The human race is at least half sick. In a biological sense, there are no completely healthy people living on the conventional diet. Even those young adults who feel fit have health defects: dental caries, thin hair, approaching baldness, acne, allergies, headaches, impaired vision, constipation, and so on. And these are just superficial phenomena that the individuals can spot themselves. Medical examination finds more. How many ailments afflict the human race? 100? 500? 1000? Are we more expert in breeding disease than are wild animals? Can you name even one species of wild animal afflicted with 100 diseases? 50? 25? Even 1? Of course, we must exclude “wild” animals that feast at our garbage dumps. To make themselves disease-proof, do wild animals perform some special ceremony we don’t know about? We shall see.

There are three classes of enzymes: metabolic enzymes, which manage our bodies; digestive enzymes, which digest our food; and food enzymes from raw foods, which start food digestion. Our bodies – all of our organs and tissues – are managed by metabolic enzymes. These enzyme workers take proteins, fats and carbohydrates (starches, sugars, etc.), and structure them into healthy bodies, keeping everything working properly. Every organ and tissue has its own particular metabolic enzymes to do specialized work. An investigation found 98 distinct enzymes working in the arteries, each with a particular job to do. The liver has numerous different enzymes working. No one has ever investigated how many specific enzymes are needed to manage the heart, brains, lungs, kidneys, etc.

Since good health depends on all of these metabolic enzymes doing an excellent job, we must be sure that nothing interferes with the body making enough of them. A shortage could mean serious trouble. Modern research is implicating enzymes in all our activities. Even thinking involves some enzyme activity. In 1939, 80 enzymes were known; in 1947, 200; in 1957, 660; in 1962, 850; and by 1968, 1300 had been identified . And although thousands of enzymes are known, many more reactions have been identified for which the enzymes responsible are not yet known. Hundreds of metabolic enzymes are necessary to carry on the work of the body – to repair damage and decay, and heal diseases.

Digestive enzymes have only three main jobs: digesting protein, carbohydrate and fat. Proteases are enzymes that digest protein, amylases digest carbohydrate, and lipases digest fat. Nature’s plan calls for food enzymes – present only in raw foods – to help with digestion, instead of forcing the body’s digestive enzymes to carry the whole load. If food enzymes do some of the work, the enzyme potential can allot less activity to digestive enzymes, and have much more to give to the hundreds of metabolic enzymes that manage the entire body. If food enzymes did some of the work, the enzyme potential would not be facing impending bankruptcy, as it is now in the bodies of millions of people on the minus diet. Our enzyme potential is similar to a bank account, which could become dangerously low if not continually replenished.

The Food Enzyme Concept introduces a new way of looking at disease. It heralds a revolution in our understanding of disease processes. According to the Food Enzyme Concept, enzymes possess biological, as well as chemical, properties. When ingested, the enzymes in raw foods (or supplementary enzymes) cause a significant degree of digestion, reducing the drain on the organism’s own enzyme potential. Heat used in cooking destroys all food enzymes and forces the organism to produce more enzymes, thus enlarging digestive organs, especially the pancreas. The Food Enzyme Concept furnishes conclusive proof that in most people digestive enzyme are being used up with reckless abandon. Although the body makes fewer than two dozen digestive enzymes, it uses up more of its enzyme potential supplying these than it uses to make the hundreds of metabolic enzymes needed to keep all of the organs and tissues functioning with their diversified activities. The digestive enzymes of civilized humans are infinitely stronger and more concentrated in enzyme activity than any of the metabolic enzymes – more concentrated than any other enzyme combination found in nature. Human saliva and pancreatic juice are loaded with enzyme activity. There is no evidence that wild animals, living on natural raw diets, have digestive enzyme juices even remotely approaching the strength of those found in civilized human beings.

If the human organism must devote a huge portion of its enzyme potential to making digestive enzymes, it spells trouble for the entire body, because there is a strain on production of metabolic enzymes, and there may not be sufficient enzyme potential. Does science point a way out of this desperate situation? Yes. In 1943, Northwestern University (USA) established the Law of Adaptive Secretion of Digestive Enzymes by experiments on rats. The amount of digestive enzymes secreted by the pancreas in response to carbohydrate, protein and fat was measured, and it was found that the strength of each enzyme varied with the amount of each of these food materials it was called upon to digest. The Law of Adaptive Secretion of Digestive Enzymes holds that the organism values its enzymes highly, and will make no more than are needed for the job. If some of the food is digested by enzymes in the food, the body will make fewer concentrated digestive enzymes. The Law of Adaptive Secretion of Digestive Enzymes has since been confirmed by dozens of university laboratories around the world.

If humans take in more exogenous (outside) digestive enzymes (in raw foods), as nature ordained, the enzyme potential will not have to waste so much of its heritage digesting food. It can distribute more of this precious commodity to the metabolic enzymes, where it rightfully belongs. This rightful distribution of enzyme energy will not only act to maintain health and prevent disease, but is expected to help overcome established disease. The old saying “nature will cure” really refers to metabolic enzyme activity, because there is no other mechanism in the body to cure anything.

To get enzymes from food, one must eat raw food. All life, whether plant or animal, requires the presence of enzymes to keep it going. Therefore, all plant and animal food in the raw state contains enzymes. But the mere touch of heat destroys enzymes.

Enzymes tolerate no heat at all. Pasteurization of milk, for example, destroys the enzymes in the raw milk. If water is hot enough to feel uncomfortable to the hand, it will injure enzymes in food. All manufactured foods have been heat processed by one means or another.

You can have easy chewing and digestion while maintaining the integrity of precious raw food enzymes – by having an occasional BLENDED MEAL. Simply place your choice of delicious raw foods in your blender – blend – and eat! And, when blending, you can combine any and all types of foods that you wish – food combining rules don’t apply.

Hippocrates Food Enzymes are available.