Enzymes are — usually — protein molecules that facilitate a surprisingly high amount of bodily processes. If you are building a house and have a mountain of sheetrock, cement, and wood but no crew to build, you don’t have a house, right? Well, if the house we’re talking about is your body, and carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are your building materials, then enzymes are your building crew.
According to their function, there are three kinds of enzymes: food, digestive, and metabolic enzymes. According to their origin, there are two kinds: endogenous — made in the body — and exogenous — made outside the body. Both food and digestive enzymes are used for nutrient assimilation, however, food enzymes are exogenous — they are ingested in food or as a supplement — whereas digestive enzymes are endogenous — they are made by the body and used within the digestive system. Metabolic enzymes are all the endogenous enzymes that are not used for digestion.
Now, this is where it gets tricky. You might be thinking, well if my body will produce the enzymes I need to assimilate food, then why do I have to worry about the enzymatic content of my food? The answer is that your body will not waste its own precious enzymes for digestion unless it has to. Every time this happens, your body is being robbed of enzymes that could be used somewhere else; in other words, a high demand for digestive enzymes weakens your body. Many nutrition experts think that aging is the inability to produce all necessary enzymes. I don’t know about you, but I’m into aging as-s-l-o-w-l-y-as-possible.
There’s yet another way of classifying enzymes, and that is according to the kind of food they work on: Proteases break down proteins into amino acids; Lipases break down fats into fatty acids, and amylases break down carbohydrates into simple sugars.
So the smart think to do is to eat as much enzyme-rich food as possible. But how?
The first thing you should know plain and clear is that enzymes — being the moody, unstable molecules they are — are highly sensitive to heat. They’ll start popping at about 112 degrees F (read: lukewarm-water temperature), which is why we should eat a considerable amount of raw food. This doesn’t mean salad, salad, and more salad, although if salad is the only raw food you eat, please don’t stop. Not all raw foods have the same enzymatic goodness.
Traditional cultures — before modern processed foods — always used some raw food in their diet, but surprisingly, it was usually of animal origin as opposed to vegetable. The most widely found animal source of enzymes? Ladies and gentlemen, raw dairy. Whether cow, sheep, goat, buffalo, yak, or camel, their milk has been consumed fresh and cultured — which enhances the enzymatic content — throughout millennia. Other raw animal foods, rich in enzymes, include raw and fermented fish, raw liver (several tribes in Africa believe this to be the best first food for babies after breast milk), fresh blood, raw eggs, and various raw meats. Still nowadays we can find traditional raw meat dishes around the world: steak tartare, ceviche, carpaccio, kibbeh, gravlox, etc.
Of course raw fruits and vegetables contain enzymes too, but for the most part not in such concentrated amounts. A few tropical fruits are regarded as enzyme powerhouses: papayas, kiwis, figs, mangos, pineapples, and avocados. Lacto-fermenting vegetables — as in sauerkraut and kimchi — unfolds their enzymatic action and increases their nutrient content. In the case of grains, nuts, and seeds, soaking, sprouting, fermenting, and dehydrating are all processes that release their enzymatic content while helping rid of antinutrients and enzyme inhibitors.
In case you’re wandering, processed foods don’t have enzymes. This is yet another reason to avoid them. No, there are no enzymes in pasteurized milk, or bottled juice.
Some enzyme-rich foods that you can incorporate in your diet?
- Any raw dairy you can get your hand on. Check www.realmilk.com for sources. Commercially the only raw dairy you’re likely to find is cheese, at least in NY state.
- Raw honey is rich in amylases — perfect to spread on toast.
- Avocado and raw eggs from pasture-fed chickens are rich in lipases.
- Any lacto-fermented vegetables you can get. I make mine, but I’ve seen gingered-carrots, pickled beets, daikon radish, in addition to pickles, sauerkraut, and kimchi at the health food store. Note: If vinegar is part of the ingredients, then it is NOT lacto-fermented.
- Bean and seed sprouts, fresh vegetable juice, and super fresh vegetables and fruits (a head of lettuce loses half of its enzymes within a day of being picked).
- Dehydrated foods like grass-fed beef jerky and sun-dried sprouted breads and crackers.
- Miso
- Kombucha and raw apple cider, as well as raw apple cider vinegar.
Think of enzyme-rich foods as food that has been pre-digested. If you eat more of them, I promise, you’ll experience an increase in energy and stamina because your body will use less energy and resources digesting. Makes sense, right?
What do you think?
This post is part of “Real Food Wednesday” hosted by Cheeseslave.com
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post – thank you!
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This is a helpful, concise summary!
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