The Magic of Enzymes

Raw Information For The Raw Food Enthusiast

The study of enzymes is probably the most studied phenomenon in all of medical science. Yet, it is one of the least discussed. What makes that statement both profound and sad is that it is enzymes that have everything to do with not only health, but life in general. Enzymes are the foundational aspect of all chemical and metabolic reactions that take place in our cells. If enzymes are that important why don’t we hear more about them? Further, why are we not being taught how to ensure enzyme integrity to preserve our health? In this newsletter Dr. Partito will help us understand what enzymes are, their importance to our health and how to gain back enzyme wholeness for health.

Despite What Most Raw Fooders Are Taught:

The digestion of food is just a minor part of what enzymes do in the human body. Enzymes are primarily chemical lubricants. Another word for that would be catalyst. An example of a catalyst would be if you wanted to dissolve some sugar in water. You would poor some tap water in a glass, add some sugar and start stirring it until the sugar is dissolved. If you add a catalyst to that process, you will be able  to dissolve the sugar much faster and more efficiently. In this instance the catalyst I’m referring to is heat. If you add heat to the water the sugar will dissolve much quicker. Part of the definition of a catalyst is that it does not react chemically with what you are trying to accomplish. In other words, a catalyst just promotes what is going to happen anyway. The heat does not change anything chemically, it just speeds up what’s going to happen. That’s what enzymes do in the human body, they are catalysts, or chemical lubricants.

It is estimated that the human body performs billions of chemical reactions every second of every day. In fact, each of our individual cells preform millions of chemical reactions every second. All of those reactions are not funded by, but rather are lubricated by, promoted by, encouraged by, made more efficient by, enzymes. If you think of an automobile engine, it most likely runs on gasoline. But what makes that process more efficient? Oil, think of oil as the enzymes for the engine, as without oil, the engine will run, but not too far, nor will the engine last too long. Now here is where the analogy of an engine falls short because an engine can make it a mile or two without oil before it stops running. The human body cannot go anywhere without enzymes. So life, never mind health, literally cannot take place without enzymes. Remove the water and enzymes from our body and you would end up with a pile of powder that would fill up a 5 gallon container. If you analyzed that powder you would find minerals, you would find proteins, you’ll find vitamins, carbohydrates, fats, etc.

Starting with the protein. Lets say our body is going to build a new heart cell, or kidney cell, or we’re going to repair a cell, it takes a chain of amino acids in the correct order aka proteins to accomplish this. Enzymes are what allow us to manipulate the amino acids into the the correct order to make the necessary repairs to the human body. Amino acids are like the letters in our alphabet. Like the letters in the alphabet amino acids are limited to a certain number. But, just like our alphabet with only 26 letters that we can derive millions if not billions of different words simply by mixing up the letters. Amino acids can also be mixed up just  The human body like letters to ensure the human body receives the right protein. It is the enzymes that allow us to make or accept the amino acids in the proper or needed formulation. So whether we need a new heart cell, a new brain cell, or a new hair cell, it’s all done through the courtesy of enzymes.

When it comes to fat cells, we use those for lubricating joints, they are used as one of the main components for all of our hormones, we use fats to transport minerals around the body, they are used in the production of nerve cells, your skin loves fats, etc. All of those fats are of no value to us; they cannot be formed or utilized by the human body without the presence of enzymes. Vitamins, you could call a vitamin an enzyme, depending on what is the function of that particular vitamin. Vitamins are a catalyst, or a lubricant. We do not live on vitamins, they are NOT a nutrient. In other words, we do not convert vitamins into energy like we do glucose. They are not part of the structure of a cell like minerals, protein or fat. They are simply chemical lubricates much like an enzyme. I will not go into the technical differences between vitamins and enzymes, but I will say a vitamin is of little value to the body if it does not have a enzyme associated with it.

