How Do Enzymes Work In Digestion When we eat our meal active digestive enzymes will help your body to break down our food. There are three types of these present in different parts of our body. The first enzymes that food encounters are situated in the mouth. Because they cannot break down all food, we have a need for different enzymes to make sure that all food is properly digested. The oral enzymes are principally concerned with turning starches into sugar. If you eat foods that are rich in starch but have little sugar, you will find that they taste sweet when you chew. We chew because that is how the breakdown of food starts. In the stomach we find pepsins that will break down proteins. Gastrin, which is a hormone found in the stomach area will trigger the release of this enzyme. Our clever system will only release pepsin when we have a need for it. However, most of the digestive activity takes place in the small intestines. The lipases as they are called are produced by means of pancreatic juices. They degrade the food we eat even further so that they can be ultimately taken up by the blood stream. Indigestible material finds its way out via the colon. You may ask yourself why we need to add active digestive enzymes in the form of a supplement at all if the body works so well. Unfortunately, some individuals produce faulty enzymes that lead to incomplete digestion. How will you know this is happening to you? It has been shown that people who suffer chronic conditions have a lower enzyme count which leads to low energy levels. Researchers wanted to find
out whether we were ill because enzyme levels were low or they were ill because levels were low.
The surprising outcome of this research was that people were ill because their enzyme levels were low. Why is this so? Well, our present lifestyle is at fault. We are eating far too many fats and sugars. These require a great amount of enzymes to be digested. Our hectic lifestyle also comes into it. Stress kills cells and damages them and our enzymes have to work hard to replace them with fresh ones. When we grow older, and we are living longer, levels are depleted and our bodies have to work harder just to stay healthy. If you are advancing in age you may well benefit from adding active digestive enzymes to your diet as a precaution against lower immunity levels. You need to know that you can help yourself by eating a healthy diet. Uncooked, raw food contains more enzymes than cooked food. The cooked enzymes can no longer help with digestion. Some foods are impractical to eat raw, such as meats and some pulses. There is no other option but to cook them until they are palatable. I did not know before that 80% of our body’s energy is spent on digestion. If you want to learn more about active digestive enzymes, please visit The Finchley Clinic Summary: Our digestion is a complex process involving three different enzymes. When they are depleted and you feel ill you may want to take a supplement.