Human glyoxalase I. Two zinc ions that are needed for the enzyme to catalyze its reaction are shown as purple spheres, and an enzyme inhibitor called S-hexylglutathione is shown as a space-filling model, filling the two active sites.

There are several different kinds of enzymes. The ones I focus on typically are digestive enzymes and systemic enzymes.

Digestive enzymes like hydrochloric acid and pepsin are the primary things you need in your stomach to help digest proteins and minerals. They also help to sterilize the stomach and kill parasites, bacteria, mold, micro spores, etc. Ideally your stomach is the only place in your body that’s acidic, and it should be extremely acidic. After the mouth the stomach is the beginning of all chemical and digestive reactions in your body. You need all the atomic energy in there to break up the molecules and to get things ready and assembled for digestion. If you put protein like meat in water it will just set there; it won’t break down. Put the same protein in a strong hydrochloric acid and it will dissolve relatively quickly, and that’s what you want to have happen. You want things to dissolve relatively quickly. You don’t want food just sitting there rotting in your stomach. That’s the reason you need to avoid drinking fluids during your meals. They will dilute the acids. As you can imagine, taking antacids while you are trying to digest foods pretty much puts a stop to everything.

Digestive enzymes work in the stomach to digest food, while quality systemic enzymes are enterically coated to prevent contact with the stomach acid. This way they pass through the stomach into the intestines where they are absorbed by the body.

We are born with the ability to produce a certain amount of systemic enzymes. Systemic enzymes fight
inflammation, fibrosis (scar tissue), and viruses; modulate the immune system; and cleanse the blood. These enzymes are a kind of scavenger hunter. They go after foreign protein, things that shouldn’t be there. They’ll go after scar tissue, a cyst, bacteria, parasites, viruses. Virtually anything that doesn’t belong in your body is like food to these enzymes. We’ve even seen systemic enzymes kill heartworms in cats. And when you are young you can bump into things, fall, scratch yourself, and your body healed easily, and quickly, often not leaving a scar when you thought it would. You
didn’t have aches or pains, you healed so easily. But as they get older, the typical person does not ingest enough systemic enzymes and the body realizes it’s running out of them. So it begins to ration them, because if you completely run out, you can’t survive. Three days after you run out of enzymes you are dead. Your body always needs enough in reserve for the unexpected.

So you get into your 20’s and you don’t heal as quickly. You get into your thirties and you notice you scar more easily. You may even be developing permanent aches and pains. The reason you are running out of
these enzymes and not replenishing them is because you are not doing what you used to do, what all other animals do in nature, you aren’t eating living things.

When you pick an apple off of a tree, you get enzymes. When you eat an apple fallen from the tree a few days ago, you’re getting fewer enzymes. If you eat an apple off the shelf at the grocery store, well, you get the idea. It’s not rotten, it may have everything else you need, but the enzymes are gone.

Fish eat other fish, giraffes eat leaves, lions eat living prey, and we eat dead food. And we don’t heal like we should and we don’t digest our food like we should. We need these enzymes.

In Germany and Japan, two countries with the best healthcare in the world, you would be given systemic enzymes for almost any treatment. If you had kidney problems, they would include these enzymes in your treatment. If you were in an auto accident driving on the autobahn and sustained a spinal cord injury they would give you a retention enema with the equivalent of about 300 enzyme capsules to save you from major damage and reduce the possibility of major paralysis.

Dr. Kelly recommends Betaine HCl and Pepsin from Thorne for digestive enzymes and Vitälzym X for systemic enzymes.

The first step to good digestion is to chew your food very well. If your mouth doesn’t do its job, your stomach and your small intestine cannot fully absorb nutrients. Poor chewing is a common reason why so many people suffer from nutritional deficiencies. They just don’t get what they need out of their food. Don’t drink fluids when you eat. Liquids dilute stomach acids needed to dissolve protein. Don’t eat too much.

Cup your hands together. This is the optimum amount you should eat at one time. The 80/20 principle applies to digestion. Never fill your stomach more than 80% full of food. Don’t eat spoiled food such as aged meat. Limit processed food, or better yet, eliminate it from your diet. Don’t overcook your meat. Meat cooked well done is harder to digest. Don’t lie down after eating. Don’t take antacids. They neutralize stomach acid and stop digestion. Food sits in the stomach and colon and rots.

Many naturopathic practitioners recommend a teaspoon to a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to aid in digestion, but some people’s stomachs are a bit too sensitive and they may not be able to handle it. I recommend hydrochloride lactose-free pepsin, a digestive enzyme especially useful for digesting proteins. And of course, I recommend Thorne as the best manufacturer for this supplement. It will help acidify your stomach during digestion and add much needed enzymes to your food.

Combine your food properly. Don’t eat protein with starches. Eat meat with vegetables; eat grains or potatoes with vegetables. Eat fruit alone.

Eat an alkaline diet. Acidic diets indirectly inhibit proper digestion. By acidic, I don’t mean citrus fruits. Carbs like pasta and rice, meats, and processed foods, are all acidic to the body. An acidic diet places a heavy burden on the body and creates an environment loved by cancer, bacteria, and viruses.

No matter how healthy your diet, if you do not digest your food well, you will not get the nutrition your body needs.
Digest Your Protein

Poor digestion causes innumerable health aliments. Common problems associated with poor digestion include arthritis, acid indigestion, and high cholesterol.

One of the most common causes of osteoarthritis is a lack of protein in the joints (lubrication in the joints is made up of proteins). Your joints have 30 times more protein than muscle and tissue. If you don’t properly digest the protein you consume, your body will steal the proteins from your joints, its richest source, to meet the needs of the rest of your body.

After years and years of eating too fast and not chewing your food, of drinking fluids during or after your meals, you are more likely to develop arthritis. You’re starving yourself slowly, depriving your body of the proteins and the nutrients it needs.

There are many factors to good health. But remember, proper digestion is an essential factor, the foundation of your health.
The Way We Used To Eat

Sixty trillion cells make up your body and each cell requires nutrition. Food cravings were meant to be our body’s way of telling us what it needs. For instance, thirst is a sign that our body needs water—not milk, juice, soda, coffee, or tea. Craving something sweet is a cry for fruit, not candy bars, jellybeans, or ice cream.

We’ve corrupted the link between taste and our natural ability to know what our body needs by living on processed foods, a diet loaded with sugar, salt, trans fats, and MSG. We used to eat our food fresh and raw, picked from the ground or plucked from the tree. Even meat was eaten raw until we discovered fire. We ate fewer grains and we ate them seasonally. Proper digestion wasn’t complicated.