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The Alchemy of Nutrient Delivery |
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 The Value of Enzymes By understanding the enzyme concept it becomes clear how easy it is to boost your vitality. That's because enzymes possess special life energy transferring properties, unlike any other factor in our diet. The heat used by modern cooking and pasteurization or irradiation destroys virtually all enzymes in our food and this terminates the transfer of life energy when eating. In fact, this produces a reverse flow which removes enzymes from your system to make up for their loss, insidiously undermining your health and steadily draining your reserves of energy. You may get away with this for a time, particularly when you are young and healthy, but years of this drainage slowly erodes your health and can open the door to a host of 'mysterious' ailments. But first: what are enzymes and what do they do? Enzymes are biochemical catalysts which run the body. "They serve as the body's labor force to perform every single function required for our daily activities and are required to keep us alive," according to Enzymes: The Fountain of Life, by Lopez and Williams. They are a measure of our life and immunity. "The immune system depends heavily on enzymes to conduct its protective functions". "When enzyme activity stops, life stops and the person or organism dies!" In other words, enzymes are our supply of the vital energy of life. There are three classes of enzymes: metabolic, digestive and food, and they all interface to keep the body running. We have most control over food enzymes, through what we eat including nutritional supplementation. Food enzymes can be divided into three simple categories: proteases ( to break down protein), lipases (to break down fat) and amylases (to break down starch and sugar). Raw foods contain just the right amount of each of these for predigestion. "Researchers have conclusively shown that there are two distinctly different digestive sections of the stomach:" the upper and lower. The upper part is where food sits for 30-60 minutes as food enzymes do their work of predigestion. What happens when there are too few enzymes in the food due to processing or cooking or microwaving. The food starts to ferment, rot, and putrefy, according to Edward Howell, author of Food Enzymes for Health and Longevity. Then it gets passed down to the lower portion where your digestive juices have to work harder to deal with the mess. No wonder we have indigestion! In the process some key amino acids are lost and can start to build up in the colon or food particles can get into our blood. Thus begins the downward spiral of ill health and loss of vitality. Foods in the supermarket are stripped of their own natural enzymes by heat processing or irradiation to prolong their shelf life. When you eat such foods your body has to make up for the missing enzymes by borrowing from your reserves and which in turn leads to disease. The Law of Adaptive Secretion of Digestive Enzymes, confirmed by a number of researchers, states "that the body calls for exactly the quantity and type of enzymes needed according to the character of each meal eaten." Your body will not waste the production of enzymes as it is a limited and precious resource. Unfortunately we are not so conscientious with regards to our food intake! In his incisive book Enzyme Nutrition, Dr. Edward Howell strongly intuits (based on animal studies) that detrimental organ changes occur when man consumes too much cooked and processed foods. The pancreas swells, the brain shrinks, the pituitary and thyroid glands enlarge. It is my contention that as we we continue to denature our food source, we are contributing to the degeneration of the human species. We can build up our enzyme reserves by increasing the amount we take in. This could be crucial in times of excessive personal and ecological stress. Enzyme reserves can be compared to the energy of your car battery. If the alternator does not feed the battery it will wear out and you won't be going anywhere. The same thing happens with your body. If you expend more energy than you take in, you will eventually become fatigued to the point of exhaustion, thereby shortening your life span and attracting chronic ailments. When you significantly increase your enzyme intake, your stamina and vitality are gradually restored. "The enzyme activity of an organism is a way to measure the life force of the organism", according to Conscious Eating by Gabriel Cousens. Cooking can be marvelous if done well. It's a kind of alchemy, that stimulates the senses, titillates the taste buds and nourishes both body and soul. A shared well-prepared meal is an act of communion with friends which adds to our health -- but what do we do about the loss of enzymes? Since it's impractical to revert to the time before the invention of fire, why not use the natural inventiveness of humanity: supplement cooked meals with high quality digestive enzymes. It would be an enlightened development if at mealtimes we had a bottle of enzymes on our table alongside the salt and pepper. Wouldn't it be marvelous if our finer restaurants offered us this! Lucky we have developed concentrated plant enzymes (from the non-toxic fungi aspergillus oryzae and aspergillus niger as well as pineapples, papaya, sprouts, and other plant sources) to make up for the deficiency in our foods. Thanks to modern production techniques, the enzymes are pure and powerful, with no trace of fungus or growing medium making them safe for people who have sensitivities or allergies to fungi.