Digestive enzymes

To digest the food we eat, we need powerful enzymes that break it down in order to extract vital nutrients: each of the three major food groups (carbohydrates, proteins and fats) must be broken down by specific enzymes before being absorbed by cells in the digestive tract. The problem is that with age the production of these enzymes begins to decline and amounts of the three major food groups pass undigested causing bloating, gas and most importantly malnutrition in older people. Which results in  lost appetite and declining of muscles. And it’s also exacerbated by a lack of probiotics.

In general, even in young people, after-meal abdominal symptoms often represent poor digestion of complex foods, causing one to be unable to fully absorb nutrients needed for an optimal health. The proper combinations of all foods is consequently very important wherefore different enzymes works in different ways: e.g. proteins should never be eaten with carbs, such as pasta + meat. I’ll write about these food combinations in future posts.

A natural solution to declining levels of digestive enzymes is to supplement with them to break down all major classes of food: starch, proteins, fats, cellulose and milk. Correspondingly:

Amylase, used to break down starch

Protease, to break down proteins

Lipase, to break down fats

Cellulase, to break down cellulose

Lactase, to break down lactose

More in details: a deficiency in amylase enzymes causes undigested carbs and starches molecules to pass into the colon where they are not digested anymore by enzymes but by gut organisms, literally fermenting them to produce carbon dioxide that leads to flatulence.

Proteins are digested by protease enzymes which, if not digested, in the colon produce bad smelling and toxic molecules. Besides, undigested proteins are associated with colon cancer.

Fats are digested by lipase enzymes. A lack in lipases leaves long-chain fats undigested which cannot be absorbed anywhere else and consequently just pass through producing greasy stools and cramping.

Cellulose enzymes break down indigestible dietary fiber essential to feed our colon organisms: we could say that prebiotics feed probiotics (read my previous post on them). The two are totally correlated because another cause of digestive malfunction occurs when microbial populations become imbalanced. Ergo it’s compulsory to properly feed our communities of bacteria living in our intestine.

And lactases break down milk sugar. If there is a deficiency in these enzymes lactose intolerance will manifest, causing abdominal cramps, flatulence and bloating.

Above all, I highlight again that a lack of those enzymes obviously causes malnutrition because vital nutrients cannot be absorbed by our body, with all the consequences you can well imagine. I want to repeat my final hint, already given when I posted twice about probiotics: look for supplements with dual-coating AND acid-resistant characteristics. Otherwise you’re merely wasting money.

….Always humble,

Angiolino