Digestive Enzymes Here's How They Work & Why You Must Get Them

Digestive enzymes break down foods into smaller components to be absorbed by the body. This is essential for the digestion of food. They are found in the digestive track and in saliva. There are three kinds of enzymes, protease and peptidases, these split proteins into amino acids, lipase which splits fats into fatty acid and carbohydrates that split carbohydrates in strarch into sugar as well nucleases that split nucleic acids into nucleotides.The best place to get enzymes are in raw fruits and vegetables. Once food is cooked enzymes are usually lost and of course non organic foods have less enzymes than organic foods. Also the longer it takes to eat fruits and vegetables, the less enzymes they have.

Since many North Americans do not get the required serving of fruits and vegetables in their diet, it's good to take an enzyme supplement. It eases digestion and is ideal if you combine carbs and proteins in your diet since combining the two slows digestion.

Too much cooked food can cause chronic problems, because it takes the body a longer time & more energy to digest. 3/4 of what you eat should come from raw foods. After eating a big plate from a restaurant or junk food, or even Christmas dinner most people tend to feel sluggish since their meal consisted of a lot of cooked food. Now compare this to eating a fruit as a snack or a large leafy salad for dinner. You tend to feel better and the food digests a lot quicker.

Notice when you go to a restaurant or have a course dinner you get the salad before the meal and during cocktails you will have raw veggies? Eating raw vegetables prepare your body digestion. So when you have your meal, eat the raw veggies or salad first, then your cooked vegetables followed by carbs and or protein.

Enzymes also work with vitamins so if you're not getting a sufficient amount of vitamins they won't work well. Enzymes assist with the elimination of toxins and it good to have when cleansing the body.

What's the best digestive enzymes?

You may have to try a few to see which ones work best however as long as it has a good blend of protease, lipase & amylase then that's the one you should take unless you need it for the specific breakdown of protein, carbs or fats then you may consider a supplement that has a more of one than the other.

I like to drink Herbal Aloe concentrate by Herbalife because it has organic nutrients and enzymes, and the aloe helps line the digestive tract

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