Cooked foods contribute to chronic illness because their enzyme content is damaged and thus requires us to make our own enzymes to process the food. The digestion of cooked food uses valuable metabolic enzymes in order to help digest your food. Digestion of cooked food demands much more energy than the digestion of raw food. In general, raw food is much more easily digested because it passes through the digestive tract much more quickly than cooked food.
The human body produces some 22 different digestive enzymes. Many more are found in the fruits, vegetables, meats, grains, and other foods.
When eating, digestive enzymes that are released from your salivary glands, stomach, and small intestine immediately work hard to speed up the digestive process. Each enzyme acts on a specific type of food.
Eating processed food places a burden on your pancreas and other organs and overworks them. Over the years people can progressively lose the ability to digest their food properly.
Symptoms of digestive enzyme depletion are bloating, belching, gas, bowel disorders, abdominal cramping, heartburn and food allergies.
Bromelain
Bromelain is the name of a group of powerful protein-digesting, or proteolytic, enzymes that are found in the pineapple plant. Discovered in 1957, and widely studied since then, bromelain is particularly useful for reducing muscle and tissue inflammation and as a digestive aid. Supplements are made from enzymes found in the pineapple stem.
DGL (Deglycyrrhizinated Licorice Root)
DGL is a natural antacid, where the glycirrhizinic acid component of the root has been removed. DGL may stimulate our bodies defense mechanisms resulting in improved quality of mucous, lengthening of intestinal cell life and enhanced microcirculation in the gastrointestinal lining.
Papaya
The latex of the tropical papaya plant contains two proteolytic enzymes, papain and chymopapain, derived from the fruit, inner bark and stems. The high concentration of papain, a protein-digesting enzyme, quickly metabolizes the protein in foods.
