The length of life is inversely proportional to the rate of exhaustion of the enzyme potential of an organism.  The increased use of food enzymes promotes a decreased rate of exhaustion of the enzyme potential.  (The Enzyme Nutrition Axiom - Dr. Edward Howell)

Enzymes are minute protein molecules that are found naturally in foods we eat.¹ These protein molecules serve a vital purpose. They are catalysts that make possible the chemical reactions that digest our food and break it down to useable, absorbable nutrients. Enzymes are the life force that is found in foods and then transferred to our bodies to keep every system functioning optimally.

Problems arise because most of the foods we eat are enzyme-deficient. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 118°F and above.² That means that almost any kind of food preparation method destroys enzymes. Anytime you cook, microwave, fry, bake, grill or otherwise process your foods, you subject yourself to the dangerous consequences of eating enzyme-deficient foods.  How bad is that really, and just what happens when you eat foods that are devoid of enzymes?

Mother Nature must have known we wouldn’t eat all of our foods raw, so our bodies do have a backup supply of digestive enzymes to draw from. However, that supply is limited and depleting this supply places undue stress on the body. In other words, whenever we eat cooked or processed foods (which for most people is every meal!), we cause our bodies to work harder than necessary.³

When the body’s resources are being commandeered to accomplish digestion, they aren’t readily available to do other things—such as warding off disease or delaying the aging process or burning stored body fat. That’s right. Eating cooked and processed foods can lead to frequent sickness, premature aging and increased storage of body fat and countless other problems.⁴

Cooked and processed foods are so hard on the body that they actually bring on a condition called digestive leucocytosis. The body considers cooked food to be a foreign substance, an unwanted invader and eating cooked food causes the white blood cell count to rise just as it does when the body is sick or has ingested poison!⁵

Further, if enzymes are not present in the food you eat, not only is the body overtaxed, but also food is often only partially digested. This causes additional problems, including allergies, lethargy and deadly plaque build-up in the blood vessels.

Eventually, as your body’s stores of digestive enzymes are depleted, you become unable to digest certain foods at all. For example, if you were to use up your supply of lactase enzymes (from eating enzyme-deficient milk products) you would become lactose intolerant.

All the while that we are inordinately using up our digestive enzymes by eating enzyme-deficient foods, the body is trying to compensate in yet another way—by next pulling from its supply of metabolic enzymes. These enzymes can be called upon to facilitate digestion, but their primary purpose is to run other processes of the body.

Plainly, it is not a good thing to be using enzymes to accomplish digestion when they are supposed to be regulating the heart, lungs, or kidneys instead. However, that is exactly what happens. The body places a priority on digestion and goes to great lengths to do whatever is necessary to make sure foods are properly broken down and assimilated.

Some experts recognize the extreme toll this places on the body. They believe that enzyme deficiency is a factor in all disease and even determines lifespan. Dr. Edward Howell, who studied enzyme nutrition for over 50 years, wrote:

"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 a shortened lifespan (65 years of less as compared with 100 or more), illness, and lowered resistance to stresses of all types, physiological and environmental."⁶

Initially, the body may react to enzyme deficiency with what we call “indigestion.” Minor discomforts—of burping, heartburn, abdominal pain and bad breath as well as excess gas, skin problems, diarrhea, constipation and more—can be linked to consuming foods that are devoid of enzymes. Headaches, mental fatigue, nervousness, lack of concentration, memory loss, insomnia and nightmares can all result when the body doesn’t have enzymes readily available in the foods we eat. A lack of enzymes also interferes with hormone production, inhibits cellular repair and causes chronic digestive problems. (These types of problems are common! One in thirteen hospitalizations are a result of chronic digestive disorders.)⁷

There is an ironic twist in this whole scenario. Most people, when they experience the first signs of indigestion, have no idea that those signs are tied to enzyme deficiency and are a signal that digestion is compromised. Rather than looking for a way to promote digestion and make sure the burden is taken off the body, most people who experience indigestion further interfere with the process by taking antacids or acid blockers, which stop the digestive process in its tracks.⁸ While this may dissuade the symptoms, it doesn’t solve the problem, and is detrimental to overall health and well being.

