With increased awareness regarding gluten and its potential effects on the body and brain function, Enzymes, Inc. (EI) is proud to announce that gluten has been eliminated from 12 products containing diastase.

Diastase is responsible for breaking down food starches into maltose, a disaccharide. In the past, diastase was derived from barley malt (Hordeum vulgare). Over the past few years, National Enzyme Company (NEC), EI’s enzyme manufacturer, pursued Kosher certification and discovered that malt diastase does not meet Kosher standards. NEC executives decided to switch to a fungal source of diastase called Aspergillus oryzae, which still maintains the important diastatic digestive capacity of malt diastase.

Danielle Harrison, scientific and regulatory affairs manager at NEC, says while well under FALPCA levels, malt diastase did show extremely small amounts of gluten when tested.  In contrast, diastase from Aspergillus oryzae has shown no traces of gluten when tested, she says.

Sam, Lingo, EI Operations Manager, says the change in source organisms is of definite benefit to current and future customers.

“Some customers have sensitivities to malt or barley,” he says. “Now that gluten has been eliminated completely from diastase, customers and potential customers can move forward and use our products with an even greater confidence that they’re one step closer to optimal health.”

Products that used to contain malt diastase but now include the fungal source diastase are:

-Advanced Formula™ DigestEnz™

-Advanced Formula GastrEnz™

-Ness™ #21 Sugar digest

-ProSol™ Digestion

-ProSol Sugar/Starch Digestion™

-ProSol Gastro Calm™

-ProSol Fiber Digestion™

-WellZymes™ Protein/Fat Digestion

-WellZymes Gastric Ease™

-Nutri-Essence™ Digestion

-Nutri-Essence Digest Chewables

-Nutri-Essence Gas Ease

Lingo says the conversion process for all EI products containing malt diastase is likely to be complete by mid 2012.

Gluten is the primary protein found in wheat. Despite it being a component of natural foods, it has been under great scrutiny in the past decade, with many scientists and experts blaming gluten for a wide variety of digestive and organ problems.  Some have theorized that gluten sensitivity is a contributing factor in auto-immune disorders and autism.

If you or your patients experience sensitivities to gluten, ProSol Gluten Digestion™ can help. Click here to learn more.

While the term “organic” may carry with it a certain perception that anything labeled as such is pure and flawless, cooked and processed organic foods can’t be digested any easier than their non-organic counterparts.

Organic food advocates claim that organically grown foods are healthier because they are not raised with non-organic methods such as pesticides, non-organic fertilizers, antibiotics and hormones. However, during cooking and processing, organic foods lose vitamins and food enzymes, just as non-organic foods do.

Food enzymes, which are natural enzymes that both organic and non-organic raw foods possess, begin the process of breaking down food when you start chewing. When the food reaches the stomach and small intestine, half of the work has already been done, allowing food nutrients to be more easily and completely absorbed. But when food enzymes are cooked and processed out, the body must use more of its own enzyme resources to compensate. Improperly broken down food often leads to indigestion, gas, and bloating. And with the body working overtime, you may also feel fatigued after you finish eating.

To maximize the nutritional value of organic food, supplement your diet with a daily vitamin, probiotics, and a broad-spectrum digestive enzyme supplement, which helps break down any type of food and replace lost food enzymes.

“Mom! Mom! Dad! Dad! Look! I see the golden arches! Can we stop there? Please? Pleeeeaaassee? I wanna play on the slide and get the new toy! Oh please-please-please-please-pleeaassseee?”

If you have kids, you’re undoubtedly bombarded with this request every time you take to the highway for a long road trip. If you’re trying to make good time and haven’t planned ahead, succumbing to the allure of the fast food kingdom is easy and convenient. You think, “The kids will be thrilled, the food is cheap, and it’s ready in less than 90 seconds. Why not?”

Of course, the “why not” comes later, when the kids are crabby, sweating from dehydration, and too groggy to play, “I spy with my little eye.” The “why not” finds you, too—out of it and with acid indigestion and gas. Your family is pleading with you, “Roll down the window, for the love of Pete.”

We all know that greasy and fatty fast food is at the forefront of turning the United States into one of the most unhealthy and obese countries in the world. But what can you do on the road to avoid the fast food trap, promote a healthy lifestyle for the kids and get to your destination in a timely manner?

Let’s rewind all the way back to before you left for the trip. WebMD suggests you take a cooler and stock it with these healthy, convenient, and easy to serve alternatives:

· Water, low-fat milk, or 100% juice. Take cooled milk and douse it over whole-grain cereals that come in single-serve cups.
· Low-fat cheese sticks
· Tubes or cartons of yogurt
· Cut veggies or washed baby carrots and cherry tomatoes. Compliment with a container of low-fat dip.
· Sliced bananas, apples, grapes and pears.

