At 12:06 PM 8/19/98 -0400, you wrote:
>In a message dated 98-08-18 16:38:54 EDT, you write:
>
><< Yes, I'm pretty certain that's correct. Enzymes (organic catalysts) are
> proteins, and are destroyed by digestion. It's basically impossible to
> obtain any health benefit from ingesting enzymes, even if those same
> enzymes are very beneficial when operating normally in your body. >>
>
>I'm sorry but that's not the case.  I'll give you an example, my health
>dramatically improved when I began eating raw foods rather than cooked.  My
>aunt's health greatly improved when she added digestive enzymes to her cooked
>meals.  I just read an article in my local paper the other day about two dogs
>with hip dysplaxia who healed after several weeks of using enzyme supplements
>in their regular food.

>Research suggests that eating enzymatically active food spares the
pancreas as
>the pancreas triples in size when people and animals eat primarily cooked
>food.

I find this hard to believe.  What is your reference?  This sounds like the
claim that
meat-eaters are carrying around 25lbs of undigested meat in their colons.

>I am aware of the strain that eating cooked food causes on my own body.
>And research suggests that the small intestine DOES absorb any enzymes not
>lost in digestion.

I'm curious what research suggests this.  Enzymes are proteins.  The normal
bowel
only absorbs  amino acids, di- and tri peptides in any appreciable amounts.
 Are
you asserting that these enzymes are absorbed into the bowel and are somehow
transported back to where they are secreted?  In a healthy stomach pleanty to
acid and low pH, most, if not all, proteins (e.g. enzymes) will be
denatured (i.e.
broken down).  It has always been my understanding from reading and classes in
physiology that the secreted enzymes are themselves consumed and absorbed,
not as the whole enzyme but rather the constituent peptides and amino
acids.  I
think we need some data.

In any event, why would we want to absorb these enzymes anyway?  By there
nature
and design they are meant to digest.  Appreciable amounts of enzymes
absorbed into
the body would cause digestion of the body.  The enzymes as stored in the
body for
secretion are inert complexes that are only activated when excreted (e.g.
pepsinogen).


>Try living on a raw food diet and compare...

If there is a benefit from going raw food (and I sorta believe there is) I
don't believe it's
because of the 'enzyme' content.  Rather, the food is probably superior in
terms of
nutrients and is unadulterated.

>Aaron


  Wade Reeser    [log in to unmask]