Good question.

An enzyme is a protein that makes everything in your body work… it’s like a spark plug in a car. The spark plug ignites the fuel and converts it to the energy that moves the car. An enzyme ignites your fuel, you could say. Your fuel is food. Enzymes break it down into the energy your body needs to function. If your food is not converted to energy–if you don’t have enzymes, your body won’t work.

Enzymes are the spark of life – without them life would cease to exist. Although the action of enzymes much like electricity, and cannot be seen, it is the driving force behind virtually all life processes. Scientists have identified literally hundreds of thousands of enzymes active in the human body. Enzymes move your muscles, stimulate your nerves, make your heart beat, keep you breathing, digest your food and even allow you to think.
An enzyme is defined in the dictionary as: a protein functioning as a biochemical catalyst in a living organism - in other words, it either starts or accelerates a chemical reaction while remaining unchanged itself. Enzymes are present in every cell in both plants and animals; and are responsible for regulating the biochemical reactions necessary to sustain life. Enzymes are at the heart of all of your body’s activities, from digesting your food to blinking your eyes. The human body is actually a series of thousands of enzymatic reactions constantly happening! Enzymes are very specific for the type of reaction they catalyze, the type of substance they work on, and the conditions under which they will work - which is why there are many thousands of enzymes in the human body. The enzymes involved in the digestion or break down of food include proteases for protein, amylases for starches, lipase for fat, cellulases for fiber, invertase for refined sugar, lactase for milk sugar and alpha-galactosidase for sugars in beans.

Taking digestive enzymes supplements before meals will help “lighten the load” on the body’s own enzyme production. The help to break down the food, and fully assimilate its nutritional components. For more information visit www.enzymesinc.com!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 22nd, 2006 at 7:17 pm and is filed under Digestion, Research, Enzymes.

Tags: enzymes, food, energy, protein, lactase, sugar, amylase, starches, lipase, fat, cellulase