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So what is it
that is so miraculous about eating a raw diet? The secret is
Enzymes.
“Enzymes are
types of protein catalysts that have to be present for life to exist.
They perform a multitude of functions in the body, both metabolic and
digestive.”1 A good analogy of this would be, “an enzyme
can be compared to a skilled worker who has been trained very well to
perform a specific task. Without him, all work stops.”
“Enzymes appear
in large numbers in living foods, slightly smaller numbers in raw
foods, and do not exist in processed foods. This is because enzymes
are very sensitive to heat.” They’re actually destroyed if heated
above the temperature of 118 degrees. Enzymes are one of the factors
that give living foods their healing abilities because they do not
require the body to use any of its own energy reserves to digest,
assimilate and eliminate the food, which means that it can spend that
energy doing more useful things like healing the body. “Without
enzymes, human life as we know it is not possible. And the more
enzymes there are, the merrier we are.
What happens
when we eat, enzymatically? Within moments of the time that we begin
eating, “an increasing number of enzymes appear in our digestive
systems, especially our stomachs and upper small intestines. These
enzymes play the very important role of breaking down our food. You
may be asking yourself, ‘Where did the enzymes come from?’ There are
two possible sources: those in your food or those provided by your
body.”
If you eat
something that is cooked then “all of the enzymes for digestion have
to be borrowed from your body’s cells. This borrowing of enzymes also
drains your body of its enzyme reserve. At birth, we are given a
supply of enzymes, and they are not naturally replenished. Many of
the maladies we associate with aging are actually symptoms of a
diminishing enzyme reserve. Eating enzyme-rich living foods gets your
body off the hook for that particular meal, letting the foods
essentially digest themselves.”
When eating
cooked foods, it is very important to combine your foods properly,
otherwise you will have an enzyme war going on in your digestive
system as each “borrowed” enzyme is fighting against another.
“Remember that some of these borrowed enzymes are not ‘experts’ in
digestion – they were actually trained for other roles in your body.
This creates two problems: your meal will be incompletely digested,
which means you won’t get all the nutrition possible, and the original
task of those enzymes won’t be completed.”
“Dr. Robert
Young is a renowned microbiologist who has spent many years
researching the relationship between mycotic infections (those started
by yeast, fungus, and mold) and the onset of disease. Interestingly,
he has discovered that if one’s enzyme count drops below the level
necessary to maintain a healthy cellular environment, a backup system
activates dormant yeast and fungus spores in these cells, triggering a
fermentation process as a self-defense mechanism. This is bad news
for the body, unless the enzyme count can be restored to these cells
in a timely fashion, they are eventually destroyed by the fermentation
process, and unless the cells are removed (or cleansed), they become a
source of toxicity in the body. More and more health professionals
recognize this as a prominent source of sickness and disease in our
societies today.”
“So, a first
simple rule: as the enzyme levels in your body drop as a result of
eating a meal of mostly processed food, so does your energy. Over the
years, your body’s ability to replace the enzymes that were recruited
for digestion diminishes, and chronic ailments and diseases appear. |
