Enzymes – Essential Nutrients For Good Health

Enzymes are proteins that catalyze a chemical reaction. Each
enzyme has unique chemical structure that it can speed up the
reaction of certain substrates. Enzymes are involved in all body
functions such as digestion, respiration, transportation and
detoxification. Deficiency and malfunction of some critical
enzymes can lead to serious illnesses or death.

Two types of enzymes, digestive enzymes and antioxidant enzymes
are particularly important to our health. Digestive enzymes
break down the food, enabling the absorption of nutrients which
are required to sustain life. Antioxidant enzymes protect our
body from the attack of free radicals. The latter is responsible
for many degenerative diseases such as aging, cancer, heart
diseases, etc.

Digestive enzymes can be further divided into 3 categories:
amylase, protease and lipase. Amylases are found in saliva,
pancreatic and intestinal secretions. Their function is to break
down sugars (carbohydrates) . Different types of amylase break
down different types of sugars. For examples, lactase breaks
down lactose, sucrase breaks down sucrose. Proteases are found
in the stomach acid and the pancreatic and intestinal
secretions; their function is to break down proteins into amino
acids. Lipases, found in pancreatic and intestinal secretions,
are involved in fat digestion.

The most important antioxidant enzymes in our body are
superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase. SOD is responsible for
the breakdown of superoxide into hydrogen peroxide whereas
catalase breaks down hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen.
Compared to vitamin C and E, SOD, catalase and other antioxidant
enzymes are more powerful free radical scavengers and they will
not turn into free radicals themselves in their action.

Both digestive enzymes and antioxidant enzymes are synthesized
naturally in our body and are available in a variety of foods,
such as fruits, vegetables, sprouts and fat containing foods.
However, since enzymes are very sensitive to heat, most enzymes
are destroyed in cooking. In addition, several studies have
shown that our body's ability to produce enzymes decreases as we
age. Therefore, for those who are elderly or who are eating
mostly cooked food, the consumption of enzyme supplements can
either help you assimilate more nutrients from the foods or
protect you from free radical damage.

If you want to purchase enzyme supplements, remember to read
the label carefully. First of all, look at the source of the
enzymes, are they plant-based, animal-based or extracted from
microbes? For vegetarians, they should seek out enzymes
extracted from plant or microbial source packed in vegetarian
capsules. Secondly, is the enzyme supplement composed of single
enzyme or a mixture of enzymes? Single enzyme supplement such as
bromelain is often used for other purposes (anti-inflammatory) .
For digestive aid, it is better to consume a mixture of enzymes
including amylase, protease, and lipase which work together to
break down starch, protein and fat. Similarly, a mixture of
antioxidant enzymes (SOD and catalase) work better than single
enzyme alone. And lastly, compare the potency (and not the
weight) of different enzyme products. The more active the
enzyme, the more food it can digest and the higher the unit of
potency.