All living things contain enzymes, whether plant or animal. No enzymes — no life — plain and simple.

Practically every chemical reaction in our bodies is a result of enzymatic action. The digestion of our food is mostly dependent on enzymes.

It is not so much how healthy we eat as to how well our food is digested so that we can absorb the nutrients in the food. We can only do that when we have enough enzymes in our digestive system.

Digestion is the first step in transforming food into the living tissues of our bodies and into the fuel needed to keep those tissues functioning. It is here we need to pay particular attention.

It is impossible to be in perfect health with poor digestion.

Why? Because digestion itself refers to the breaking down of food into particles small enough to enter our cells. Absorption, an integral part of digestion, has to do with the transferring of these minute food particles into our circulation so that these food nutrients can be carried to every cell in our body.

Both digestion and absorption are performed by the digestive system.

Where do enzymes come from?

Our body makes many of the enzymes we need to digest our food. Food itself contains enzymes unless we destroy the enzymes through heating or through processing.

Our bodies cannot make all the enzymes it needs to digests its food and must rely on the help it gets from the enzymes in the food we eat.

It is important to know that enzymes are easily destroyed at temperatures beyond 118°F. This is why a diet of mostly processed foods, which is usually heated beyond 118°F, and pasteurized (160ºF) such as milk and juice lead to digestive problems and poor nutrition.

Food with no enzymes is known as dead food.

A good example is the pasteurized orange juice of which we drink tons in this country. Being pasteurized (dead food), all of the enzymes have been destroyed and drinking this juice is like pouring pure acid down your stomach making it difficult for your body to digest.

Fresh squeezed orange juice (live food) is full of enzymes, easily digestible, providing your body with much needed healthy nutrition.

Here are two important questions:

• Why does poorly digested food have a negative impact on your immune system?
• Doesn’t poorly digested food just pass through your colon and out as waste?

The surprise answers:

• When food is not properly digested, we create “digestive luekocytosis” in which your white blood cell count increases after a meal. (White blood cell count is increased to counter the undigested food your body views as an invader.)
• Because these incompletely digested food molecules are unable to be absorbed through the pores of your intestines into your blood stream, the body then identifies this particulate matter as foreign objects, your immune system forms circulating immune complexes around them. (That’s your immune system’s army surrounding these foreign objects in an attempt to destroy them.) Your immune system now tries to do a job it is not designed to do. It mobilizes white blood cells in an attempt to digest food, stressing your body’s energy and your immune system, doing with great difficulty, what enzymes do very easily and naturally.

It’ a fact, you use 80% of your body’s energy to digest food alone.

With food enzymes present to pre-digest the food, (food that hasn’t been heated or processed) digestive luekocytosis does not occur. Proper digestion now allows your immune system to focus on disease prevention — rather than digestion.

Eating an abundance of raw food such as mixed greens and fruit will measurably improve your digestion. This is especially true because as you age your body begins making fewer and fewer enzymes and is less tolerant of eating dead food.

The practice of enzyme supplementation is a good one to follow. It is the key to assuring complete digestion, absorption, transportation, and the use of the nutrients you consume.

To further aid the digestive process and to help prevent acid reflux, the enzyme supplements you take should contain betaine hydrochloride.

Curing acid reflux with antacids only makes matters worse long term and further starves your cells of nutrients they need to properly function and keep your body healthy.

Antacids negatively interfere, short circuiting the digestive process, preventing much of your food from being broken down to a particle size your intestines can absorb.

Repairing your digestion with enzyme supplementation, eating at least 50% raw food, and eliminating processed and fried foods from your diet will turn your digestion around quickly and lead you back to a healthy body.

To reinforce that statement, know the fact that enzymes are also responsible for elimination of waste and toxins in your body.

To your good heath & longevity.

Ira Marxe
“The Good Health & Wellness Guy”

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