I had noticed that many people are struggling with weight problems, but when I actually checked the statistics on the NIH web page I was amazed at the numbers.

According to this source, over 54% of all adults are overweight and nearly 25% are obese. (Check the website for definitions of overweight versus obesity if you want to know right now…I’ll be addressing these concepts in more depth later in this series.) These numbers are significantly higher than they were 50 years ago and they continue to rise. What’s going on?

Conventional thought may blame our standard American diet for the problem or the increasing stresses that cause more and more people to overeat. While these factors no doubt contribute, there are significant numbers of overweight people who do not overeat and whose diets are what most health care professionals would consider good. They are increasingly frustrated by the failure of their efforts to lose excess pounds.

The physical body is all we see, but the emotional, mental, and spiritual bodies have an effect on how our physical bodies appear. Therefore, I feel it is important to go beyond diet and lifestyle choices when investigating both the root causes and the possible treatments for this condition, though diet and lifestyle is certainly a starting point.

No two people are biochemically identical and the cause of each person’s weight problem is unique. For this reason, a program that works for one may not work with another. Part of living in the new energy is learning to use our intuition to discern what is right for us, rather than giving our power away to others, no matter how educated or knowledgeable they may be. It is my intent through this series to present as much information as possible so that you may indeed empower yourself through knowledge.

A Look at Enzymes

It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it? There are hundreds of different things we can eat and our bodies magically transform them into cells, tissues and organs as well as a steady supply of energy through a mysterious process called digestion. We usually take it for granted unless we feel some kind of discomfort in our stomachs or intestines which we may brush off as “indigestion”.

Then we pop a pill…maybe an antacid or a laxative…and hope the problem goes away as quickly as possible. But what exactly is digestion and why do we sometimes have problems with it? The following description of enzyme activity may seem somewhat technical, but before we look at the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to weight control, I feel it is important to have some understanding of how the body processes food.

What Enzymes Do

Digestion is complicated and depends on the presence of special proteins called enzymes. Having the right enzymes available at each stage in the process of digestion is crucial to the outcome. Each category of food we eat (protein, carbohydrates, sugars, and fats) requires a specific enzyme to break it down. Unfortunately, enzyme deficiency is becoming more and more common and is the chief cause of inefficient digestion. When digestion is inefficient, it is very difficult to maintain balanced body weight.

Many people believe that digestion starts after food is swallowed, but actually, it starts in the mouth. Our saliva secretes enzymes, which are mixed into the food as we chew. Raw food also contains enzymes, which are ideally suited to breaking it down. (Those same enzymes cause fruits and vegetables to ripen and eventually spoil when left in a warm place too long.) All enzymes are destroyed at a temperature of about 118 degrees Fahrenheit. So two common practices in our culture, gulping food down with little chewing and eating mostly cooked foods, contribute to enzyme depletion.

Digestive enzymes require the right environment for activation. Some are active in an alkaline environment (higher pH) like the mouth and the small intestine, and some are active in an acid environment (lower pH) like the stomach. The stomach secretes a substance called hydrochloric acid (HCL), which allows enzymes like pepsin to go to work on protein. Insufficient HCL production results in food staying in the stomach longer than normal. Many people suffer from low stomach acid, especially as they get older, so their digestion slows down considerably as a result.

Once the food is passed through the pyloric valve into the duodenum (first part of the small intestine) the pancreas adds sodium bicarbonate (to neutralize the acid), as well as a number of alkaline activated enzymes (lipase, amylase, disaccharidases, protease, etc.,) while the liver and gall bladder pump in bile to help with fat digestion. If the food has been partially digested in the mouth and the stomach, the pancreas can usually provide sufficient enzymes to finish the job.

Problems develop when the pancreas has to do the whole job of enzyme production. It may not be able to keep up with the demand and food that is not completely broken down may then be reabsorbed into the bloodstream, causing allergic reactions and triggering the immune system into over-activity.

The small intestine contains many small protrusions called villi, which are full of tiny blood vessels. Their job is to collect the digested particles of food and transport them to the portal vein, which takes them to the liver. The liver is our main detoxifying organ. Liver enzymes are responsible for inactivating pesticides, chemicals, and other poisons that may have entered the digestive tract as well as the waste products from any parasites or pathogenic bacteria we may be carrying in our bodies.

