enzymes

Virtually all living things - including those we cook and eat contain enzymes. Enzymes, which act as the spark plugs for
the vast majority of chemical reactions that make life possible,
are a sine qua non for life.
Although most food eaten in the United States has been
cooked, which inactivates the enzymes it contains, all the plant
and animal foods in our meals are derived from once-living,
enzyme-abundant things.
Over 2,500 different kinds of enzymes are found in living
things. All enzymes are proteins, very special kinds of proteins
that act as catalysts. Enzymes give our body chemistry its
vitality, literally giving our metabolism a jump start. Plus, as
molecules that enable the breaking down of our food, they also
play a critically important role within our digestive system.
Enzymes in our saliva allow us to break apart starches.
Enzymes in our stomach help us break apart proteins.
Enzymes in our intestines help us break apart fats, proteins,
and carbohydrates of all kinds.
When we eat fresh, uncooked foods, those foods can still
contain active enzymes. When we chew a freshly picked leaf
of lettuce, we break the cells in the leaf apart, releasing its
nutrients, including enzymes. Enzymes are not automatically
destroyed by the acids or temperatures in our digestive tract.
Enzymes in the stomach - called gastric enzymes - are
specially designed to function in the stomach's extremely acid
conditions and are critical to our health. Our bodies can
overheat from fever, extreme exercise or summer weather, but
not to temperatures that will prevent the enzymes inside us
from continuing to function.

Our digestive tract has specialized areas for absorbing large

molecules, including enzymes (which are proteins), from food
into our bloodstream. These areas house our M cells. M cells
are specialized cells designed to selectively deliver large
molecules from our intestines into our cells and bloodstream.
The passing of enzymes from a mother to her nursing newborn
is a good example of this M cell function. A mother's milk
contains the milk sugar, lactose. An enzyme called lactase is
needed to digest lactose, but an infant's body is not yet capable
of manufacturing this enzyme. So, the mother sends lactase
along with her milk, and in this way enables the baby to digest
and absorb its lactose.
Ordinarily, we cook food at temperatures at least twice that of
normal body temperature. For this reason, fresh, raw plant
foods are our primary source of food enzymes. (Due to their
high potential for bacterial contamination, most animal foods
would be too risky for us to eat raw). While there have been
no large scale, controlled studies to document the impact of
enzyme-containing, fresh, raw plant foods on digestion and
health, practitioners in fields of complementary, natural, and
functional medicine have used enzyme supplementation
successfully to help treat a wide variety of health problems
and have long advocated the inclusion of fresh, organic, raw
plant foods in the diet.
For serving size for specific foods, see Nutrient Rating Chart
below at the bottom of this page.

Description
Function
Deficiency
Symptoms
Toxicity Symptoms

Drug-nutrient
interaction
Nutrient interaction
Health conditions
Supplements

Cooking, storage and

processing
Factors that affect
function

Food Sources
Public
Recommendations
References

Description
Enzymes are not difficult to pick out in a science book,
because 90% of all enzymes are given scientific names that
end in the letters -ase. Following are two types of enzymes
contained in foods.
Digestive Enzymes
Plant foods contain many of the same enzymes that humans
use to metabolize different kinds of macronutrients. Proteases
and peptidases, which help digest protein; lipases, which help
digest fat; and cellulases and saccharidases, which help digest
starches and sugars are examples of the kind of digestive
enzymes that would normally secreted in our digestive tract or
in a nearby organs like the pancreas or liver. However, these
same digestive enzymes can be found in the plant foods that
we eat.
Antioxidant Enzymes
Like humans, plants must protect themselves against oxygenrelated damage, and they depend on enzymes to help them do
so. A recently germinated sprout, for example, starts to
generate many new oxidative enzymes in preparation for its
journey up through the soil and into the open air. Superoxide
dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) are examples of
oxidative enzymes that occur in higher concentrations in
young plant sprouts than in the older, mature leaves.

Glutathione peroxidase (GPO) is another example of an

important oxidative enzyme that is found in the human body
and in the plants we eat.
How it Functions
Necessary for Proper Digestion
Digestive enzymes play an integral role in the digestion of
proteins, fats and carbohydrates since they catabolize these
macronutrients into smaller molecules, which can be absorbed
in the intestines. Our optimal physiological functioning
depends upon the proper digestion and absorption of these
nutrients.
Confers Inflammatory and Oxidative
Protection
Certain enzymes, such as bromelain (found in pineapple),
have anti-inflammatory properties. Bromelain seems to confer
anti-inflammatory protection through a variety of mechanisms.
It is thought to inhibit intermediates of the clotting cascade,
increase fibrinolysis (the dissolution of clots), and reduce the
production of inflammatory molecules such as bradykinin.
Support for the Immune System
Enzymes support the immune system in a few different ways.
Since enzymes can work on substrates wherever the substrate
is found, some of their targets include molecules other than the
macronutrients associated with food. For example, protease
enzymes can break apart the proteins that are found in
unwanted bacteria and therefore reduce our risk of infection.
In addition, the enzyme bromelain has been found to increase
the production of a host of different immune system

