Science Facts Sundays: The Food-Enzyme Stomach (Part 3)

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Welcome to Science Facts Sundays.

This week we are beginning the journey through Dr. Edward Howell’s ground-breaking book, Enzyme Nutrition, The Food Enzyme Concept - Unlocking the Secrets of Eating Right for Health, Vitality, and Longevity. I read this book several years ago with much interest, and am excited to be combing through it again.

Published in 1985, this book was written by Dr. Howell when he was in his late eighties. A pioneering biochemist and nutrition researcher, Dr. Howell began his study of food enzymes and how they affect human health in the 1920′s - right around the time Dr. Weston A. Price was connecting the dots between tooth decay and modern diets.

In 1930, Dr. Howell began utilizing nutritional therapies in his own facility, where he used the concepts described in this book to treat chronic ailments.

Our modern diet is severely lacking natural, unprocessed foods. Although unrefined foods are vital to our health, we are plagued with degenerative diseases. Why?

Dr. Howell discovered natural elements already in our food play a key role in longevity - and it’s not just the vitamins and minerals. Food enzymes play a vital role in health, and this book will show you why - and how.

Although we will learn all the details in this book, I want you to know where Dr. Howell is coming from. Here is the Enzyme Nutrition concept in a nutshell, from Dr. Howell’s own mouth:

The length of life is inversely proportional to the rate of exhaustion of the enzyme potential of an organism. The increased use of food enzymes promotes a decreased rate of exhaustion of the enzyme potential.

In other words, Dr. Howell believed that as we age, our internal enzymes become depleted, thus leading to chronic illnesses.

Dr. Howell may or may not have correctly assessed the how’s and why’s (do we really have a store of enzymes? can we conserve them? do they really run out?), but he was a man ahead of his time. We have much to learn from this book about enzymes - much of which is being proven in new ways by modern science.

Join me as we lean everything there is to know about Enzyme Nutrition. If I am moving too slow for you, consider purchasing your own copy of Enzyme Nutrition. Warning: it is not an easy read! As a biochemist, Dr. Howell uses impressive words, as did most men of his era. This is a book that you will need to read slowly so you can absorb it (at least I do!).

This week our focus is The Food-Enzyme Stomach (written in my own words, from the view of the author):

(Make sure you read previous weeks or this week would be super confusing)

Cattle and sheep, although they don’t have any enzymes in their saliva, should have plenty of enzymes in their pancreas, right? They don’t. This is likely due to the fact much of what they consume comes with its own enzymes. Although they have four stomachs, only one secretes enzymes - the smallest one. The three stomachs with no enzymes are called by the author the food-enzyme stomachs as they allow the food enzymes to digest the food. Protozoa harbor in these food-enzyme stomachs to aid in digestion until most pass on to the fourth stomach where they are digested.

According to the Food Enzyme Concept, there is “a mechanism operating in all creatures permitting food enzymes to digest a particular fraction of the food in which they are contained.” For humans, this is the upper portion of the stomach. Since the upper part of the human stomach secretes no enzymes, the enzymes present in the food to begin to digest the food before the body’s digestive enzymes kick in.

If you have consumed cooked food, which is void of enzymes, nothing happens during the first hour or so. If you have consumed raw food, which is full of enzymes, this period of 30-60 minutes is spent allowing the food to begin to break down. If harmful organisms/bacteria were consumed, this is when you could begin to feel ill.

[This is a great time to point out consuming fermented foods with each meal is advised. Any bad bacteria you consume can be fought off by the powerful LAB's (lactic acid bacteria) present in your food. The icing on the cake is fermented foods are full of enzymes and will help to digest your food as well.]

The act of chewing ruptures the cell walls of our food and helps to release the enzymes which will later aid in digestion. Although the enzymes present in saliva works well for carbohydrates, protein and fat enzymes won’t come into play until later.

When we swallow, the food settles in the food-enzyme portion of the stomach for a time (up to an hour) before pepsin, a stomach enzyme, begins to take over and the journey of digestion begins.

Note: Although the author encourages the use of supplemental capsules to aid in digestion as the food waits in the upper portion of the stomach, we know there are plenty of enzymes present in fermented foods (sauerkraut, for example - learn how to make sauerkraut here) are preferred. I, for one, prefer to get my nutrients from foods, rather than supplements.

Any digestion done in the food-enzyme/upper portion of the stomach will lessen or eliminate the need for our body’s digestive enzymes to be used, conserving energy and putting less stress on the body.

That’s it for today! I hope you learned something Check back next week as we continue to discuss Dr. Edward Howell’s book, Enzyme Nutrition and focus on Research Findings.