Regarding the Minerals, can we just go outside and eat a bowl full of sand to collect the minerals needed in our bodies? Though children often try and some rawfood leaders say you can the answer is no. Why not? After all sand is full of minerals, as is spring water. That’s because minerals found in dirt and in water are known as rock, or in organic minerals. These type minerals contain no enzymes. Minerals found in uncooked plants however are alive, or useful to the human body. The plant kingdom is able to attach enzymes to the inorganic rock minerals the plants collect from the earths soil to make those minerals alive, or organic and useful to the human body. Humans, or any animal in the animal kingdom are incapable of attaching enzymes to dead foods or water. When we consume inorganic minerals such as the ones found in spring water they are of no use to us, in fact, they cannot even make it through our intestinal lining. Not only are these type minerals unless to the body these minerals cost the body in nutrients to eliminate them from our bodies (which is the definition of a toxin). Now, there is an exception to that and I’ll come back to it in a minute. But even if we were able to get inorganic minerals into our bloodstream. In order for the cell to take the mineral and use it for whatever it’s going to use it for, maybe to help convert glucose into energy, or to help make a new cell as cells are not just made from the above mentioned protein or fat. Cells are also made of minerals and in order for all of this to happen or be orchestrated it requires enzymes. It takes these enzymes to utilize a mineral and inorganic minerals from sand or spring water do not contain any enzymes. If somehow these inorganic minerals make it into the bloodstream and the body is to utilize the mineral. The body has to use it’s own in enzyme to make the mineral work. If I had my choice of what type of mineral content I’d use in my body, I would choose a mineral that already has an attached enzyme. As our body is already deficient in enzymes and now we are requiring our body to waste more enzymes to bring these rock minerals to life. There are minerals called colloidal minerals that some raw food experts will try and sell you. Out of desperation the body will waste enzymes, or go further in debt if you will, bringing inorganic matter to life simply so the body can stay alive for as long as possible. Colloidal minerals gained popularity in the 70s. They are mined out in Utah and a couple of other states. After these minerals are mined they are soaked in pure water for a number of weeks. The minerals will separate from the dirt at a microscopic level and float to the top of the water. The water is skimmed and what is collected are called colloidal as they are the smallest known minerals. It’s just one molecule of a mineral. They are so small they are lighter in weight then water molecules and that’s why they float. So when we drink these minerals they are at such a low molecular weight they will absorb into our bloodstream. But they are lacking enzymes, they are dead. Colloidal minerals do come from plants but these plants have been buried for many thousands if not millions of years depending on your religious belief. These plants were buried, then they were petrified turning them into rocks. They are unique in that they are not derived from rocks, but nonetheless they are inorganic and such they are useless to the human body. After you were done analyzing all those ingredients in the bucket, and then threw the water back in the bucket would we have a human body? No, it must have enzymes, that’s what makes everything work. Likewise, when a body dies, it begins to decompose, that’s because the body no longer has any enzymes.

All Metabolic Functions That Carry Out Life Require Enzymes:

Let’s look at glucose for example. Most of you know that glucose is what our cells use for energy. That is the common denominator of every cell in the body. As without glucose there is not one cell in the body that can survive or do what it was designed to do. Survive meaning repair or replace itself. A cell cannot make energy for us to think, for muscles to contract, for an eye to blink, to digest food, etc, etc that’s all referred to as energy which comes to us via glucose. Glucose comes from the carbohydrates that we consume such as fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts. The body then converts all of those plants into glucose. Glucose is then handed to the cells and the cells convert the glucose into something called adenison triphosphate aka ATP. GlucoseThink of ATP as usable or expendable energy. Plants, like gasoline cannot make the engine run. Both must be converted into something else. It’s the combustion that occurs inside of the cylinder that makes the Pistons move up and down. Think of the enzyme as the combustion for the human body. So the enzymes help the cell to convert the glucose molecule into energy. Without those enzymes that process cannot happen. It is worth mentioning that the body also needs certain minerals and certain vitamins to help with the conversion of glucose into energy. If you pick a fruit or veggie and its not ripe (assuming the ground it was grown in was semi fertile) and you set it on your counter or even better placed it in a brown paper bag it will ripen. This because of the enzymes present in the food. When you let it sit for too long it is the enzymes that eventually destroys the food. If you take a bean, plant it in the ground, add some water and in a few days you will have a bean sprout. If you were to measure the protein content in the bean, compared that to the protein content after the bean sprouted you would find anywhere from 200 to 500% (depending on the type of bean) more protein in the sprouted bean. All we added to the bean was water, sunshine and oxygen and now there is 500% more protein, that is the “magic of enzymes.” This because enzymes take the potential of the nutritional content, develop it and convert it to increase its nutritional content. Now, if enzymes can do that to a bean, imagine what enzymes do to the human body!

