Enzymes in Digestion

The importance of enzymes in digestion becomes evident immediately when you sit down to eat a meal. You may not realize it but digestion of your food actually begins in the mouth which is the reason you should carefully chew your food before swallowing.

note: As you read this page you will begin to understand, enzymes play a crucial role in the digestion of your food and that an enzyme deficiency could have major consequences in your health. (see the comment at the bottom)

Enzymes in digestion, such as amylase, lipase, and some protease are secreted by the salivary glands.

These enzymes join with enzymes naturally present in raw foods or from supplements.

Plant enzymes include amylase, lipase, and protease, plus cellulase which is an enzyme not made by the human body.

The salivary enzymes, together with plant enzymes or enzyme supplements continue the work of digestion in the upper or cardiac portion of the stomach.

Chew Your Food

After about an hour, your stomach cells will have secreted enough HCI from your blood to further acidify the pre-digested food to a pH of about 3.0 - 1.5.

At this low pH, the plant enzymes are temporarily deactivated and the food passes to the lower portion of your stomach.

In the lower stomach additional pepsin is secreted and continues digesting the protein.

Adequate HCI is required to activate the pepsin from an inactive enzyme state and to maintain the pH level below 3.0 where pepsin does its work.

The partially digested food together with the deactivated plant enzymes now pass through the pyloric valve into the upper part of your small intestine.

Digestion continues, helped by bile, pancreatic enzymes and an alkalizing substance (bicarbonate) that reactivates the food enzymes, if there is proper alkalinity.

Digestion continues in the next section of your small intestine (jejunum) where sugar-digesting enzymes are secreted if the jejunum is healthy.

The majority of nutrients from digested food are absorbed into your blood from the small intestine.

STOP!

This is Important! You need to understand that ...

If you are lacking in any of the primary digestive enzymes, the food category associated with that enzyme does not get digested properly and you become "intolerant" to that food.

For more information on Food Intolerance skip to the section called Food Intolerance.

Warning

If you do not acquire the missing enzyme through diet or supplementation, health problems will result.