Those of us who are familiar with and always aware of the importance of digestive enzymes sometimes forget that enzymes are necessary for more than fodd processing . In fact , in the absence of enzymes there would be no chemical reactions anywhere in our body, because enzymes represent the potential labor force your body can draw from to fire up every necessary chemical reaction. Without enzymes there is no life .

But food digestion uses a large investment of energy from your body in terms of enzyme capacity . Since we only have a certain enzyme potential when we’re born and it needs to last our entire life, it only makes sense to manage our capacity to manufacture enzymes and supplement when possible . One of the reasons that supplementing is necessary, is because our cooked diet is responsible for robbing us of the enzyme activity we would gain from a diet of raw food . (And if you can understand how we are shortchanged of our natural enzyme sources from our diets of cooked food, just think of the implications  for your dogs and cats !)

To supply our saliva and pancreatic, gastric and intestinal juices with the myriad of enzymes needed to process our intake of cooked food, our bodies need to steal from the provision of enzymes to our heart, brain , lungs, kidneys , muscles and other tissues and organs . According to food enzyme researcher, Dr. Edward Howell, that trade off between our digestive tract and the other organ systems in our bodies might directly contribute to the development of a few different chronic and incurable diseases .

In short , in the words of this physician , who has spent more than 40 years treating ongoing ailments  -the depletion of our enzyme “bank “, which is the direct result of our diets dominated by cooked – “enzyme dead” food, is a leading cause of premature aging and early death.

Since few of us will  move totally to a diet of raw foods , there are 2 simple steps that we can try to  address this problem .  The first is to make a conscious effort to eat more raw, vegetables and fruits replacing some of our cooked foods with simpler fare – like grains, fruits and vegetables.

Another idea – that’s also simple is to start supplementing  with quality digestive enzymes .  Maximizer, which is a product available from RGarden is a multi-enzyme supplement.  For people with problems like stomach ulcers, an even better choice is Gamma-Zyme another multi enzyme supplement that does not contain Protease ( for proteins) which can upset some stomachs.