messenger molecules, including cytokines such as tumor

necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-1-beta and interleukin-6.
Promoting General Metabolic Eficiency
Evidence shows that the body conserves it own digestive
enzymes by absorbing intact both endogenous (produced in
the body) and exogenous (supplemented to the body by food
or supplement) enzymes. Exogenous pancreatic enzymes have
been found to be absorbed intact from the gut, transported
through the bloodstream, taken up by the pancreatic cells, and
resecreted into the intenstines by the pancreas, mixed with
newly synthesized pancreatic enzymes. It is suggested that
oral supplementation of enzymes may have a sparing effect on
the body's own digestive enzymes, perhaps aiding organ
regeneration, by breaking down substrates, such as foods, for
which endogenous enzymes would otherwise be used, thus
freeing these enzymes for other beneficial activities.
Deficiency Symptoms
There is no research on symptoms of food enzyme deficiency.
The clinical experience of many health care practitioners
suggests that symptoms related to dyspepsia (indigestion),
including heartburn, flatulence, belching and the appearance
of undigested food in stool, may suggest enzyme deficiency
since these symptoms could be caused by the improper
digestion of food, which would occur with a deficiency of
digestive enzymes.
Toxicity Symptoms
There is no research on food enzyme toxicity. Enzymes in
supplement form may cause allergenic reactions due to the
introduction of novel proteins which may increase the risk of

antigenic reaction, particularly in immune-compromised

individuals. In addition, bromelain may cause allergenic
reactions as it has been shown to promote certain types of
antibody mediated reactions.
Impact of Cooking, Storage and Processing
Cooking foods at virtually all standard cooking temperatures
denatures enzymes, destroying their functioning.
The majority of processing techniques used by food
manufacturers destroys the natural enzymes found in foods.
The effects of storage on enzyme integrity varies greatly,
depending upon temperature and duration. The higher the
temperature and the longer the food is stored, the greater
likelihood that any enzymes it contains will be denatured.
Factors that Affect Function
Different enzymes have optimal pH ranges at which the
reaction that they catalyze will occur most rapidly.
Temperature can affect enzyme activity level. Increased
temperatures increase the rate at which an enzyme will
catalyze a reaction, yet only up to a point, since too high a
temperature will cause the enzyme to denature, destroying its
activity.
Certain heavy metals inhibit the activity of enzymes by
interrupting the reactions in which they are involved. These
heavy metals include barium, lead and mercury.
Drug-Nutrient Interactions
Bromelain, the enzyme found in pineapple, seems to increase
the absorption of antiobiotics, notably amoxicillin and

tetracycline. In addition, since bromelain and papain (an

enzyme found in papaya) act as blood thinners, it is suggested
that they may increase the effect of warfarin, aspirin and other
anticoagulant medications.
Nutrient Interactions
There is limited research on the interaction between enzymes
and nutrients, although some minerals serve as cofactors for
certain endogenously produced enzymes. Studies have
suggested that pancreatin supplementation may reduce folic
acid absorption.
Health Conditions
A high dietary intake of enzymes may play a
role in the prevention and/or treatment of
the following health conditions:

Maldigestion and malabsorption

Pancreatic insufficiency
Steatorrhea (diarrhea due to fat
malabsorption)
Celiac disease
Lactose intolerance
Thrombotic disease
Acute sinusitis
Post-operative recovery
Sports injuries
Adverse food reactions

Form in Dietary Supplements

As a supplement, dietary enzymes can be found either as
individual compounds or in combination products that

combine more than one type of enzyme. The combination

products may either feature enzymes that are specific for one
type of macronutrient (for example, a variety of proteases for
protein digestion) or they may be a broad-spectrum product
that features enzymes that catabolize carbohydrates, proteins
and fats. Since protein-digesting enzymes can be denatured in
the stomach, these supplements are oftentimes enteric coated,
so they do not dissolve in the stomach but in the small
intestine.
Some enzyme supplements are manufactured from animal
sources while others are from non-animal sources. A popular,
and effective, non-animal source of enzymes is Aspergillus
oryzae, a type of fungus (Aspergillus is also used in the
traditional Japanese technique of fermenting soybeans to
produce soy sauce, tamari and miso). Bromelain and papain
are two examples of enzymes derived from plants.
Food Sources
Virtually all fresh, organically grown, uncooked plant foods
are sources of enzymes. Bromelain is found in pineapples
while papain is concentrated in unripe papayas.

Food Source Analysis not Available for this Nutrient

Public Health Recommendations
No public health recommendations for dietary intake of
enzymes have been made by any established health agency or
organization.
References

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