Enzymes
As will be seen later in this chapter, the physical body is dependent upon chemical
reactions for its physical creation and for the ongoing operation of body processes.
Enzymes have a critical role to play in the nearly all the chemical reactions that take
place within a body. They help to digest food, help the processes that provide cellular
energy, support the functioning of the brain as the command centre for the body, play a
key role in the repair and healing processes within the body, break down toxins, cleanse
the blood, and so on.
Enzymes act as catalysts. This means that they help to speed up chemical reactions in the
body but do not become consumed by the chemical reactions themselves. Without the
speeding up effect, most of the chemical reactions that would take place would be too
slow to sustain life.
Enzymes are proteins and are found as long chains of amino-acids that are folded or
shaped into three dimensional structures. They are in the body either because they have
been ingested in the food or because they have been created within the body by organs
such as the saliva glands, the stomach, the pancreas and the small intestine. There are
hundreds of types of enzyme in each human body.
The chemical engineering in our bodies is such that each enzyme has a specific role to
play in a particular chemical reaction and cannot be substituted by any other enzyme.
Enzymes have been found to act as catalysts for around 4,000 chemical reactions within
the body. The substances which enzymes are catalysts to are called substrates. The
unique relationship between enzymes and substrates is influenced by a number of factors
such as the shape of both enzymes and substrates to allow physical ‘locking’ together,
relative energy charges, solubility in water, etc..
The physical locking or binding of the enzyme and substrate initiates changes in the
electron distribution in the substrate’s chemical bonds, resulting in the chemical reactions
need to sustain the body. We look at electron bonding later in this chapter. Once the
reactions have taken place, the enzymes break the physical locks with what were the
substrates. Essentially, nearly all the chemical reactions that take place within the body
are started, controlled and ended by enzymes.
To understand a little about how enzymes work, we can look at the digestive system
where three examples of enzymes made by the body can be found – amylase enzymes,
protease enzymes, and lipase enzymes.
 Amylase enzymes are found in the saliva and in the juices of the pancreas and
intestinal tract and help the digestive process by breaking down carbohydrates.
There are different kinds of amylase. For example, the enzyme sucrase breaks
down the sugar sucrose found in cane and beet sugar. The enzyme lactase breaks
down the lactose sugar in milk. The enzyme maltase breaks down the malt sugar
maltose.
 Protease enzymes are found in the juices of the pancreas, the stomach and the
intestinal tract and help with the breakdown and the digestion of proteins.
 Lipase enzymes are found in the juices of the stomach and pancreas and help to
break down fats.
An example of problems that occur in the digestive system when there is a deficiency of
enzymes is lactose intolerance.
 Lactose intolerance results from a deficiency in the presence in the digestive
system of an enzyme called lactase. The role of lactase is to break down lactose
which is the main sugar in milk. If lactose cannot be broken down within the
digestive system, symptoms such as nausea, cramps and bloating can result.
We can understand a little more about the role of enzymes elsewhere in the body
processes by looking at some different examples:
 The blood in the body is continually passed through the kidneys where it is
filtered to remove water, nitrogen-based compounds produced when proteins have
been broken down, salts, acids and alkalines. After filtering, some of these
substances are reabsorbed back into the blood to keep its water, salt and pH levels
reasonably constant as required for the body to function properly. Adequate blood
pressure is needed also. If blood pressure is dropping, the kidneys will secrete an
enzyme called renin that works alongside this process to increase the level of salt
and water reabsorbed.
 An enzyme called Coenzyme A is the most important food processing enzyme in
the human body and is needed to create energy at the cellular level from the
metabolic processing of fat, carbohydrate and protein.
 Hyaluronic acid helps to hold water in connective tissue within the body and is a
key component within synovial fluid which acts as a bone joint lubricant. An
enzyme called hyaluronic acid synthase is used to make hyaluronic acid
molecules within the body and so helps to facilitate physical movement in the
body.
 Blood clotting is the body’s natural way of stopping the loss of blood from
wounds. When blood clots are no longer needed, fibrinolytic enzymes help to
dissolve them. This prevents them from moving around the blood system where
they could be come stuck and in some parts of the body cause serious damage.
 Later in this chapter there is some commentary about how the body repairs
damage to the DNA. This repair damage is facilitated by enzyme activity.
Most enzymes can be unfolded and inactivated in a number of ways including exposure
to high temperatures. The destruction of the three dimensional nature of the enzymes
means that they can no longer lock physically with the substrates and the catalytic
relationship cannot take place.
Although the body produces its own enzymes, as a generalisation it is considered that
these are not sufficient to meet the needs of the body and that additional enzymes need to
be ingested with the food. Enzymes can be damaged by high temperatures and so cooking
processes often destroy enzymes in the food. If there is enzyme deficiency within the
food that we eat, the body will have to fall back on enzymes which it produces itself. If
this enzyme production is not sufficient, then various body processes will not function as
they should. For example, food passing through the digestive system might not be
digested properly with good nutrients passing out in the faeces. In western societies
where there tends to be a high proportion of processed food in the average diet, the issue
of enzyme deficiency in the body and the subsequent impact upon physical health starts
to take on a serious perspective. Solutions include taking enzyme supplements in much
the same way as vitamin pills would be taken and by increasing the amount of raw food
eaten. There are clearly health issues surrounding eating raw meat and unpasteurised
dairy products due to the risk of bacterial ingestion. Similarly, raw vegetables will have
grown in soil where bacteria are present. However, consideration given to increasing the
amount of raw food taken in the diet in a safe way is likely to result in increased enzyme
intake in the food and will support better physical health.
There seems to be a lack of extensive medical and scientific research in this area and
most of the information and commentary available on the internet about raw food diets
seems not to be referenced back to acceptable research findings. Some caution might be
appropriate therefore when searching for information about enzymes in the diet on the
internet.