Digestion: The #1 Priority

The body considers digestion a top priority.  Other processes, including the immune system, energy production and even brain function all wait while the body digest food.  When digestion is functioning properly, food is broken down and nutrients are made available by the body itself for repair, metabolism, and healing without undue stress.  Unfortunately, the way our foods are grown and processed, toxins in the environment, and even stress, anger and many other factors wreak havoc on digestion. The result is that up to 70 million Americans experience a whole range of digestive problems from ongoing symptoms of bloating, gas, and stomach cramps.  These symptoms also include the more severe digestive disorders which cause 191,000 deaths and 13 percent of hospitalizations each year,² more than any other type of disease.³

• Indigestion can be distressful, annoying--even dangerous--when ignored or treated incorrectly.
• Also known as upset stomach or dyspepsia, indigestion is discomfort or a burning feeling in the upper abdomen, often accompanied by nausea, abdominal bloating, belching, and sometimes vomiting. 
• If food is not digested properly, it ferments in the stomach (Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 3rd Edition), creating acids and gases, which are factors in bloating, heartburn, and more.⁴
• Antacids and acid blockers stop digestion, which only adds to the problem!
• Cooked and processed foods rob the body of enzymes and other nutrients needed for complete digestion and absorption.
• Fatigue, weight gain, digestive problems, premature aging, lactose intolerance and food allergies have been linked to incomplete digestion and may indicate a need for enzymes, flora and specific minerals.
  The Greatest Vitamin in the World gives new meaning to relief from indigestion!

There are three stages of Digestion

Most often, digestive problems are linked to the first stage of digestion where enzymes are first utilized. Enzymes are not only crucial to digestion; they are the catalysts, which allow the body to breathe, reproduce, and generate energy.  Nothing in the body works without enzymes.  Life itself depends on enzymes.⁵  Yet, virtually every individual is deficient in these vital protein molecules.  Stress, caffeine, alcohol and even extreme weather conditions all destroy enzymes.  The most serious threat to our enzyme supply is cooked and processed foods.⁶  Raw foods contain enzymes, which help break them down in the digestive system.  However, the cooked foods that make up the bulk of the modern diet are lacking enzymes so the body must constantly draw from its limited supply of digestive enzymes. As this supply is depleted, in order to accomplish digestion, the body must rely on metabolic enzymes.  When this occurs, other bodily processes are compromised, disease is more common and aging is more pronounced. 

Dr. Edward Howell, who spent over forty years studying the effects of enzymes on health said,

"Humans eating an enzyme less diet use up a tremendous amount of their enzyme potential in lavish secretions of the pancreas and other digestive organs.  The result is shortened life span (65 years or less as compared with 100 years or more), illness and lowered resistance to stress of all types, psychological and environmental."⁷

When we eat cooked and processed foods that are void of enzymes, we no longer break the foods down for the next step of digestion and we put stress on our systems that age and degenerate our bodies.

The next stage of digestion deals with helping the food be assimilated out of the gut into the blood stream.  This occurs with the help of friendly bacteria (probiotics).  Probiotics line the intestines and not only help with the assimilation of foods but they also help create enzymes and vitamins that further break down foods.⁸

The third and final stage of digestion happens when the food substrate is finally utilized in the cell.  This happens in part by specific minerals.

Proper digestion, the absorption and assimilation of nutrients which results in health and vitality, begins by supplying the enzymes, minerals and probiotics necessary to ensure that foods are completely broken down and that your body gets the nourishment it needs.  (See the topics of Enzymes, Minerals and Good Bacteria for more information on how this product supports proper digestion.)

The Greatest Vitamin in the World supplies pure plant enzymes, specific chelated minerals and special probiotic strains, proven to provide nutritional support for indigestion symptoms as well as protect the body from premature aging, fatigue and countless other concerns associated with improper digestion (see Anti-Aging and Energy).

Proper digestion of your foods can be one of the most health promoting things you can do for your body.  The Greatest Vitamin in the World contains all of the needed nutrients to help with this important system within your body.

1. Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, Edition 16. F.A. Davis Company: Philadelphia,1989, p. 276.
2. Baylor College of Medicine. "Medical Schools Establish Southwest's first digestion disorder center, May 18, 2001.
3. http://www.fdhn.org/ (American Gastrointestinal Association).
4. Prescriptions for Nutritional Healing, 3rd Edition. p. 460.
5. Howell, Dr. Edward. Enzyme Nutrition. New Jersey: Avery Publishing Group, 1985, p. 3.
6. Howell, p.4.
7. Howell, p.29.
8. Shahani, Khem. Fact and fallacies about probiotics: Particularly concerning the Beneficial Aspect of Lactobacillus acidophilus DDS-1. University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE.