKES AND HEART ATTACKS.

IT SO HARD TO CONSIDER WHAT MIGHT THE RESULTS BE IF ENZYMES WERE PRESENT ON A REGULAR BASIS WITHIN THE BODY? Is it too much of a leap to conclude that this simple fact COULD HAVE PREVENTED THE STROKE OR HEART ATTACK IN THE FIRST PLACE? If you can see thisc onnection, then you have taken a vital step to significantly changing your potential health in the future.

People naturally ask, “What kind of enzymes should I get?”Well, the best way to get our enzymes is raw fruits and vegetables. Those foods are loaded with naturally occurring enzymes.

In nature, enzymes are naturally formulated with other CO-FACTORS, which make the enzyme more usable. Enzymes in their “pure” state, are lacking these CO-factors and therefore WILL EITHER BE LESS EFFECTIVE IN THE BODY, OR THEY MUST DRAW THE NECESSARY NUTRIENTS FROM THE BODY ITSELF IN ORDER TO BE “FULLY ACTIVATED.” It is the “Robbing Peter to pay Paul” philosophy.

Unless enzymes are fully activated, you waste a lot of your money, and even cause an energy loss in the equation. Either way, you lose in the deal.

The best way to get your enzymes is to eat raw whole foods and use raw whole-food supplements. That’s it!

Remember, natural law can’t be fooled or tricked. The body needs the whole food to function correctly. The more raw you eat, the better your digestion will be.

In the beginning, you may have trouble eating the raw foods. If that is the case, then you will need to consume raw fresh juice and whole-food supplements. As the body heals, it will be able to handle the raw foods.

There is no short-cut to health. We must be willing to change a lifestyle. We can’t eat the junk food, take some enzymes and achieve health. There is just no way around “changing a lifestyle”.

Cyndi Thomas, N.D.