Neanderthal man accidentally dropped a slice of dinosaur meat into the fire one night and the story of enzymes began. If he hadn’t been so careless, we might very well be eating only raw food today and be the healthier for it.
Food cooked above 118 degrees F. (which was probably the fate of the dinosaur meat), kills enzymes. Then the pancreas, salivary glands, stomach and intestines must come to the rescue and furnish digestive enzymes (protease, lipase and amylase) to break down the protein, carbohydrates and fats.
To do this, repeatedly, the body must “rob” enzymes from other glands, muscles, nerves and blood to help in the demanding digestive process. Eventually there will be a deficiency of enzymes in these areas and this, important scientists throughout the world believe, is the real cause of various allergies and diseases. It is unfortunate that the medical profession in America and other countries have paid scant attention to the significance of food enzymes.
According to Professor Schaefer of the Mayo Foundation, the pancreas of Filipinos and Malays is 25 to 50 percent heavier than that of Occidentals. When we recall that cooked rice is the staple food of these people, commonly eaten three times a day, we begin to see the reason. Professor Jackson of the Dept. of Anatomy, University of Minnesota, has shown that rats fed for 155 days on an 80 percent cooked food diet, resulted in an increased pancreatic weight of 20 to 30 percent.
The answer is that the pancreas and body cells are forced to work harder on a cooked food diet. This extra activity can be destructive. In many case studies of diseases, the pancreas has been found to be in a state of atrophy.
To say that the body can easily digest and assimilate cooked food properly may someday prove to be the most grievous oversight yet committed by science. Cooked food passes through the digestive tract more slowly than raw food, tends to ferment, throws poisons back into the body causing gas, heartburn, headaches, eye trouble and many more serious conditions. It begins to collect on the walls of the large intestine. Only bulky, fiber-type raw food will exercise the intestine adequately, moving out small particles from pockets and elbows of the colon.
The great emphasis in recent months on putting fiber into the diet is because the “experts” are realizing finally that the American diet is woefully lacking in roughage. But equally important, the colon must be kept free from putrefaction and repetition of the autointoxication cycle. Grains, raw fruit and vegetables, bran used daily and some dairy products will change intestinal flora and give good results.
Once-a-day elimination is considered constipation by the late Dr. J.H. Kellog and other prominent researchers. A coated tongue is a sign of autointoxication. Lab results show coatings produce mold, yeast and bacteria indicating low resistance to disease. Colon cancer is second only to lung cancer as a killer in America and is related, in varying degrees, to eating enzyme deficient cooked food.
Another problem with undigested cooked food is that it often passes into the blood stream as an unsplit molecule and is deposited, as waste, in various parts of the body. If it is a fat molecule, we know it as cholesterol; if calcium, arthritis; if sugar, diabetes.
Most heart physicians would say that the diet of the primitive Greenland Eskimo, consisting of up to 10 pounds of meat and animal fats a day, is harmful. But the Greenland Eskimo does not suffer from high blood pressure, kidney stones, or heart trouble. Since he does not use fire, the raw food he eats contains all the enzymes necessary to split every last molecule he takes in.
It is possible that every known degenerative disease may have its origin in enzyme deficiency. Just a few of the respected men who believe that cancer is linked to enzyme deficiency are: Dr. Franz Bergal of London, Dr. R.A. Holman, University of Wales; Dr. Van R. Potter, Professor of Cancer, University of Wisconsin; Dr. Harold Manner, Loyola University; Professor William T. Salter, Yale Medical School, and Dr. Edward Howell, who pioneered research in the benefits of food enzymes.
Researchers have proven conclusively, with many different animals, that cooked food, even when fortified with “organic” vitamins and minerals, failed to prevent diseases suffered on an unfortified diet. Interestingly, when animals are fed a diet of only raw food, they thrive.
If a farmer were to plant a seed in the ground, he would not cook it first because he knows cooked seed is devoid of all life; its enzymes are dead. Enzymes, found in all animal and vegetable cells, in extra-cellular juices such as the blood and other fluids of the vegetable and animal organism are specialized protein substances which speed up and create chemical reactions. These particles of matter are charged with what Professor Moore, of the University of Oxford, called “biotic energy.” Every breath we breathe and every move we make involves enzymes. It’s the enzymes in a steak that will heal a black eye in hours instead of days. It’s the enzymes that cause seeds to sprout, leaves to change their color in the fall. Enzymes are the prime movers and motivators of every natural, normal function on the face of the earth. Science cannot make a synthetic enzyme because it is life itself.
As Dr. Edward Howell aptly puts it, “. . . it’s just as if you inherited a certain amount of money and didn’t save any. If you spend it all, you won’t have any more money in the bank. It is the same with enzymes. You inherit a certain enzyme potential and it must last a lifetime. Although the body can manufacture enzymes, the more you use your enzyme potential, the faster it is going to run out. . .”
Assuming that smoking, air pollution and insufficient exercise play a role in diseases of all types that claim increasing numbers of Americans each year (like cancer where the rate has jumped from one out of twelve to one out of four), we cannot deny that there is a common denominator. That common denominator is the food eaten for nourishment. Not to question this at the onset of investigation into the cause of disease is an insult to human intelligence.
Your chances of not getting a serious disease are much better if you eat as much raw food as possible. (Avocados, bananas, and mangoes are particularly rich in enzymes’ and the highest source is sprouts.) If you eat cooked and raw food at the same meal, Dr. Howell advises taking one to three enzyme supplements during the meal not afterward. Or the capsules can be opened and sprinkled on the food. [Ed. note: Not pancreatic enzymes.] These enzyme supplements can save your valuable body enzymes.
When raw food is eaten, the released enzymes immediately start breaking down the food. They have approximately ‘/2 hour to work in the stomach, before the acidity drops too low. Here the food enzymes are inactivated and pepsin and hydrochloric acid take ,over to further digest the proteins. When a plant enzyme supplement is taken, it functions the same as enzymes released from raw food.
Plant enzymes differ substantially from animal enzymes (pancreatin). Pancreatin, derived from secretions of an animal pancreas, functions best in the alkaline media of the small intestine. It is presently being used in important cancer research.
Unripe papaya, pineapples and the aspergillus plant are excellent sources of enzymes. The enzymes extracted from papaya and pineapple (papain and bromelin) are protelytic enzymes. These work on proteins exclusively: Aspergillus plants have different strains which allow protease, amylase and lipase to be extracted from them, assuring digestion of fats and carbohydrates as well as proteins. The enzyme supplement you choose should contain all the enzyme groups to ensure maximum benefit for digestion of any cooked food.
But to get back to Neanderthal man he is our most convincing argument for taking enzyme supplements. Fossil remains have definitely established that he was afflicted with an extreme form of crippling arthritis.
