Enzymes, raw food, and digestion

[Guest guest]

Enzymes: The Difference Between Raw and Cooked Foods

Kane N.D.

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Enzymes: The tiny and enormous difference between raw and cooked foods

Virtually all chronic degenerative diseases are caused or aggravated

by digestive problems. After the most extensive study on nutrition

ever undertaken by the government, the U.S. Senate Select Committee

on Nutrition and Human Needs concluded in its 1978 report

entitled " Diet and Killer Diseases, " that the average American diet

is responsible for the development of chronic degenerative diseases

such as heart disease, atherosclerosis, cancer, diabetes, stroke,

etc. Many of the most common health complaints revolve around a 20-

foot, mucus-lined tube that directly interfaces us with our

environment. This is no mystery: This is the gastro-intestinal tract,

affectionately abbreviated " GI. " The job of the GI is to alchemically

transmute the food we eat into our flesh, blood, actions, thoughts

and feelings... with a little help from our friends the salivary

glands, the pancreas, the liver, and most importantly RAW FOOD -- all

of which provide (now we're getting to the point) ENZYMES.

Enzymes are delicate dynamos. Delicate because they are destroyed by

temperatures over 118 degrees (some by as little as 105 degrees),

which means that they may not survive even light steaming. Dynamos

because they are powerful biochemical catalysts; they speed burning

or building reactions in the body according to need. They are

specialized proteins, often with long complicated names ending in -

ase.

The three primary digestive enzymes are protease, lipase and amylase

which digest, respectively, protein, fat (lipids), and carbohydrates

(which includes sugars). Amylase comes from the salivary glands:

carbohydrates start digesting right in our mouth. Have you ever

chewed a piece of bread or potato for an extra moment before

swallowing, and tasted how sweet it is? (It is a good idea to chew

our foods thoroughly; literally making juice in our mouths before

swallowing.) Lipase is synthesized principally in the liver and

protease comes from the pancreas.

Although the enzyme-producing organs continue to function over the

entire course of a healthy life, they eventually wear down,

especially with the " standard American diet " (which, in the

naturopathic community, we call SAD.) Dr. Francis M. Pottenger's

nutritional studies have shown that a regular diet of cooked or

canned foods causes the development of chronic degenerative diseases

and premature mortality. Professor of the Dept. of Anatomy,

University of Minnesota, has shown that rats fed for 135 days on an

80 percent cooked food diet resulted in an increase pancreatic weight

of 20 to 30 percent. What this means is that the pancreas is forced

to work harder with a cooked food diet. " Although the body can

manufacture enzymes, the more you use your enzyme potential, the

faster it is going to run out... " wrote Dr. Howell, who

pioneered research in the benefits of food enzymes. A youth of 18 may

produce amylase levels 30 times greater than those of an 85 year old

person.

Enzymes are what make seeds sprout. Sprouts are, in fact, one of the

richest sources of enzymes. Other excellent sources are papaya,

pineapple and the aspergillus plant. Science cannot duplicate

enzymes, because they are the stuff of life itself. Only raw food has

functional " live " enzymes. Therefore the liver, pancreas, stomach and

intestines must come to the rescue and furnish the requisite

digestive enzymes to the individual nourished solely on a cooked food

diet.

This extra activity can be detrimental to health and longevity

because it continually taxes the reserve energy of our organs.

Furthermore, cooked food passes through the digestive tract more

slowly than raw food, tends to ferment, and throws poisons back into

the body. Colon cancer is second only to lung cancer as a killer in

America and is related, in various ways, to eating enzyme-deficient

cooked food. Prolonged intestinal toxemia may manifest the following

symptoms: Fatigue, nervousness, gasto-intestinal discomfort,

recurrent infections, skin eruptions, hormonal disturbances,

headaches, arthritis, sciatica, low back pain, allergies, asthma,

eye, ear, nose and throat disorders, cardiac irregularities,

pathological changes in the breasts, and so forth. All of these

conditions have been shown to respond to therapy directed to

correcting the bowel toxemia. Of course, it is important to have

fiber in the diet to scrub the colon walls clean, but even more

important are the enzymes which will allow proper digestion and

assimilation of vital nutrients. Cooked food often passes into the

bloodstream as unsplit molecules that are deposited, as waste, in

various parts of the body. If it is a fat molecule we know it as

cholesterol plaque; if calcium, arthritis; if sugar, diabetes. White

blood cell count rises dramatically after ingesting a meal of canned

or cooked foods ( " digestive leukocytosis " ). Elevated WBCs are

correlated to bacterial infection, inflammation and depressed

immunity. Raw foods do not produce this reaction. All raw foods

contain exactly the right enzymes required to split every last

molecule into the basic building blocks of metabolism: Amino acids

(from protein), glucose (from complex carbohydrates) and essential

fatty acids (from unsaturated vegetable fats).

You are what you ate: Eat living foods (at least once daily!).