Greetings and welcome again to Health 101!  So far we've  introduced several prerequisites for achieving optimum health:  self love; optimum efficiency of our organic chemical factory in producing energy and metabolic enzymes; high quality, nutrient dense food; and competent digestion.

The focus here will be digestion, which most of us have simply taken for granted with consequences raging from slight to severe. Most of us have just assumed that as we "ate" food, it was automatically digested and our bodies just "worked", aged, and eventually broke down and died. If that scenario seems okay to you then you may not be interested in having the knowledge and power to control over your own physiological destiny.  Since 85% of the people dying each year in the USA do so needlessly from degenerative disease, the status quo appears to be an out of control epidemic of ignorance of many vitally important scientific facts. 

So let's talk about how digestion really happens.  Restating our definition of food:  it is a complex of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, fiber, minerals, vitamins and enzymes.  However, it is important to remember that proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and fiber are useless to our cells until they are digested into amino acids, glucose & fatty acids.  This is work that is done by food enzymes and digestive enzymes.  Food enzymes are those present in the foods we eat.  These food enzymes can be alive or dead, depending upon whether the food is raw or cooked.  Food enzymes begin to be denatured or die at temperatures as low as 118  F. in as little as 30 minutes.  The higher the temperature, the less time it takes for the enzymes to die.  To state the obvious, dead enzymes do no work.  So if we are eating cooked food the whole burden of digestion is placed upon the digestive enzymes that our bodies produce.  This is contrary to natural law.  All wild animals, by and in nature, eat raw food, whether plant or animal source.  As a direct result of the efficiency of digestion by both the food enzymes and digestive enzymes their bowels waste material does not reek of foul odor and wild animals do not develop degenerative diseases.  On the contrary, humans and their domesticated animals eating cooked or dead food have very foul bowel odor and develop all sorts of degenerative diseases.  This is just the result of the laws of basic chemistry and natural law. If you stop and think about it for a moment, it doesn't make good scientific sense to place the whole burden of digestion upon the food enzymes.  We need the value of the work done by our digestive enzymes.  It doesn't make any better sense to place the whole burden of digestion upon our digestive enzymes either.  Especially when you learn that the food enzymes can do from 30% to 80% of the digestive work for us and reduce the amount of stress on our own enzyme production capability.  It just makes good sense to have the benefit of both the food enzymes and our digestive enzymes working together for optimum digestion of the food we eat.

Another very important factor is chewing.  The more completely the food is chewed, the more efficiently the enzymes are able to digest the food.  If the food is raw the enzymes in the food begin to digest the food as soon as the cell walls are broken and the enzymes are mixed with the food.  The moisture from the food and saliva activate the enzymes.  The better the food is chewed, the better the enzymes are mixed with the food, and the more efficiently digestion occurs.  Digestion begins in the mouth as the food enzymes, and the digestive enzymes in the saliva, work together to begin the very specific processes of digestion. Each substrate: protein, carbohydrates, fats, or fiber is digested by specific enzymes.  Protein is digested by various proteases.  Carbohydrates are digested by amylases.  Fats are digested by lipases.  Fiber is digested by cellulases.  Sugars are digested by "sugarases."  If the specific enzymes are not present and alive, then that specific substrate is not digested and it putrefies, ferments, goes rancid or rots in its own particular way.  This rotting is what makes the bowel stink.  It poisons the blood, organs, and cells.  It creates inflammation and allergies.  It stresses our immune systems and finally requires enormous amounts of energy and enzymes to detoxify and eliminate this toxic waste problem that never should have happened in the first place. Accordingly, if we concentrate on and practice all of the factors that work together for efficient digestion, then we actually end up with clean, efficient, healthy, energetic bodies that can actually get stronger and younger.  If we take this wonderful system for granted by doing what most people do, then we get exactly what natural low demands - inefficiency, toxicity, inflammation, degeneration, suffering, and premature death.  Some choice, huh?  Isn't it tragic that 85% of the people dying each year in this country don't know this, or don't care?  Since I've learned how this system works, I have no fear, I only see solutions where only problems previously existed.  The choice is ours to make.  We truly do reap what we sow. More next time.  Peace and Love,  Darrell.