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Let’s face it: times have changed. We’ve adopted a modern lifestyle with faster-paced, more hectic days and, probably more significantly, eating habits that include the consumption of industrialized, processed food.

People today are sick. They’re overweight and out of shape. Too many of us smoke cigarettes or drink coffee, tea and alcohol, and we’re all under too much stress. We don’t get enough exercise and we eat too many calories, too much bad fat, too many refined carbohydrates, and too many toxin-filled, over-heated or radiated foods–enzyme-dead foods. And we’ve got the chronic diseases to prove it.

What’s the solution? It’s time to return to the basics, back to enzyme-rich foods, including fresh vegetables and fruits. What did you have for breakfast this morning? Bacon and eggs? Toast and coffee? A bagel with processed cream cheese and reconstituted orange juice? A donut and a Coke? How about dinner last night? When was the last time you ate something fresh and enzyme-rich–something that hadn’t been processed, baked, fried, treated or heated in any way?

What Are Enzymes?

Enzymes are proteins, composed of amino acids, produced by the human body and by all animals and plants. Enzymes are catalysts that either begin or cause a reaction to speed up. Enzymes are ferments; they help our bodies break down foods. They are at work in any fermentation process and during the metabolic process. Enzymes cause biological reactions in the body without themselves being changed and are able to be used over and over again. Unlike vitamins and minerals, enzymes are not destroyed as they work.

Enzymes are all around us–in every animal and every plant. In fact, anything that is alive needs enzymes in order to function. All living things are run and governed by chemical reactions. In the human body, enzymes are the components that catalyze (or kick start) the chemical reactions that are involved in breathing, digestion, growth, reproduction, blood coagulation, healing, combating disease and everything else that goes on.

Enzymes in the Diet

In fact, our bodies contain some 3,000 different types of enzymes that are constantly regenerating, repairing and protecting us. For most of us, our bodies (if they’re healthy) make many of the enzymes we need to function. In addition, many enzymes are also available in the foods we eat, if those foods aren’t enzyme-dead. What kills enzymes? Heat, primarily. So any food that has been baked, fried, boiled or canned is enzyme-dead.

In addition to canning, any processing, including irradiating, drying and freezing also either kills enzymes or diminishes their viability, as does the addition of preservatives (including salt!). Humans have been cooking their food for only a few thousand years. We evolved in an environment of raw vegetables, fruits and grains, with little meat. Over several million years, our bodies’ metabolisms have genetically adapted to this diet. Preserving, pasteurizing, processing and chemically tampering with our food has taken place only in relatively recent years, and destroys and eliminates their active enzymes as well as many of their vital nutrients. In addition, some of the chemicals used in food processing are toxic and may be carcinogenic.

Are You Enzyme Deficient?

Dr. Anthony Cichoke, better known as Dr. Enzyme, is an internationally recognized author, researcher, lecturer, radio personality and chiropractic physician. His many book titles include The Complete Book of Enzyme Therapy, Enzymes: Nature’s Energizers and now Enzymes: The Sparks of Life, a new Natural Health Guide published by alive Books.

Source: alive #237, July 2002