Was trying to explain to someone recently how enzymes in raw foods work ... you know if you cook the food the enzyme is killed... and she said she heard that theory had been debunked... and I said i hadn't heard that and am usually in the know about this kind of stuff as I do read a fair amount about this stuff... and then i thought well surely i don't know everything... and so I thought I would ask here what people say about Enzymes and raw foods...

the conversation started cause she suggested maybe i take enzymes to aid my digestive problems and I said with raw foods you shouldn't really have to take enzymes... because they provide all the enzymes they need to digest themselves in the body... is this correct?

thank you for reading

love laugh and dream

I agree with you. But there are raw fooders who advocate for enzymes or at least sell them. I think Matt Monarch does but don't quote me on it. I saw some schpiel on it and couldn't understand why a person would need them. I also question the quality of them because how can they still be LIVING and in a capsule? I mean, I suppose you can have raw powdered greens and such but would they be highly enzymatic? I seriously doubt it.

Food does not contain the enzymes necessary for it's own digestion, that wouldn't make any sense at all. Enzymes and "life-force" in food are not an invalid health giving element but not strictly in terms of digestibility.
If you are having trouble digesting food increasing hydrochloric acid production is a great idea, even if it's only a temporary crutch like digestive enzymes (symptomatic remedy) while you search for a way to heal the cause.

IMHO.

Can you Explain what enzymes are then?

Your friend may be correct, in that most of the digestive enzymes from raw foods are destroyed by the low pH of stomach acids. There appears to be no scientific basis for the theory that enzymes from the raw foods we eat are responsible for digesting the raw foods.

Same with Kouchakoff's theory on leukocytosis. Basically, in the many decades since Kouchakoff's experiments, no one has ever validated his theory. However, we do know that some foods - depending on how they're cooked - produce toxic substances: acrylamides for instance, from baked and fried starches.

In "Becoming Raw", Melina and Davis (RDs) bring up an interesting point: It takes about an hour for food to reach the low pH where raw food enzymes are destroyed. We don't yet know what happens with the enzymes during that time.

But we do know that food is not well digested until it hits that low pH.

A couple of other points that I personally think may be worth noting:

-Raw foods supply vitamins that act as coenzymes that are vital for processing energy from foods into fuel metabolism, fuel storage, and molecular synthesis. Cooking destroys many of those vitamins.

-Many of those coenzymes must come from vitamins in the diet. Our body usually has a store of them for a while, but they have to come from the diet. That's why they're called "essential nutrients". So not only are our mechanisms jeoparidized somewhere down the line, but it also seems possible to me that when we eat a cooked meal, we may be sensitive to a chemical message from our stomach to our brain, saying, "Hey, there's no coenzymes here! What's up? I spent more than I got back!"

Basically though, I think it's like this: Some people (like me) do notice a very distinct difference between how they feel when they eat cooked food, and when they eat raw food. Other people aren't that way.

But the point is, what we're feeling is not just in our minds. We're not making it up. There's a reason for it. We just don't know yet what the reason is.

Hi Luvyuu, by the time I finish this, you may already have your answer, but here are definitions of enzyme and coenzyme (from Biology, A Guide to the Natural World, by David Krogh):

An enzyme is "a chemically active protein that speeds up, or in practical terms enables, chemical reactions in living things."

A coenzyme is "a type of accessory molecule that binds to the active site of an enzyme, thus allowing the enzyme to bind to it's substrate. Many vitamins are important coenzymes."

Virtually all of our body's functions - not just digestion - are dependent upon chemical reactions. Enzymes lower the amount of energy required for a reaction to take place. Without the enzyme, the reaction would not move forward. And without coenzymes (vitamins), many enzymes will not function.

Cooking degrades coenzymes.

One example of a coenzyme is thiamine (Vitamin B1). Cooking degrades thiamine, which is a crucial coenzyme for harvesting energy from glucose, a fuel required by every tissue in the body, the major fuel for the brain, and the only fuel for blood cells. Thiamine is considered "essential" because we have to eat it to get it.

As suncloud said most of the enzymes contained in raw food are destroyed by the stomach acid. The produces its own digestive enzymes to digest food.

Supplementing with digestive enzymes can help those with digestion problems who aren't producing enough, but i don't recommend it. Your body can get lazy with supplementing digestive enzymes and stop producing its own natural supply.

Which is why its better to stimulate the release with bitter herbs on the back of the tongue.

