Improving Digestion With Enzymes

Yuri Elkaim, BPHE, CK, RHN & Amy Coates, RHN, BSc.

Digestive enzymes are your body’s very important friends. When the blood pH is balanced and alkaline, digestive enzymes happily live in your stomach and colon. There, they keep the body clean by helping with the break down of food and fecal matter.

Without them, your digestive system is a real mess.

That is because there are certain nutrients and particles that our body cannot digest and eliminate on its own. Digestive enzymes usually take care of this for us, but they can be destroyed by antibiotics, or by an acidic diet. Antibiotics kill all bacteria, friendly and otherwise, and an acidic body creates conditions within the body that kill enzymes.

Phytonutrients, some of the most important nutrients for rebuilding blood cells and body tissue, are among the nutrients our body cannot absorb well without the help of digestive enzymes. This means that, as your colon and digestive tract become less and less healthy, the problem builds; you get fewer and fewer nutrients from your food.

Also, the colon and digestive tract, without enzymes to clean them, become clogged and littered with old food and fecal matter, making digestion and elimination worse.

Again, this cycle can be set off by both antibiotics and an unhealthy diet. That is why anyone who has recently taken antibiotics, or who is chronically constipated, ill, or tired, could greatly benefit from getting digestive enzymes back into their body. Enzymes can be found in supplement form, as pills, or in foods, like wheatgrass juice, or any raw, fresh fruits and vegetables.

Enzymes are a natural feature of raw, fresh, living foods, like sprouts. They are destroyed by cooking, and do not exist in processed foods. They are also not present in pasteurized or homogenized foods, like milk.

In fact, the presence of digestive enzymes is one of the reasons why a mostly raw food diet is so good for you. Eating raw fruit and vegetables not only gives you vitamins and nutrients, but supplies your body with what it needs to break down and process those nutrients. Enzymes are absolutely necessary for a healthy, regular colon and digestive tract.

If you have recently been on antibiotics, or if your colon is plugged and irregular, we cannot recommend digestive enzymes enough. It is only through a symbiotic relationship with such tiny microorganisms that we are able to stay healthy. Our digestive systems cannot work well without them.

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