Because we subject our bodies to far more foreign agents than they were originally designed to handle, most people suffer from some degree of liver toxicity. The liver just isn’t able to keep up with the volume of toxins flowing through it, so some of these toxins re-enter the blood stream.

How does the body make all the enzymes required for digestion and detoxification? The body first needs to digest the proteins we eat and break them down into their components-amino acids. These amino acids can then be recombined to form new enzymes. If there aren’t enough enzymes available to digest the proteins we eat, then we don’t have the raw materials to make more enzymes, either for detoxification or further digestion.

The body then goes into a declining spiral where the enzyme levels keep decreasing and the toxic load keeps increasing. Because it can’t digest the food we eat, we are literally starving, even though our stomachs may be filled to capacity. Because the body is deficient in nutrients, it may hang on to extra calories as a way of protecting itself from starvation.

Without the proper enzymes to break down the proteins into amino acids, we also can’t make enough hormones. Hormones regulate all the processes in our bodies, including the rate at which energy is produced. Many people have declining levels of thyroid hormone, which causes their rate of metabolism (conversion of food to energy) to be slow. As a result, they gain weight on very few calories. Is it possible that with sufficient enzymes producing adequate amounts of essential amino acids their thyroid hormone levels would not have declined?

The balance of hormones is also affected because it is the liver’s job to deactivate hormones once their job is done. A liver overwhelmed with toxins has no enzymes left to deactivate “stale” hormones; hence they continue to circulate through the body. This can further aggravate hormonal imbalances, especially in the case of hormones like estrogen, which we often ingest in synthetic form from plastics.

What happens to the toxins that the liver hasn’t been able to inactivate? The kidneys filter out some of them but are not usually able to remove all. Others may be deposited in body tissues, particularly in fatty tissues. It is entirely possible that the body will accumulate extra fat as a way to encapsulate toxins and remove them from circulation, though I have no proof that this is so. The fact that certain toxins are stored in fat cells may explain why people who go on starvation diets often get sick. The numbers of stored toxins being released are poisoning their systems.

The human body is extremely versatile. If there is ever a surplus of enzymes, those enzymes are put to good use clearing out toxins and debris from the bloodstream. In fact, during times of famine, when the body is forced to make use of whatever is available for energy production, enzymes quickly process any cellular waste or debris and turn it into fuel.

Increasing Enzyme Levels

Some authorities feel that if we ate only raw foods, we wouldn’t have the digestive problems and weight control problems we do. It is true that eating only raw foods would cease the drain on our enzyme reserves, but most people would find that very restricting.

Also, for a body that is already out of balance, a raw food diet might not provide the necessary nutrients to regain health. Raw fruit and vegetable juices can help build up nutrient reserves, but only if they are made from organic produce grown on nutrient rich soils. Commercial produce often contains pesticides and herbicides that increase the toxic load on the body and the enzymes contained in chemically grown foods are usually not sufficient to offset the toxins

Proper food combining can improve digestion because it allows the body to focus on producing only one or two kinds of enzymes at a time. By not eating protein and starches together, the digestive system works more efficiently. That is because protein takes a long time to digest and needs an acid environment to activate pepsin (the stomach), whereas starches take less time and are digested in an alkaline environment (the small intestine). The fruit is very quick to digest and if it is eaten with protein or starches it tends to start fermenting, which creates further toxins for the body to process, so it is better eaten alone on an empty stomach.

Another way of increasing enzyme levels is by following a rotation diet. By only eating a certain food every four days, the body has a chance to build up the enzyme reserves needed for the digestion of that particular food. This makes it more likely that the food will be completely digested when eaten.

Many authorities are now advocating enzyme supplements. By adding enzymes at mealtime, cooked food has a greater chance of being properly digested. By taking enzymes between meals, we give the body an opportunity to use those enzymes for detoxifying any debris circulating through the system, which lightens the load on the liver. Food enzymes have even been used successfully to attack candida organisms… apparently, they digest the cell walls.

Would adding enzymes to everyone’s diet solve the problem of weight control? Probably not…digestion is only one aspect we look at when striving for optimal body balance. But for those people whose digestive systems are sluggish, or whose hormone levels are declining, a look at enzyme function might yield some promising results.