Other healthy and portable items:
· Peanut butter in a tube or a small tub to go with crackers or bread sticks
· Single-serve cans of tuna with easy-open tops and crackers
· Cans or cups of fruit packed in their own juice
· Dehydrated bean soups (get hot water at a roadside rest stop)
· Trail mix made from dried fruits, nuts, seeds, pretzels, or cereal with a few chocolate chips thrown in for good measure.

Get the most out of what you’re feeding them

Even healthier food choices can still pose digestive problems, including incomplete nutrient absorption and indigestion. Many moms and dads supplement their kids’ meals with digestive enzyme supplements. These all-natural products help break down all types of foods, helping the body to absorb food nutrients. On the road, this helps make for kids that are more awake, chipper, and less likely to say, “Pull over, I think I’m gonna be sick.” There’s nothing more beautiful than upholstery that retains its original color.

As far as the slide and playtime, be sure to pack a Frisbee and your baseball gloves. Stop at a rest area with a park and have a catch with your kids. After all, it’s what happens on the journey that childhood memories are made of.

What type of food do you crave? Do your favorite snacks or meals consist of fruits, fried foods, vegetables, sugar, nuts, meats, dairy or all of the above? How do you typically feel after you eat? Are you energized, relaxed, focused, sleeping on the couch or in the bathroom?

Regardless of what you love to eat, here’s four ways to get the most out of your food and not pay the price afterward.

1. Use time to your advantage. We’ve all heard the term portion control, but how easy is it to sit down on the couch after a hard day and eat just 10 potato chips or a tiny helping of spaghetti with meat sauce? Difficult, to say the least.

To avoid overeating—and the indigestion that can come with it—next time eat the small portion and then set an egg timer for 20 minutes. Research shows that it takes food approximately 20 minutes to reach your stomach and turn off the hunger signal to your brain. You’ll be amazed at how easy it is to say ‘no’ to another helping when you’re body says you’re full. If you don’t think this approach will work, promise yourself another helping when you set the egg timer, then wait and see. Chances are, you’ll change your mind.

2. Drink plenty of water throughout the day. When you eat foods high in sugar or sodium, you increase the amount of water the body needs to carry out the digestion and keep food moving through the intestines. If the food doesn’t contain enough natural water, constipation and slower digestion can be the result. If the food is so loaded with sodium or sugar that it has to draw water from the body, diarrhea and dehydration can be the result. Be sure to drink at least 64 fluid ounces of pure water per day.

3. Chew your food—no, really. The stomach doesn’t act like a high-powered blender. It takes a while for it to turn food into the creamy substance it needs before it can absorb nutrients and complete digestion. So it follows that the more broken down your food is when it reaches the stomach, the less effort the body has to put out to convert it into energy. Chewing each mouthful at least 20 to 30 times will also allow the enzymes in your saliva to start breaking down fats and carbohydrates right from the get go. If food sits in the stomach too long, a build up of gas can occur and cause reflux.

4. Take a digestive enzyme supplement. Because most of the foods we eat today are cooked or processed, they contain little or no natural enzymes that aid digestion. Ever wonder why you feel tired after eating? Your body is exhausted from trying to make up for the lack of enzymes, which do all the work.

Raw foods have increased in popularity because of their enzyme content. Supplemental enzymes can ease digestive stress on the body and help it better absorb nutrients from food. Enzyme blends that offer broad-spectrum digestive support, also include enzymes for problems that can stem from eating beans and vegetables or dairy.

The October issue of WholeFoods Magazine has a feature on Digestion Aids. Dan Kaur Weamer, clinical nutritionist, is among the experts quoted in the story.

Here are Weamer’s quotes:

On this front, Dan Kaur Weamer, director of technical services at Enzymes, Inc., Parkville, MO, recommends probiotic formulas that “combine four or five probiotic strains that colonize the bowel in high numbers—preferably three billion or more viable organisms.”

Says Weamer of Enzymes, Inc., “In supporting proper digestion with enzyme supplements, you’re relieving digestive stress from the pancreas. This helps the body conserve energy that supports and helps maintain a healthy immune system. In addition, complete digestion of food reduces the chance that partially digested food will cross the gut barrier. When this happens, there’s a negative immune reaction to the foreign substance (improperly digested food), which places major stress on the body.”

The story mentions WellZymes™ Colon Health, WellZymes™ Digestive Health and WellZymes™ Gastric Ease™ as “Select Digestive Health Offerings.”