Working as a nutritional consultant, I get asked a lot, “If our body does make our own digestive enzymes, then why do we need to supplement them?”
My usual response to that question is you most likely don’t need to supplement them if and only if you are eating approximately 90% fresh raw foods which naturally contain enzymes. However, as you and I both know, this is not the case, especially with the Standard American Diet, appropriately abbreviated at SAD.
When we eat, our food sits in our stomach for about 45 minutes before making its way through the duodenum. Not enough digestion occurs in our stomachs because we lake the enzymes naturally found in foods which is killed in heating and processing.
So imagine the benefit of adding a balanced broad spectrum digestive enzyme supplement to this process.
Approximately 60-80% of our energy goes to digestion. Supplementing digestive enzymes greatly reduces the burden on the pancreas and the entire digestive process by assisting in breaking down foods into smaller and smaller components that become much easier to assimilate. This greatly increases our energy.
I have had reports back from people who take digestive enzymes that after eating they used to feel full and sluggish. But after taking them, they are filled with energy and no longer slip into the “food coma” after a large meal.
It is believed by many nutritionists that our bodies have a specific “enzyme potential” that can be exhausted. Our bodies make two main kinds of enzymes, digestive, and metabolic. Digestive deals with digesting food, and metabolic deal with other processes such as tissue repair.
When we are not eating enough raw foods, or supplementing digestive enzymes, the body uses resources that should go towards metabolic enzymes and puts them towards digestion. So, in essence, supplementing digestive enzymes will help to keep the whole body younger and healthier by allowing our metabolic enzymes do their job properly.
It is my opinion that unless you are eating a very well balanced, 80-90% raw food diet, everyone should supplement a digestive enzyme.
People who supplement digestive enzymes report improvements in health problems such as heartburn, indigestion, gerd, diarrhea, constipation, diabetes, bloating, and a host of other health problems.
When looking for a good enzyme to take, make sure your product is broad spectrum, plant based, and broad ph so that it can work in both the acidic stomach, and alkaline intestines.
