A Renegade Cowgirl

The #1 health complaint in the U.S. is poor digestion. Our All-American diets; food combining and excesses, commercially processed food products, filled with preservatives and additives, have all contributed to this nondigestive epidemic. Much of this is enzymatically dead food!

Upset stomach, bloating, acid indigestion, and elimination problems are not the only problems from faulty digestion. This commonly leads to the use of over the counter antacids or prescriptions from the doctor, not even realizing the terrible consequences they are creating.

Proper digestion is essential for health. Without nutrient absorption, cells and organs cannot be properly nourished. Our immune system actually starts in our digestion!

Enzymes are very important elements in food that help us break it down and release the nutrients; proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and much more. Food in its natural state, raw, or preserved naturally such as drying, brining or fermenting is full of food elements called Enzymes. Enzymes are not nutrients.

Most nutritional information focuses on nutrients; vitamins, minerals, etc. Without enzymes, however, none of our food would break down to allow the nutrients to nourish our cells and bodies.

Raw food is full of enzymes which makes it more digestible. Food preservation such as sprouting and fermentation create more enzyme activity, but enzymes are inactivated by processing, pasteurization, cooking, and being zapped by microwaves!

When this enzyme-deficient food gets into your stomach, there is an increase of stomach acid; an attempt by your body to predigest and break down the food. Stomach acid is important and should not be neutralized, but an excess can cause problems like acid indigestion.

We all learned in Biology class that enzymes are catalysts which cause other things to happen. Catalysts bring change. According to Wikipedia, “Catalysts called enzymes are important in Biology.”

In the case of food, enzymes break apart the elements of food, like taking apart pieces of a puzzle, so that we can digest and absorb the parts we need, and eliminate the parts we don't need. Without sufficient enzymes, we suffer all kinds of consequences - indigestion, gas, bloating, weight problems, and much worse.

Once the food passes through the stomach, it is further treated by our body's own enzyme reserves, another necessary and useful part of the digestive tract. If the food started out as a processed, enzyme-deficient lump, more of these enzymes are needed, and the system can become exhausted. If there are not enough enzymes to properly digest, it will rob the body of more enzymes. That’s why we often become tired after eating as it takes a lot of energy from the body to digest food properly.

Ethnic cuisine, even when it includes cooking, contained plenty of enzyme sources: naturally fermented (unpasteurized) beer, wine, cheeses, miso, tamari, sauerkraut, pickles, and many more.

Today, we suffer from too many "macronutrients" (protein, fat and carbohydrates) and too few "micronutrients" - vitamins, minerals, and a myriad of other important elements that seem to diminish every year. No wonder we eat too much and still feel hungry!

If partially undigested food passes into the intestinal tract, it is met with our friendly bacteria to take the food apart so absorption can take place. These are also called Probiotics, or friendly bioflora, or beneficial bacteria. But that will be the next article.

So how do you know if you’re getting enough enzymes in your raw or fermented food? Chances are, you’re not. Raw or fermented live foods that traditionally provided digestive elements are hard to obtain commercially.

If you grow your own vegetables organically, or buy from the farmer’s market, you’ll get some of the enzymes needed to digest that vegetable, as long as it’s not cooked or micro-waved.

We need a variety of enzymes called ‘plant based enzymes’ to assist the body in breaking down our food. This mainly consists of amylase, lipase, Protease, Lactase, & Cellulase.

To learn more about plant enzymes, and to find out how to order,

please visit the Blue Green Cafe website.

Cher Marie

www.bluegreencafe.com