WHY ENZYMES?

HOW CAN YOU REDUCE YOUR BODY'S ENZYME DEPLETION?


If you were to take only one thing to supplement your diet, Lifestar believes that due to the prevalence of cooked, processed foods, denatured food by-products and food substitutes, enzymes may be one of the single most important supports for your bodys health and well being. The following will provide you with sufficient information to gain your own understanding and make up your own mind.

THE MISSING LINK TO HEALTH

There is convincing evidence derived from the works of Drs. Francis Pottinger, Jr.1, Weston Price2 and Edward Howell3 that the destruction of enzymes in the cooking and processing of food is, perhaps, the most significant factor in chronic and degenerative diseases in both humans and animals. It begins with a phenomenon known as digestive leukocytosis.

"Leukocytosis" is a pathological condition defined in Dorlands Illustrated Medical Dictionary as "a transient increase in the number of leukocytes in the blood, resulting from various causes, such as hemorrhage, fever, infection, inflammation, etc.”

Leukocytosis was first discovered in 1846. At first, it was considered normal because everyone who was tested had it. Paul Kautchakoff, M.D.4 later found that leukocytosis was not normal. In fact, the major cause of leukocytosis was discovered to be the eating of cooked food. An entire category of leukocytosis was classified as "digestive leukocytosis," that is, the elevation of the white blood cell level in response to the lack of enzymes in the cooked food in the intestine. It is pathological because the pancreas does not provide most of the digestive enzymes needed.

Dr. Kautchakoff divided his findings into four classifications according to the severity of the pathological reaction in the blood:

  • Raw food produced no increase in the white blood cell count.
  • Commonly cooked food caused leukocytosis.
  • Pressure cooked food caused even greater leukocytosis.
  • Man-made, processed and refined foods, such as carbonated beverages, alcohol, vinegar, white sugar, flour, and other foods, caused severe leukocytosis. Cooked, smoked and salted animal flesh brought on violent leukocytosis consistent with ingesting poison.

This phenomenon occurs after eating cooked food, since prolonged heat above 118 degrees Fahrenheit destroys enzymes in food. Three minutes in boiling water destroys the enzymes; pasteurization destroys 80% to 95%; and baking, frying, broiling, stewing and canning destroys 100%. Nature designed food with sufficient enzymes within it to digest that food when it is ingested. When enzymes are destroyed by cooking or other processing, ingesting that food triggers the body's immune system, and it responds with leukocytosis.

Many health professionals are coming to the conclusion that this syndrome is an abusive scenario that puts significant stress on the pancreas, accounting for the enlarged pancreases of people in industrialized societies, and contributing to blood sugar problems such as diabetes and hypoglycemia, as well as the proliferation of chronic degenerative disease.

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WHAT IS AN ENZYME?

The medical dictionary defines an enzyme as “a protein produced in a cell capable of greatly accelerating, by its catalytic action, the chemical reaction of a substance (the substrate) for which it is specific.”

This is the standard definition taught in medical school. But more significantly, enzymes are the body's workers. Enzymes operate on a biological and chemical level, perhaps even the radiological level, and although vitamins, minerals, hormones, proteins and other substances are essential to life, it is enzymes that perform the work and utilize these substances in restoring, repairing and maintaining health and life. Enzymes are the closest thing to what may be described as a "life force." Without them, physical life as we perceive it would not exist. In fact, when enzyme levels fall below a given level in any living system, life appears to cease completely. Enzymes put together and take apart molecules, and they know how to do things that man cannot duplicate in the most modern of laboratory's. How do they know how to do what they do?

Attempts to produce synthetic enzymes have failed. Science has identified over 80,000 different enzyme systems, and it is suspected that there may be hundreds of thousands, even millions of different types of enzymes. Yet, although science endeavors to know what certain types of enzymes are made of, no one has yet been able to directly measure or take a picture of one.

WHAT DO ENZYMES DO?

Enzymes build, orchestrate and unify the physical expression we call "life." They seem to know precisely what to do and when to do it. They “assemble” molecules during formative cellular growth and they take molecules apart when individual cells are fractured. Enzymes create and modulate every system in the body. Enzymes help assemble a human body from a one-cell organism into a 50 to 70 trillion-cell life form. Enzymes are involved in repairing the body when it is damaged; they transport, use, and transform oxygen molecules and apparently every other nutrient the body needs; they break down metabolic waste and the by-products of cells; they quench free radicals, and they split off unwanted molecules from nutrients, adding necessary ones. The physical existence of every human being and the existence of all other living organisms is totally dependent upon the ability of enzymes to do their job.

