ENZYMES
While I don’t agree with 100% of the information in their books, I do like much of what the following authors have to say regarding this topic:
- Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon, New Trends Publishing, 1999.
- Enzyme Nutrition – The Food Enzyme Concept , Dr. Edward Howell, Avery Publishing, 1985.
Many of the following ideas come from their books.
Enzymes are the catalysts that allow every single chemical reaction in our bodies to occur. Every thing that happens in our body requires an enzyme – digestion, metabolism, repair, growth, moving, even thinking involves some enzyme activity! No mineral, vitamin, or hormone can do any work without enzymes. Enzymes convert the food we eat into chemical structures that can pass through the cell membranes of the digestive system into the bloodstream. They are needed in running the heart, kidneys, liver, and lungs. They aid in converting ‘building blocks’ into new muscle, flesh, bone, nerves and glands. Every organ and tissue has its own particular metabolic enzymes to do specialized work. There are thousands of different enzymes at work in your body.
One type of enzyme, digestive enzymes, have three main jobs: digesting protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Many of the body’s enzymes are manufactured in the pancreas. The pancreas has a limited production capacity. Digesting food has priority over other enzyme needs in the body. If the food you eat contains no enzymes of its own, the pancreas must manufacture digestive enzymes to aid in the breakdown of that food.
Nature’s plan calls for food enzymes to help with digestion instead of forcing the body to produce enzymes to digest food. If enzymes contained in the food we eat do some of the work, the enzyme producing potential of our body can allot less activity to producing digestive enzymes and have much more to give to the myriad metabolic, repair, growth, and healing needs our bodies have. If the human organism must devote a huge portion of its enzyme potential to making digestive enzymes, it spells trouble for the health of the whole body because there is a strain on production of metabolic enzymes. There is competition between the two classes of enzymes.
To get enzymes from food, we must eat raw food. All life, whether plant or animal, requires the presence of enzymes to keep it going. Therefore, all plant and animal food in the raw state has them. Nature has enclosed all raw foods with the correct and balanced amounts of food enzymes either for human consumption or eventual decomposition outside the human body. But heat destroys enzymes. Enzymes are destroyed above 160 degrees F. All foods from a food factory have been heat processed by one means or another. This is what keeps the foods from going bad but also kills the enzymes.
We can see from this short explanation that getting enzymes into our food is very important – that the diet we mainly eat today is not going to give this to us.
I don’t think the answer is to take things too far and become a raw foodist and eat exclusively raw foods. “While we should include a variety of raw foods in our diets, we need to recognize that there are no traditional diets composed exclusively of raw foods…Some nutrients are made more available through cooking and cooking also neutralizes naturally occurring toxins in plant foods.” (Fallon, p. 47)
How can we eat wheat in a ‘raw’ form? We can eat wheat sprouts and wheatgrass juice. Even wheat that is soaked overnight has started the germination process enough to increase enzyme activity.
Let’s take our study of nutrition a little bit farther….
Enzyme Inhibitors
Why don’t seeds break down and rot? All seeds have enzyme inhibitors which keep them from growing until moisture is absorbed by the seed and it begins germinating. Eating seeds, which includes grains, nuts, legumes, etc. also causes the pancreas to have to produce digestive enzymes to break these down. Whereas sprouting or soaking the seed in warm, slightly acidic water will inactivate the enzyme inhibitors and make the enzymes available for the digestion of that food.
Phytic Acid – Friend or Foe?
Phytic acid is considered by some as an anti- nutrient component found in the bran portion of all grains and beans. Phytic acid can combine with calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and especially zinc in the intestinal tract and block their absorption. It is said that a diet high in unfermented whole grains supposedly can lead to serious mineral deficiencies and bone loss. It is also suggested that long term consumption of these untreated phytates can be hard on your digestive system and may lead to irritable bowel syndrome and other serious adverse affects. Sally Fallon and Dr. Edward Howell recommend soaking and/or fermenting grains, seeds, nuts, and legumes to help neutralize the phytic acid.
On the flip side, it is also being discovered that phytic acid, among other things is an antioxidant, chelator, has anti-cancer benefits, and actually stimulates the small intestine to produce phytase which increases the body’s ability to absorb minerals.
See the following website for a one person’s take on these issues: http://www.breadbeckers.com/phytic_acid_friend_or_foe.htm
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So which is it? Is phytic acid good or bad? What about enzyme inhibitors? We haven’t even discussed oxalic acid! I can’t answer these questions but Grandma and I have been thinking that if we eat grains in a VARIETYof ways, sometimes in raw form, sometimes cooked, sometimes soaked or fermented, then we are being ‘moderate in all things’ and getting the benefits of all forms and probably avoiding the possible ill-effects we read about.
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Proverbs 19:21 - "There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand."
Gwenith
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