All About Digestive Enzymes

Wow, there’s so much information out there about Digestive Enzymes, it’s not always easy to know where to start and what to believe.

With most things I ingest, my true test is how I feel afterwards. But when I was new to upgrading my diet, I wasn’t sensitive enough to notice a difference with enzymes. Now that I’ve been eating superfoods for over a year, I can definitely tell a difference in how I feel after I eat when I include enzymes, and when I don’t. That difference is all the more obvious when I eat something cooked since my energy drops when I don’t include enzymes.

So, now that I’m noticing a marked improvement with enzymes, I thought I’d check into the details of why digestive enzymes are so important. Here’s what I’ve learned so far, in the simplest way I can put it:

1. We’re all born with enzymes in our body (metabolic enzymes) that help us break down food in the digestive process. (These metabolic enzymes also help repair tissues and organs and other life-sustaining stuff when they aren’t busy breaking down foods).
   
2. Raw foods also have enzymes in them – the ideal enzymes to help break down that specific food when you eat it.
3. When you cook food, most or all of those food-based enzymes are destroyed. That means your body has to use its supply of metabolic enzymes to break down the food in the digestive process.
4. Your supply of metabolic enzymes does not replenish itself. (Darn!) So every time you eat cooked food you are using some of your limited enzyme supply.
5. Here’s a shocker: Even the enzymes in raw foods don’t digest all of the food. They can digest anywhere from 5 to 75% of the food and the rest is digested with your body’s metabolic enzymes.* So no matter what, you’re still using up your supply.
6. And if that weren’t enough to make you crave some digestive enzymes, imagine what happens when you eat cooked foods, don’t add digestive enzymes, and your body’s supply of enzymes is getting low. Essentially, the food you ate doesn’t get fully broken down in your digestive tract and it can begin to rot as it’s sitting in your intestines. This is especially true of high protein foods, like cooked meat. As the food putrefies it releases toxins which get absorbed into your blood and deposited and stored in other parts of your body as a “temporary” means of keeping you alive. Sounds like dis-ease to me …. ewwww.
   

* As noted on p.17 of “Food Enzymes” by Humbart Santillo – a great source of simple and detailed digestive enzyme information. Get the book if you want the whole story.


OK, so digestive enzymes sound like a pretty good idea, don’t they? Now let’s talk about what makes a digestive enzyme good, because there are a lot of brands and formulas of enzymes out there!

Again, here are the simple basics I’ve discovered:

There are 4 primary types of enzymes that break down 4 main types of food. Here they are:

1. Protease breaks down Protein (easy!)
2. Amylase breaks down Starch (go figure)
3. Lipase breaks down Fat (think of Liposuction)
4. Cellulase breaks down Fiber (think of cell walls). Oh and this one is especially helpful in handling gas or bloating.
   

There are lots of other kinds of enzymes with big long names. Most of the time you can figure out what they help you digest by the first part of their name. Like Lactase helps you digest milk products (lact). Personally, I’m more interested in the top 4 enzymes since most all of my food will contain protein, starch, fat and fiber.

So, now you’re digging out your old bottle of digestive enzymes to check that it has protease, amylase, lipase and cellulase right? Let me tell you the rest of the story about how to compare formulas that contain these enzymes, because the measurement of digestive enzymes is a bit tricky.


If your bottle of digestive enzymes lists the ingredients in mg (milligrams), it’s not telling you squat. If it were me, I would toss that bottle, and start over.

The weight (mg) of enzymes is not what makes them effective, but rather the activity of the enzymes. How do you know how active they are? Well, there’s different measurements for different enzymes. And then there’s also a standardized Food Chemical Codex (fcc) which measures activity.

Essentially, if you see fcc next to the enzyme amount, you’re good. And if you see these acronyms, you’re also good, because they are also measuring activity:
hut for protease
skb or du for amylase
lu or fip for lipase
cu for cellulase

OK, now you know when you’re comparing apples to apples. So, how much is enough activity? Frankly, I’ve only found the answer to that question with respect to protease. Here’s what “they” say:

"In the early to mid 1990s there was an enzyme research company that did many before and after dark field microscope blood testing. They tested and tested to get the right amount of protease in a formulation to guarantee the after blood test would look great and the blood would be cleaner. With 2 capsules of 75,000 HUT activity and potency (150,000 HUT of protease), they could guarantee the after blood testing would look beautiful... anything less than 150,000 HUT and they could not guarantee the great results."