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CELLS CUSTOMIZE ENZYMES

Cells can even create "customized" enzymes for specific purposes. For example, prior to 1947 cyanocobalamin, the primary form of commercial vitamin B-12, did not exist, yet the body is usually able to custom manufacture an enzyme to split off the cyanide molecule attached to the cobalamin which was added in the manufacturing process to stabilize the product and increase shelf-life. Unless the appropriate enzyme is created and removes the cyanide, cyanocobalamin is biologically inert in the human body. There have been documented cases where infants have been harmed or worse from receiving B-12 (cyanocobalamin) shots because the infants body lacked the ability to make the appropriate enzyme to split the cyanide molecule off. The result was cyanide poisoning.

Enzymes do things in the human body that in a laboratory require up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit to duplicate. They are present in raw food in direct proportion to the proteins, complex carbohydrates, lipids and other food constituents that exist there. Food enzymes break food down to an appropriate size so its constituents are small enough to pass into the blood or lymph system, enabling the body to effectively utilize them.

Eating cooked or manufactured food forces the body to call upon the immune system to donate enzymes in the digestive process, a process nature did not intend the immune system to participate in habitually. It was meant to function as a back up. But when it is chronically called upon to fulfill this roll, it creates a stress upon the body that contributes to premature aging and a pathological enlargement of the pancreas, with chronic depletion of metabolic enzymes from white blood cells. The immune systems primary defense mechanism in the blood is the secretion of appropriate enzymes by specialized blood cells that disassemble foreign substances that threaten the local ecology. When food is eaten that does not have sufficient enzyme levels within it to accomplish digestion, the insufficiency triggers the immune response. The sleepy, lethargic feeling many people get after eating is a symptom of the depletion the body suffers in this process. There are simply not enough metabolic enzymes left in the blood after eating to run the body at pre-meal levels. The depletion results in a loss of energy taken from operating the body to help breakdown what was ingested. This does not occur if one eats totally raw food. In fact, people usually feel energized and more wide awake.

HOW DOES THE BODY GET ITS ENZYMES?

The body was created with the ability to produce its own metabolic enzymes, an ability that appears to be limited. Dr. Edward Howell equated it to being born with an enzyme bank account that is finite. We have an enzyme capability designed to last our entire lifetime. How often we make withdrawals and how big they are determines our enzyme "balance," and that balance affects the level of health we enjoy. It may also affect the length of our life span. Constantly writing checks out of our enzyme account without making deposits ends up running our body on deficits. These deficits inevitably show up as problems in the body. Those who write lots of checks and make few deposits, sooner or later are likely to end up with degenerative and other disease.

Of course, we also get enzymes from outside sources other than food, such as those made by a variety of intestinal bacteria. Lactose intolerance, is a deficiency in ß-galactosidase, a lactose digesting enzyme made by certain strains of acidophilus bacteria living in the intestine. If the bacteria in the intestine does not exist in sufficient numbers to produce enough ß-galactosidase, an intolerance to dairy products may result.

Due to modern food processing, packaging, and preparations that make longer shelf-life possible, prepared food is essentially dead relative to human and animal nutritional needs. Over 80% of the average American diet today is comprised of processed and fast food. Food is even irradiated without being labeled to give consumers an informed choice, thereby destroying enzymes without cooking. Another source of radiation is the microwave oven found in so many homes and restaurants.

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WHAT DO STUDIES SHOW?

Note: Lifestar does not support the use of animals in laboratory experiments. We feel there are viable alternatives available which represent a respectful and humane way of seeking knowledge. However, the following studies are included here for your review because they have already been conducted, they were done several decades ago, and we believe this information is significant in its implications and valuable in its content. If you feel you may be offended by what is contained in the following section, please skip over it and go directly to "More Food For Thought!" further below. We include this information for those with a particular scientific interest or medical focus because of the profound relevance it may have in supporting health and well being.