There Are Two Types Of Enzymes:

Plant enzymes that are found in our fruits,veggies, seeds and nuts and believe it or not any foods including raw meats.  Many years ago our government wanted to know why Eskimos ate as much meat as we do per capita, yet they did not suffer from meat related diseases like high cholesterol and arteriosclerosis. So they sent a team of scientist to investigate and it turned out the Eskimos did not cook their meats. Instead they ate them as raw pates. If you were to analyze raw foods (including meats) they all contain the enzymes they need to break down and utilize that particular type of food. Whale blubber for example has a high amount of the fat spitting enzyme called Lipase. The empirical trained Doctors and dietitians will say wait a minute, we are born with enzymes so it does not matter what we do to the food! The first part of that statement is true, we are born with enzymes. But, here’s how digestion is supposed to work. According to Dr Edward Howell M.D. the father of enzymology -when we eat a food in its raw form whether it is plant or meat our digestive enzymes activate the enzymes in the raw food and from there the food digests itself. This places the burden of digestion on the food  and not on our bodies. Once the foods are converted into Glucose the enzymes that do survive are collected by our body and placed back into our enzyme bank account. This way we always will have an over abundance of enzymes. In a bit you’ll see why that’s so important. That’s how its supposed to work. Those that consume mostly dead foods use all the enzymes in the bank account to digest their foods. Their foods contain no enzymes thus insuring they will eventually run out of enzymes.

The second type of enzymes are called body, or metabolic enzymes. These are the enzymes that run our body. They help with everything from digestion, to brain function, they make our heart beat, they assist in the conversion of carbs into energy, all the billions of metabolic functions are done by these type of enzymes. Though your body makes those enzymes, what do think is the source of those types of enzymes? That would be the plant enzymes. Dr. Howell came up with the concept of “the enzyme bank account” and here’s how that works. We are born with a certain amount of enzymes in our enzyme bank account. The amount we are born with is dependent on mom, how healthy she is and what she ate while she was carrying us. Everyday we live we burn through enzymes just to stay alive (body enzymes). Think of enzymes as money, you must spend money everyday in order to live. If we spent our money on Monday to live we must earn some more money if we are to live on Tuesday. Our diet should be earning us more enzymes then we are burning. Unfortunately, the average American does not eat a lot of raw fruits and veggies. This begins to deplete the bank account. As a result things begin to slow down. Lets pretend for a minute that your rich uncle left you a lot of money. So you decide to live high on the hog with that money. Years later you realize that at this rate of spending you will be out of money by the time you are 60 but you will likely live to age 76. You have three choices. Your first choice is to do just that, just keep going until you run out( which means death when dealing with enzymes). Or, you can cut back and stretch it out to last till you are 76. Though the average American (male) lives to age 76 the last 12 years (on average) are for most very unpleasant. The last five years they often do not have their minds, prior to that their body is really suffering some major discomforts and on top of that they are often doped up on meds just to get through. Not such a great life! Or, you can get a job, invest your money wisely, and have a never ending supply of money while living high on the hog (health). That’s exactly what raw fooders do! They invest wisely by ignoring the great smelling and tasting dead food stuffs and opt for the not so fun live nutritionally dense plants.

The body itself says I am capable of taking you well beyond 76 years and I can do so while keeping you in health if, you take care of me. Just think about your system for a minute. Pick any cell in your body, it does not matter which one. All cells have a life span from just a few days while others will live up to a year depending on which type of cell. All your cells are going to be replaced. The blueprint of that cell, the DNA of that cell, is passed on to the new cell. This information tells the cell, this is what you are, this is how you’ll function and this is what you will look like. So your body goes to work to make that new cell look just like the blue print (the old healthy cell). The blue print is perfect, yet the next generation of cells are not perfect. Why would that be? Its either lacking the materials to make a healthy cell, or there is interference (toxins), or both. All the vitamins, fats, proteins, minerals are present (even if they are borrowed from other areas of the body as most are) but the enzymes are not there so the body says, thanks everyone but its not enough, all I can do is the best I can with what I have. Throw in the toxins that we accumulate during our lifetime which interferes with the communication between the cells. We end up with cells that are slightly different from that very first perfect cell most of us were born with. Each generation of cells are slightly different then the generation before. Its so slight however, we cannot even notice the difference. It takes time to notice, if you cultured your cell when you were 5 years old with your perfect skin, white eyes, no coated tongue, no body Oder and the energy of a cheetah. Then cultured a cell from the same person sixty years later you will notice large differences in the two cells. The main differences are caused by enzyme issues.

What Kills Enzymes?