* The latest supplemental enzymes (which are comprehensive, multifold, and broad ph) are a tremendous breakthrough in technology. They complement digestion, purify the blood, help the immune system and generally accelerate healing and hasten the recuperation time from illness or injury. Some researchers see enzymes as the "fountain of life", catalyzing the processes of life in the cells of our body. In addition, it would be wise to eat more raw organic food -- in particular sprouted seeds, bananas, avocados, mangoes, aged garlic, green barley, algae, kefir, unpasteurized cheese and honey, and olive oil for they are high in beneficial enzymes. By the way a salad with your meals by no means supplies the missing enzymes as it is low in calories and wouldn't have enough extra enzymes to help with the digestion of other foods. If you are having trouble digesting raw foods, this may be an indication that your enzyme reserves are extremely low and supplemental enzymes along with good nutrition can help you catch up. You may also benefit from sea vegetables, Celtic sea salt or real salt to help you create hydrochloric acid as well as to supply you with balanced trace minerals. A word of caution on nuts, seeds and legumes, including soya beans (unless fermented): they contain "enzyme inhibitors" and so are best used either soaked or sprouted, which actually multiplies their store of enzymes and nutrients! Make sure your olive oil is as crude and unfiltered as you can get; it is a good source of lipase, good for the heart system. Pure unfiltered honey is a good source of amylase (helpful in controlling blood sugar and allergies), but make sure it has not been heat-treated and so retains its beneficial qualities. What's most devious about having low enzyme reserves is that your body may end up craving enzymes so badly that it will even attract yeast, fungi, bacteria and parasites to acquire their enzymes which can create a serious unbalance as they rob you of nutrients. But with a well stocked enzyme reserve your body is spared this unpleasant detour. When you do not have enzymes with your food, you are causing havoc in your system. There have been startling findings by Paul Kouchakoff, a Swiss physician, which have been regularly repeated by Dr. Howard Loomis on hundreds of patients. "In 1930, he showed that the eating of cooked and processed foods caused leucocytosis, which is an increase in white blood cells." It's as if your immune system is reacting to a foreign substance, i.e. the cooked food you are eating. But if you add more than 50% raw enzyme-rich food to the meal, then your body calms down and there is no increase in white blood cells. By the way having more enzymes in your tissues is the best way I know of acquiring the perfect body weight including fat/muscle ratio. As Dr. Gabriel Cousens says in his excellent book Conscious Eating: "eating raw foods liberates enzymes for use in other parts of the body." These 'freed' enzymes will bring you to a healthy body weight and improved well-being. An encouraging tendency I've noticed when people start taking enzymes is that they begin to be attracted to food that is more nourishing. They receive more nutrients from their food and therefore can more easily rein in their poor eating habits. In time, it's possible to become master of your stomach and intuit what foods you need to eat. Finally I would like to mention a few other nutritional supplements that work synergistically with enzymes. As mentioned earlier enzymes break down nutrients for absorption and utilization. A lack of enzymes, oxygen, and sugar supplied to the cells of your body can keep your energy at a low ebb. Taking stabilized liquid oxygen, aka Vitamin O, "may help by "jump-starting" the body's oxidative processes", helping clear the body of toxic substances, viruses and other invading organisms. This should greatly improve your metabolism. Anti-oxidants, biochemical substances that protect living cells, work synergistically with enzymes to unstick and recharge the blood cells allowing them to carry more nutritive life energy. Also taking good bacteria or probiotics which help protect and cleanse the digestive system and provide good elimination further aids in absorption of nutrients. Enzymes also need co-enzymes to complete their activation. This would include certain vitamins, minerals and trace nutrients. That's why it's so important to eat a variety of fresh nutritious food grown with care. Making sure you have enough enzymes with meals results in good digestion -- indispensable for regeneration and vitality. Liberate your energy and start living! References Enzymes, The Fountain of Life, by D. A. Lopez, M.D.; R. M.Williams, M.D., Ph.D; M. Miehlke, M.D., 1994 Food Enzymes for Health Longevity, 2nd ed., by Dr. Edward Howell, 1994 Enzyme Nutrition, by Dr. Edward Howell, 1985 Conscious Eating, by Gabriel Cousens, M.D., 2000 Alternative Medicine, The Definitive Guide Food Enzymes, The Missing Link To Radiant Health by Humbart Santillo The Healer Within (Video) Antioxidants and Digestive Enzymes * letter from Don Smyth, President of R-Garden Inc. | Enzyme Article | Enzyme Miracles | Digestive Leukocytosis | Maximizer Functions | Gamma Zyme | | Return Home | About Us | Order Center | Vitalizer Plus | Vitamin O | LSalivarius | QuadraZymePlus | PHP Link | |
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