[www.amlaberry.co.uk]

Enzymes are the invisible magnetic life force of food - Norman Walker

Personally, I think enzymes are the chi of food.

Someone Else Wrote:
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> Enzymes are the invisible magnetic life force of
> food - Norman Walker
>
> Personally, I think enzymes are the chi of food.

Bingo.

From what i have read i don't think they are of great importance.

Food would digest itself if they were as powerful as they were made out to be, personally i think they play a small role in the make up of raw foods.

[www.amlaberry.co.uk]

See, that's why I don't even mention enzymes when discussing raw foods, the "invisible magnetic life force" thing is way too airy-fairy for most people. For me though the chi of food is just as important as anything else. It's like if everything about a person were perfectly healthy except for their attitude you could say there wasn't any problem whatsoever with their health. But that attitude, it has great bearing on how you feel and even how your body acts, how healthy you really are. Attitude is an invisible magnetic life force thing, intangible but very, very real and with enormous impact.

So there you go, discuss the importance of enzymes with the like minded. For everyone else, there are way more fact based reasons to eat foods raw.

Agree with suncloud. As a trained cook, I think of it this way: enzymes in foods are protein based chemicals which keep the other nutrients, especially micronutrients, viable--the more they deteriorate the less bio available the nutrients dependent on them are. Which would you rather eat: a crisp, sweet, moist lettuce leaf, or a wilted, graying, rubbery one? That's your instinct telling you the former is still nutrient dense, and latter is nutrient poor.

Ok... so now my acupuncturist is suggesting I take enzymes ... he suggested Enzymall to be exact because it has hydrochloric acid... he said his concern is that my worst meals are healthier then most people's best and still i'm not absorbing the nutrients... so he's hoping the enzymes will help a long with Apple cider vinegar my concern with this is the acidic-ness that i already feel even with a high alkalizing diet...

... he has been working on my liver and spleen pancreas... and it's made some difference but very very minutely so we took a break from the herbs and AP treatment to see if it was helping at all cause it was hard for me to notice a difference... and my liver and spleen pancreas took a nose dive again... in just a week... i'm frustrated...

any suggestion opinions words of wisdom... maybe a better enzyme complex... this one has some extra stuff in it i don't particularly care for.

love laugh and dream

I wouldnt take enzymes personally for digestive problems, they can shut down the bodies own natural production with prolonged use.

You are much better stimulating release of pancreatic enzymes with bitters.

[www.amlaberry.co.uk]

yeah I'm not going to take them... I read the ingredients... Ox Bile being one of them... but funny it's not even the worst... the chemicals they put in everything today is terrible... thank you I will look into taking bitters.

love laugh and dream
g

luvyuu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> yeah I'm not going to take them... I read the
> ingredients... Ox Bile being one of them... but
> funny it's not even the worst... the chemicals
> they put in everything today is terrible...
> thank you I will look into taking bitters.
>
> love laugh and dream
> g

That would be bile salts they have added to the formula. Bitters also stimulate the release of bile which is one of the reasons why it helps cleanse the liver.

You can go with bitter herbs in powder form just a pinch on the back of the tongue or a digestive bitter formula no difference really. The common pre made digestive bitter formulas tend to be swedish, chinese, grape bitters etc. Avoid swedish bitters as they contain stimulant laxative herbs which can weaken bowel function.

[www.amlaberry.co.uk]

Very informative website about how our bodies make our own digestive enzymes and other health info.

[www.enzymestuff.com]

Love,
Prism

Ok so I get that most people here don't agree with taking enzymes but if you did and only for a short time what type of enzymes would you take... Is there a good raw foods supplement out there that includes hydrochloric acid???

love laugh and dream

If I find myself in digestive trouble I occasionally take a papaya enzyme, that's about the only one I will take. The rest, as I understand it, actually work to digest the stomach they get put into. That doesn't sound so helpful :/.

powerlifer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wouldnt take enzymes personally for digestive
> problems, they can shut down the bodies own
> natural production with prolonged use.
>
> You are much better stimulating release of
> pancreatic enzymes with bitters.
>
> [www.amlaberry.co.uk]


I agree completely with Chris here. The sale of digestive enzymes has been nothing less than shortsighted and somewhat dangerous. Use pancreatic herbs if you have weak digestion. The pancreas is still an endocrine gland, and the long term use of digestive enzymes can really shut it down.