Enzyme-rich raw food diets and their positive effect on various diseased conditions in both humans and animals have been well documented throughout the world. The first major scientific paper on enzymes was published April 15, 1940, by Dr. Edward Howell, in "the Journal of the American Association for Medico-Physical Research." Dr. Howell is formally recognized as the discoverer of the vital role of enzymes in human nutrition. He pioneered more than 50 years of research and scientific experimentation with overwhelming evidence indicating that the primary cause of degenerative disease in humans is enzyme deficiencies exacerbated by enzyme deficient mothers passing on genetic deficiencies to their offspring. Numerous studies have documented that when captive or domesticated animals are fed diets similar to human diets common to industrialized nations, they develop diseases similar or identical to human beings. In the early 1930's, and over the following 25 years, Francis M. Pottinger, Jr., M.D. conducted studies on cats using two diets. One diet consisted of two-thirds raw meat, one-third raw milk and cod liver oil. The second diet consisted of two-thirds cooked meat, one-third raw milk and cod liver oil. Studies revealed the following:

Multiple generations of cats on the raw meat diet were healthy. They had adequate nasal cavities, excellent tissue tone, good fur with little shedding, and no facial deformities. The calcium and phosphorous content of their bones was consistent. Their internal organs developed and functioned normally. Throughout their lifespan they were resistant to infections, fleas and other parasites. They were free of allergies and miscarriages were rare. Litters averaged five kittens, with mothers experiencing no difficulty nursing.

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Multiple generations of cats on the cooked meat diet were not so healthy. They had many variations in facial bone and dental structure. Their long bones tended to be increased in length and smaller in diameter, showing less calcium. In the third generation, some of the bones were as soft as rubber. Other indications were heart problems, nearsightedness, farsightedness, underactivity or inflammation of the thyroid gland, infections of the kidney, liver, testes, ovaries and the bladder, arthritis and inflammation of the joints, inflammation of the nervous system with paralysis and meningitis. Infections of the bone appeared regularly, often appearing to be the cause of death. By the time the third generation was born, the cats were so physiologically bankrupt that none survived beyond the sixth month of life. Cats on the cooked meat diet were more irritable. There was evidence of role reversal, with female cats becoming the aggressors and male cats becoming docile and passive, either acting perverted or showing no interest in sex. Some females were dangerous to handle. Increasingly abnormal activities occurred between the same sexes. Vermin and intestinal parasites were rampant. Skin lesions and allergies were frequent and progressively worse from one generation to the next. Pneumonia and empyema (accumulation of pus) were principal causes of death in adults, with diarrhea, followed by pneumonia, the cause of death in kittens.

Females frequently had ovarian atrophy and uterine congestion. Males often failed to have active sperm development. Spontaneous abortion in pregnant females was about 25% in the first deficient generation, increasing to about 70% in the second generation. Deliveries were difficult, and many females died in labor. The mortality rate of kittens was high. Some mothers failed to lactate. Many failed to become pregnant, and those that did had difficulties. The average weight of kittens was 16% less than those born to mothers raised on a raw meat diet.

When cats of the cooked meat-fed first and second generation groups were returned to a raw meat diet, it took about four generations to recover a state of normal health.

Improvement in resistance to disease was noted in the second generation, with allergic manifestations persisting into the third generation. By the fourth generation, most of the severe deficiency symptoms disappeared, but seldom completely. Once a female cat was subjected to a deficient diet for a period of 12 to 18 months, her reproductive efficiency was so reduced that she was never able to give birth to normal kittens. Only when the kittens were put on an optimum diet did a gradual reversal and regeneration take place.

MORE FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

The benefits of a raw food diet are evidenced by the classic Arctic Eskimo diet of 80% saturated fat consisting primarily of raw fat and raw meat. Essentially, these people were disease-free. Their sled dogs ate the same diet and were also disease-free. A study of over 3,000 of these people revealed that none of them had high cholesterol, heart disease, arteriosclerosis or high blood pressure. Only one out of 3,000 was slightly overweight. This 80% saturated fat diet is almost twice that of the average American diet, and more than three times what the American Heart Association says is safe, calling into question the presumptions made by traditional science as to the causes and source of these diseases.

In the wild, animals on their natural diets are relatively free of degenerative disease. When animals are put on human diets, two things consistently occur: The animal's life span is cut by as much as 185%, and their weight increases by as much as 164%. Animals on human-style diets have lower brain weights than their wild counterparts.

