Enzymes: The Energy Lifeforce

What jump-starts your day? What is that generator inside your body that keeps you going and provides enzyme energy? Enzymes, which occur naturally in all living things, are the catalyst for every cell to do its job. Every single function that takes place within our body, including pumping our blood and the growth of new cells, requires enzymes to begin, carry out, and complete the process.

Enzymes maintain our health and proper body function. There are three categories of enzymes, which activate every single biochemical process: Digestive, Metabolic and Food.

Digestive enzymes, mainly produced by the pancreas, are the active agents responsible for the digestion of food. Digestive enzymes properly break down the food we consume, allowing the nutrients to be absorbed and distributed throughout our blood stream. Without these enzymes, food would putrefy and rot in our intestines, producing excessive toxins and fat storage. Also the body would not be able to absorb the nutrients that were originally available in the food, thus creating mal-nourishment.

Metabolic enzymes have earned the title, “Foundation of life”. Every chemical reaction that takes place in the body is dependent on that specific metabolic enzyme. Every single cell that makes up tissue, muscle and organs is reliant on that specific enzyme reaction to give it life and energy. Our body’s ability to function, heal and repair when injured, fight diseases, and grow is dependent on that specific enzyme to catalyze or jump-start the process. Think of enzymes like a key to a car. Without that key, the car won’t start and perform.

Food enzymes are naturally available in the raw foods that we consume. They are a gift from nature, aiding the digestion and absorption process. Foods high in enzymes—raw, soaked, and sprouted foods—not only pre-digest themselves, allowing you to get the most nutrients from the food, but those highest in enzymes — sprouted and fermented foods and plants — add to the pool of enzymes in your body, helping you to live longer and healthier. Only foods that are raw, or not heated above 115 degrees—the temperature at which enzymes die—contain enzymes that help maintain or add to our enzyme supplies.

All three of these enzyme categories make up essential building blocks that regulate the state of our health. When either of these enzyme categories is depleted, the body becomes more susceptible to illness, and when they are gone completely, our life has expired.

The bodies’ capacity for enzymes, which may be designated as the “enzyme potential”, is obviously fixed and limited. To assume otherwise would deny natural law. Since the day of birth, our body begins producing digestive and metabolic enzymes and as we age we produce less and less. It has been proven that by the age of forty, we are only producing half the amount of enzymes that we need to sustain a healthy and vital life.

Let me paint a picture of the “enzyme potential”: If the body is constantly producing enzymes for digestion, it has no time to produce the metabolic enzymes needed to heal, rejuvenate, energize and detoxify. This unhealthy state in the body gradually creates a lethargic, depressed, disease-prone system that is doomed to pre-mature termination. The body is truly made to regenerate and continually heal itself. However, without the chance of having metabolic enzymes at its disposal, one cannot expect the impossible. It takes more energy to digest food than almost any other process in the body so we must always take a conscience stance when eating and measure ahead so that we are aware of the amount of energy the body is going to have to expend in order to properly digest what we feed it. Simply put, the reason people walk around tired after eating a large meal is that all energy is being dedicated towards digestion.

Most of the food consumed by the American public is refined, processed, overcooked and dead. When you eat cooked or processed food you are draining your enzyme pool. Rather than giving you life, this “lifeless food” takes your life, bite by bite. Over a lifetime, you become less and less productive, less energetic and much less healthy

The Solution

Now that the need for digestive enzymes has been established, let us explore the various ways to incorporate them into our diet. The body is constantly in the state of digestion. Therefore, enzymes are continuously exhausted. To preserve our potential we need to reduce internal digestive enzyme production. One of the easiest ways to do this is to limit the number of digestive enzymes that our body needs to break these meals down. By making less digestive enzymes we will ultimately make more metabolic enzymes daily.

There are three ways to preserve this potential. All three are based on reducing the amount of energy that we spend on digestion. The optimum choice is to eat more raw foods as discussed previously. The second choice is to eat moderately and more frequently throughout the day, and never over-eat. Basically, if we consume less in one meal, the body has to work less, producing fewer enzymes. The third choice is taking a high quality digestive enzyme supplement with meals. Of all “supplements” available in the market, digestive enzymes are one of the most essential and life-giving products one could take next to superfoods. An enzyme blend should specifically include: