Our digestive enzymes, when kept at an
optimum level with a consistent juicing diet,
will keep diseases at bay.
optimum level with a consistent juicing diet,
will keep diseases at bay.
Our Digestive System
First of all, let us understand how our digestive system works.
I will try to explain this in as layman a language as possible.
Our human body produces about 22 different digestive enzymes. A majority of the source of these enzymes are found in fruits, vegetables, meats, grains and other foods. These enzymes are essential for healthy digestion, yet it is a nutritional compound that is most neglected. Unfortunately, most people lack these enzymes due to the poor choices of food we take, and the way food is prepared.
Enzymes are found in abundance in raw fruits and vegetables. When God created fruits and vegetables, He had packaged the necessary enzymes to digest the particular nutrients in that fruit. For example, in a juicy sweet fruit, there is sucrase, the enzyme required to digest sucrose. In fibrous foods there is, packaged together, cellulase to digest them. In grains there is maltase, to digest malt, and so on.
So you see, when we cook or process these whole foods, the enzymes are destroyed, causing the food we consume to be enzyme-deficient and cannot be properly digested.
When we consume these enzyme-deficient foods, our deprived body will have to generate its own enzymes required to digest the food.
The more we depend on our internally-produced enzymes, the more stress we put on our body systems and organs. When our body enzymes are busy digesting our heavy meal that has no enzyme, their function of rebuilding and replenishing our worn-out and damaged cells are neglected.
For example, when we eat cooked meat (which of course must be cooked), the enzymes would have been destroyed, making the meat to be of no nutrient value. And meat, by the way, takes up to an average of about 8-12 hours to be digested (and even more for some people).
When you consume meat, your digestive system works extra hard to digest the meat. When the system lacks the required enzymes to do its work, it engages enzymes from other parts of the body to help out, depleting the body's natural enzymes
That's why, after a heavy meaty meal, you will feel lazy and sleepy. This is because more enzymes than necessary are consumed and are working overtime to digest the meat.
Don't get too smart and eat plenty of fruits after you consume a huge meal, expecting the fruits to do its job in providing enzymes for digestion. It doesn't work that way.
Fruits take up to an hour to digest. And, because meat takes much longer to digest, the fruit you consumed after a meal will just sit on top of the undigested food in your intestine. This causes the fruits to ferment in your stomach and it starts to putrefy, producing gas, and causing a host of problems to your health.
When you do eat a huge meal, drink with it a glass of fresh pineapple juice afterwards (not canned). Pineapple is rich in bromelain which aids digestion by breaking down protein.
Enzymes are so vital to our health.
What Are Enzymes?
Our bodies need enzymes to break down the nutrients in our body, so that the nutrients can pass through the intestinal walls and be absorbed into our blood. Without enzymes, the vitamins and minerals that we consume really are just passing through our system being of no use.
Enzymes are specialized protein molecules facilitating most of our body's metabolic processes, like supplying energy, digesting foods, purifying the blood, ridding the body of waste products, etc.
Enzymes assist in keeping our body in top form, help lower the cholesterol level, clean the colon, break down fats, strengthen the immune system, improve the mental capacity, detoxify the body of unwanted wastes, eliminate carbon dioxide from our lungs, building muscles, and many other functions.
Such are the many tasks of enzymes. So, imagine how we abuse our bodies when we feed our bodies with enzyme-deficient food, day after day. It's no wonder that our body systems start to slow down and deteriorate. And diseases start to set in ...
Types Of Enzymes
Enzymes are basically classified into three main groups - metabolic enzymes, food enzymes, and digestive enzymes.
Metabolic enzymes exist throughout our entire body system - in our organs, bones, blood and cells. Their job is to grow new cells and maintain every tissue in our body. When these enzymes are healthy, robust and are present in adequate numbers, they will do their job well.
Digestive enzymes are secreted by our various body organs - by our salivary glands, stomach, pancreas and small intestine. As its name suggests, the function of the digestive enzymes is to help in the digestion of our food.
Inadequate digestive enzymes results in
left-over wastes which toxify our body system.
left-over wastes which toxify our body system.
The following are the more commonly known enzymes:
- lipase — breaking down of fats
- protease — breaking down of proteins
- cellulase — breaking down of fiber
- amylase — breaking down of starch
- lactase — breaking down of dairy products
- sucrase — breaking down of sugar
- maltase — breaking down of grains
Inadequate numbers of any of these digestive enzymes results in incomplete digestion of food in their respective category. This causes left- over wastes which toxify the body system.
Food enzymes exist naturally in the raw food that we consume. Its function is very much like the digestive enzymes, that is to assist in the digestion of our food. When we consume foods that are rich in enzymes, the foods will be "self-digested", causing less or no stress to our body.
Here's Something Exciting: What Enzymes Do To Our Blood
These are images of a person's blood being analyzed under the microscope. A sample blood is taken of a person whose body is lacking of nutrients and enzymes. The blood cells are clustered together and moving very slowly.
This person was then given to drink a glass of carrot, green apple and wheatgrass juice. Half an hour later, a sample blood was taken again to be observed under the microscope. Lo and behold, the blood cells separated and was suddenly moving about very actively.
The blood cells become active when it receives sufficient enzymes. One of the functions of our red blood cells is to carry oxygen and nutrients to all parts of the body. When there is sufficient enzymes present in the blood, the blood cells can do their job properly. You see now, how drinking fresh juices regularly can prevent blood clots which can lead to many health problems including thrombosis and heart attacks.
If the blood is toxic and being stagnant or slow moving (caused by eating too much meat and other harmful foods, and not enough enzymes from fresh fruits and juices), it causes a sluggish system and create untold ailments: from mild ailments like headache/migraine, fatigue, inflammation (e.g. arthritis, gout) to more serious problems like heart diseases and even cancer.
What Happens When Enzymes Are Depleted?
After a prolonged period of depleting the enzymes in our body, and not replenishing them quick enough, two things happen:
- Our body works overtime to produce more enzymes, causing extra stress which affects our immune system. This lowers our ability to protect from and fight diseases.
- Our digestive system eventually slows down for lack of enzymes, causing food to be undigested. This undigested food stays in our system and begins to ferment and pollute our blood (a condition called "toxemia").
On the other hand, when our enzymes intake is constantly kept at an optimum level, we can expect very minimal wear and tear to our body.
How Do I Maintain An Optimum Enzyme Level?
Once you understand the enzyme-robbers, there are three things you can do.
Firstly, change your eating habits and lifestyle so that you cause less stress on your digestive system. We will discuss the possible areas at this site, on where we could have gone wrong and how we can rectify the situation. Secondly, constantly replenish your body with enzymes. There are two ways you can do this. One, is by taking enzymes supplement. Juices like MonaVie can be a good solution to get your enzymes but I prefer the natural approach by taking raw fruits and vegetables which are very rich in enzymes. Follow this site to find out about the how's and what's and when's, etc. Thirdly and finally, understand that we always have a choice concerning what we put into our mouth. Look up informative sites such as juicing-for-health.com and read books to find out more about healthy living. Choose today to want to live healthy.Once you know what food is bad for you, you would look at the food and not desire it. And once you know what food is good for you, strive to eat more of it.
All the best in your journey ... it will be worth it.
http://www.juicing-for-health.com/enzymes.html