Animals in captivity, such as laboratory mice, have a brain weight almost half that of their wild counterparts. Brain weight between animals on enzyme-deficient diets and the same species on natural diets consistently differs. Dr. Howell noted that after assessing more than 50 reports in published scientific literature, when rats are given a "factory diet," body weight goes up and brain weight goes down. These deficient laboratory animals on "factory food" are considered healthy by the scientific community utilizing them, and results deduced from their experiments form the backbone of the laboratory development of pharmaceutical drugs and medicine for human use.

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HOW CAN YOU REDUCE YOUR BODY'S ENZYME DEPLETION?

More people are eating raw food today and buying organic produce, aware of the hazards of chemical and other tampering with the food chain. But modern life, worldly schedules and restaurant patronage do not always support a raw food diet. Fortunately, and largely through the research of Dr. Edward Howell, plant enzymes are now available to help compensate for the lack of enzymes in cooked food. In seeking such enzymes to supplement your diet, plant food enzymes are distinctly different from "digestive" enzyme products on the market. "Digestive" enzymes are generally composed of bromelain, papain, pepsin, bile and animal-derived enzymes such as pancreatin. Animal pancreatic enzymes are not the same as plant food enzymes. Animals raised for consumption most often suffer the same biochemical imbalances that people suffer who eat cooked, processed food, and pancreatic hypertrophy occurs in both humans and animals who consume diets of cooked, processed, unnatural food. Further, pancreatic enzymes are inactive in the stomach and work only in the small intestine, and only if it is sufficiently alkaline.

Major plant food enzymes are highly concentrated Amylase, Protease, Lipase and Cellulase derived from pure vegetable sources. Taking these enzymes when you eat cooked or processed food provides support for your body's natural digestion of starches, proteins, fats and cellulose. They supplement what your body would normally obtain through eating enzyme-rich raw food. Plant enzymes work in both the stomach and the intestine. In addition to helping alleviate the effects of an enzyme-deficient diet, plant enzymes have the ability to operate through a broad pH range within the temperature range of the digestive system, and they are not harmed by stomach acid. They help prevent your enzyme reserves from being depleted when these reserves are called upon to do digestive work nature's design never intended your immune system to do. Lifestar offers cost effective plant derived enzymes as a plant food supplement.

Antioxidant enzymes are an additional category of enzymes found concentrated in specially sprouted grains, seeds and legumes. They are free of wheat gluten and yeast and are hypoallergenic, grown to maximize the naturally-occurring antioxidant enzyme factors of Superoxide Dismutase, Catalase, Glutathione Peroxidase and Methionine Reductase. They are specifically designed to scavenge harmful free radical molecules and may be used therapeutically. They supplement your body's resources when your body's own cellular defenses are weakened by free radical assaults and tissue damage or disease.

All instances of disease, ill health, aging and injury involve tissue damage at the cellular level. Whether someone breaks a leg, has a kidney fail, has arthritic inflammation in a joint, or suffers a heart attack, they have in common cellular events that result in damage to the body. These cellular events may be in progress for months or years before they actually manifest as a problem, but they always reflect a breach of cellular integrity that ends up as a physical problem. The common cause of this cellular damage is oxidative stress known as free radical pathology.

Free radical damage is involved with every degenerative dis-ease known. Over 6,000 studies reveal free radical induced tissue damage as the common link. Oxygen is the most common source of free radicals in the body. Antioxidant enzymes are the body's defense system with no other apparent purpose but to protect the body against the effects of free radical damage. Antioxidant enzymes are complex molecules made up of protein chains called peptides and trace minerals. There are a number of sources for these enzymes, among them: extracted enzymes from bovine liver or blood. But again, Lifestar believes that nature knows best.

Supplemental enzymes support the body's natural design function to maintain a vital state of health. Lifestar offers plant food enzymes and antioxidant enzymes that are 100% vegetarian and cruelty-free.


1. "The Effect of Heat Processed Foods and Metabolized Vitamin D Milk on the Dentofacial Structures of Experimental Animals, Journal of Orthodontics and Oral Surgery, August, 1946, Vol. 32, No. 8, pp. 467-485.

2. "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, W. A. Price, D.D.S., Price-Pottinger Nutrition Foundation Publisher, La Mesa, Ca., Eleventh Printing 1982.

3. Enzyme Starvation, E. Howell, The Journal of the American Association for Medico-Physical Research, Chicago, Ill. April 15, 1940.

4. The Influence of Food on the Blood Formula of Man," P. Kouchakoff, M.D., First International Congress of Microbiology, Paris, 1930.

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