The need for restoring the body’s enzyme supply is unquestionable. Taking supplemental enzymes like those found in The Greatest Vitamin in the World preserves the body’s own vital enzyme stores. Many people who take The Greatest Vitamin in the World notice they aren’t lethargic or sleepy after a meal, the discomfort of indigestion is gone and—for many—food allergies disappear. Enzyme supplementation has been shown to alleviate mild, and even severe or chronic, digestive disorders. Many people—who may not have noticeable digestive problems but who understand the benefits of enzymes—say they take enzyme supplements as a way to ward off the aging process, boost the immune system and protect themselves from the incredible toll cooked and processed foods can place on the body.

Obviously, in today’s world, it is virtually impossible to eat a diet of only raw foods; and, if you—or any other individual who has lived on the typical North American diet—were even to start doing that today you still need a way to restore the enzymes that have been depleted to this point if you are to experience optimal health.

Along with changing your diet and adding more raw foods, the way to preserve the body’s vital enzyme supply is by taking an enzyme supplement each time you eat foods that are cooked or processed. In recent years, as more and more people become aware of the need for enzymes, many products have cropped up on the market. While some have value, many others are incomplete, and thus, ineffective. 

In order to promote complete digestion, an enzyme supplement must contain the full complex of enzymes available in The Greatest Vitamin in the World. Pineapple enzymes or papaya enzymes are single plant enzyme products and are devoid of the enzymes needed to completely digest food. Likewise, products that contain protease only initiate the process of protein digestion. Protease breaks protein down to a peptide. In the peptide form, protein can’t be used by the body and can actually cause more harm than good. To break peptides down to useable amino acids requires peptidase as well.

Amylase will break carbohydrates down into disaccharides. Since disaccharides are still not in a form the body can use—and, like peptides, can wreak havoc in the system—cellulase, lactase, maltase and invertase must also be included to finish the job and break the carbohydrates all the way down to useable simple sugars.⁹

Similarly, lipase, the enzyme that digests fat must have certain minerals present in order to accomplish its job.¹⁰

Many products on the market contain animal enzymes, such as pepsin. While animal enzymes may, indeed, promote digestion, they have a limited pH range. This limited range means that they work in only one stage of the three-stage process of digestion. In addition, animal enzymes don’t work in conjunction with the natural processes of the body. Rather than restoring the body’s enzyme supply and allowing it to function at optimal levels, animal enzymes supplant (or take the place of) this supply and cause the body to stop producing enzymes of its own.

Taking the enzyme supplement found in The Greatest Vitamin in the World helps the body in yet another way. Not only does a complete, pure plant enzyme supplement help break foods down, enzymes also assist with the absorption and delivery of vitamins and minerals, making these nutrients readily available for use in the body. 

You now understand the dangers of enzyme depletion and how to avoid the side effects of eating cooked and processed foods. Choose to be free of indigestion and chronic digestive problems, to preserve your enzyme stores for important metabolic function and to promote optimum nutrient absorption and fat metabolism by eating responsibly.  When you eat foods that are cooked and processed and, therefore, void of enzymes, make sure you don’t let enzyme deficiencies overtax your system and deprive you of the optimal health you want and deserve. Avoid the many health hazards associated with enzyme deficiency, such as lactose intolerance and inability to digest milk products, fat intolerance and the resulting dangers of heart disease, sugar intolerance and the precursory steps to diabetes, and the ravages of lethargy, food allergies and toxicity that can result from undigested food particles.

Promote optimal health by taking the enzymes in The Greatest Vitamin in the World each time you eat a snack or a meal that contains foods that are cooked or processed.

1.  Howell, Dr. Edward. Enzyme Nutrition. New Jersey: Avery Publishing Group, 1985, p. 2.
2. Ibid.,  p. 4.
3.  Ibid.,  p. 6-7.
4. Ibid.,  p. 15-6.
5. Kautchakoff, Paul, M.D. “The Influence of Food Cooking on the Blood Formula of Man,” Lausanne, Switzerland, 1930.
6. Howell, op. cit.
7.  National Digestive Disease Information Clearinghouse http://www.niddk.nih.gov/DD-statistics/DD-statistics.html
8. Garrett, Laurie. The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World out of Balance. New York: Penguin Books, 1994.
9. Gray, Gary M. “Intestinal Digestion and Maldigestion of Dietary Carbohydrates.” Annual Review of Medicine 22:391-404, 1971.
10. McPherson, James C., et al. “Effect of lipase ingestion on blood lipid levels.” Proceedings of the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine 115: 5124-17 (1964).