Go out and analyze the typical American diet with its fried foods, hamburgers, etc and compare that to raw fruits and veggies what is the only thing that is missing? The typical cooked diet adds things called toxins, but what is the only thing a cooked diet is missing? Enzymes, that’s it, and this is where the empirical scientist have such a hard time with what I’m saying as they look at the hamburger and say, “But it has protein, calcium, fats, vitamins and minerals!” The difference is the enzymes, they have all been killed off via the processing of this type of foodstuff. Anytime we disturb the natural occurrences of nutrients by adding heat or whatever to the food we destroy that foods potential. There is a simple list of five killers. Heat, enzymes start to die at 105 degrees and they are all dead by 111 degrees. Oxygen kills enzymes, if you take a bite of a apple and leave it  cooked food on the counter it will start to turn brown, that is oxygen combining with the enzymes, its called oxygenation and it’s a killer of enzymes. Light kills them, chemicals and radiation are all murders of enzymes. Look at the this list of killers and then think about the average American diet. That type of diet is exposed to one or all of the above before the food is consumed. In fact, the average American goes seven days without eating anything raw. When they do it may be an apple or a small salad that’s drowned in ranch and that’s it for another 7 days. Yet, we are spending money everyday (enzymes) just to stay alive. Never mind all the enzymes that are burnt up dealing with all the toxins our body deals with on a daily basis.

In preparing cooked foods we are either going to freeze them, which kills about 15% of the enzymes (which is not that bad). Steam it, depending on how steamed, but if the food is still “crunchy” you will lose up to 40% of the enzymes. Cook it to death leaving zero percent of the enzymes. How about the microwave? America loves them! Micros destroys 92% of the enzymes and then throw in the fact that the food was likely frozen before it was placed in the micro thus insuring you will have no enzymes left. Imagine how much thought and money went into the creation of tv dinners and microwave ovens. The more intelligence and money that man puts into the preparation of food the less value that food will contain. How much money and intelligence is put into picking and peeling a banana? So if you think about enzymes and the genius contained therein, and then for us to think we know better then nature, thinking we can bend and twist the rules all for the sake of convenience. It turns out we are either naive or idiots, you get to pick which one.

How Do We Restore Our Enzyme Health?

Here’s the good news! The blueprint is still intact! Your cells still contain the blueprint of health. They’ve done the best they can with what we’ve given them so you may have arthritis, osteoporosis, feeling sluggish and so on and so forth. Nonetheless, the blueprint is still there. What if you nourish your body with enzyme active nutrition? The cells will be replenishing and replacing themselves every few days to a year and both the desire and the blueprints are still there to produce healthy cells. So, if I quit handing the body enzyme deficient foods along with toxic substances and replace those with foods that are alive and toxin free.  rawfoods What do you think is going to happen? Life will go on either way and the more interference there is vs. the more help there is to regain their health is up to you. If you choose health this will not happen over night, you will not be 21 again tomorrow, it is a process. Just as it took many generations for your cells to become broken down it will also take several generations to regain health. You will not find any of the above in traditional medication/dietitian teachings. Those teachings NEVER talk about returning to health. They prefer to talk about maintaining life or controlling the disease for as long as possible. But, in the old Naturopathic writings they talk about for every seven years you did wrong to your body, it will take one year of doing right to your body to reverse the seven years of damage you caused. Of course that would be dependent on how damaged one is and how disciplined one is on their way back.

PLEASE, do not forget to cleanse those toxins. Toxins prevent communication between the healthiest of cells. The body stores toxins even if you are eating well. Its just plain cheaper for the body to so. Like water, the body too will always pick the path of least resistance. That means it will store no matter how well you eat. Not only that but our filters are made for metabolic wastes created by our cells. Toxins are foreign to our filters and our filters do poorly at ridding the body of these toxins. All of our bodies are already doing too much with too little so storing is the cheapest way out. You must force your body to cleanse, to take out the trash. Do not believe in the 20.00 bottles that say cleanse on them, they are literally herbal laxatives. Do not believe those that say you will be cleansed in 3 days, or 7 days, or ten 10days. Years of damage will be nowhere near corrected in that short of a cleanse. Those that promote magnesium and oxygen as a cleanser are also misleading you. That type product produces a environment in the bowel (makes moisture) that is conducive so that a constipated person can eliminate. That is not a cleanse even though they stole the word cleanse and placed it on their label. Pooping does not equal cleansing! Enemas and colonics are for cleaning the bowel but not for cleansing at a cellular level. Eating raw foods or drinking raw juice are not “real’ cleanses. I am talking about real “cleansing,” deep cleansing, at a cellular level, and I’m talking about cleansing the entire body not just the colon. Toxins are not stored in the large bowel alone, they are stored throughout the entire body! I’m talking about a 30 day “enzynamically alive” Herbal Body Cleanse that does NOT use dead clay (dirt with aluminum in it) that cannot even get passed your intestinal walls as its carrier. Do Two or three of these “real” body cleanses (Ejuva) per year. Do this for 3 or 4 years followed up with a annual “real” cleanse along with the live foods/juices and this will allow your body to start producing cells that are blueprint quality.