Digestive Enzymes And The Digestive Tract

Digestive enzymes are chemical proteins that help assist in the breakdown and absorption of foods so that the body can utilize them. Digestive enzymes are generally fairly complex proteins. Most people are unaware of just how amazing proteins are. Here's a quote about proteins from the book "The Hidden Face of God:"

"Each of your seventy five trillion cells is incredibly producing two thousand proteins each second...It makes our heads spin and it should."

2000 every second in every cell! That is very amazing, especially once you take a look at just how a protein is made and how they're shaped. Proteins are basically just strings of amino acids that our bodies link together and twist into a specific shape. The picture to the right shows you an example. The shape of the protein is very important and proteins are very delicate substances. Heating them up beyond 120 degrees Fahrenheit can cause them to quickly break down, making them useless. Why is that?

When something is heated, it undergoes a physical change, not a chemical change. When you heat a protein, it still retains the same chemical makeup of amino acids, but the shape is changed, and is generally rendered useless. The protein is broken down back into its base amino acids and then the body can reabsorb it. If you study proteins in any detail, you start to see how amazing they really are. The differing levels of complexity and the different shapes, along with the different ways the body uses them is really amazing. And it's all made possible by linking the different 20 essential amino acids together one after another in a chain and then twisting the whole chain into a specific shape.

That begs another question. Does the body make its own digestive enzymes? The answer is yes. As you saw earlier, each of your cells is making 2000 proteins on average every second. It sounds utterly impossible but it's true. Some of those proteins are muscle proteins, other are digestive enzymes and so forth. Protein is everywhere in the body, doing a huge variety of different tasks. But as we age, there is generally a decline in the amount of digestive enzymes the body produces, which is why many people turn to digestive enzyme supplements.

But the absolute best method of getting enough digestive enzymes is to ingest a lot of raw vegetables and fruits. In fact, a good trick is to make a fruit shake with fruits and some real yogurt that has lots of probiotic bacteria in it that will also support the digestive system. Some brands of yogurt actually have active probiotic bacteria still alive in the yogurt, which is a great thing, because these bacteria live inside the digestive tract and help people digest and absorb food. So making a fruit shake in the morning with yogurt is a really great way to get both digestive enzymes and probiotic, digestion supporting bacteria.

From what I've studied and read, the digestive system is really one of the big battlegrounds where a person's overall health and wellness is decided. Having a fully efficient and healthy digestive system will basically allow you to get the same benefit from eating less food, which in turn will help support all of the other systems of the body by keeping them well supplied with the nutrients they need. Having an inefficient digestive tract means you'll have to eat more to get the same benefit, meaning more calories you have to work through and burn to keep from gaining weight. So I think the choice is clear.