OK, so 150,000 units of protease is best. For the rest of the enzymes, I decided to take a cost approach. How much does my bottle of enzymes really cost for the amount of enzyme activity I’m getting from each capsule.

Here’s how I worked it out when I compared the SunFire Super Foods Primal Digest Enzymes with some other brands I’ve tried. Yes, I sell these enzymes, but now I know why our superfood provider created his own formula … they really are awesome! And, I am by no means attached to you buying and using our brand … do your own calculation to see what works best for you. If you use Excel, you can right click to download my spreadsheet with all the formulas in the table below.

	SunFire Superfoods Primal Digest	Health Force Nutritionals	Transformation TPP Digest	Enzymes911
Cost per Bottle	$ 120.00	$ 18.95	$ 61.00	$ 74.00
Capsules/Bottle	270	120	120	270
Cost per Capsule	$ 0.44	$ 0.16	$ 0.51	$ 0.27
Ingredients
protease (hut/fcc)	150500	25000	54000	75000	protein
amylase (skb/du)	20000	5000	20000	15000	starch
lipase (lu/fcc)	5000	400	3007	5000	fat
cellulase (cu/fcc)	3500	1000	28	200	fiber (gas bloating)
Capsules Needed	1	6.02	2.79	2	by protein
	1	4.00	1.00	1.33	by starch
	1	12.50	1.66	1.00	by fat
	1	3.50	35.71	0.14	by fiber
Cost Per Unit of Activity	$ 0.44	$ 0.95	$ 1.42	$ 0.55	by protein

Whew, I know that’s a lot of information, but I think it’s nice to know more of the details behind digestive enzymes. They may seem to have a subtle impact on you now, but they really have a huge impact on your long-term health. And as you upgrade your diet to include more raw foods and more superfoods, you will likely notice how much better you feel when you add high-quality enzymes to your eating rituals.

Have fun shopping as an informed consumer and go get your enzymes on!

Stopping Migraines With Food

I don't get migraines, but I've run across a few people who do, so I thought I'd share what has worked for them.

Here's what my friend Mae says:

When I have that heavy or painful feeling starting I take these for a few days.  I use the Transformation brand:  2 ExcellZymes, 3 CalmZymes (sometimes I only do 2 (I am small), 1 Protease IFC.  So far this has been an awesome remedy for me.  I have been using more of the CalmZymes on a regular basis and it helps me be more relaxed and I believe my muscles stay less tense.

And here are the website links I found for the products she recommends:

http://www.enzymes.com/excellzyme.html

http://www.enzymes.com/calmzyme.html

http://www.enzymes.com/tpp_inflammatory_control.html

Another friend found that using all three enzymes on a regular basis worked best for her.  Just like anything, it's best if you experiment and customize it for you.

I’ve also heard that migraines can often be caused from liver issues – that the liver is unable to process all the toxins in the body and so they float around in the bloodstream which can particularly hurt in the smaller capillaries around your head.  

So, of course a liver cleanse would be a good idea.  Here's my post where I talk about the liver cleanse I did:

http://ownyourbrilliance.blogspot.com/2009/09/results-of-my-first-liver-cleanse.html

And I highly suggest the book The Liver and Gallbladder Miracle Cleanse by Andreas Moritz.  It'll walk you through the whole process and it's very easy.

Also, for all the people with migraines I've talked to, adding Chocolate Bliss to their daily diet has helped.  Perhaps that's because Bliss will gradually and gently detox you and all those toxins floating around in your sensitive head capillaries.  Plus, it's nice to have some soothing, good-for-you chocolate to drink when you're not feeling your best.

Hope that helps all your headaches.  And let me know if you find any other awesome solutions!