Digestive enzymes are proteins that catalyze the breakdown of large food molecules into smaller ones. Nearly everything you eat, primarily carbohydrates, protein or fats, requires a digestive enzyme split-up for health promoting absorption.
The sources of these natural digestive enzymes are your saliva, stomach and pancreas. Yet, some helpful enzymes are present in raw food as well.
Starch consists of a large number of glucose molecules bonded together. Because plants happen to store glucose that way, digestive enzymes are used to speedily reduce it into something usable, i.e. maltose. Maltose is two units of glucose.
This same principle applies to protein and fat as well. Only their digestive enzyme break-up involves different molecules.
Your saliva contains amylase, a primary natural digestive enzyme, aka ptyalin. It starts the break down of starches to maltose while you chew. And this complex carbohydrate dismantling is finished off with the aid of pancreatic amylase in your small intestine.
Another primary natural digestive enzyme is pepsin. It’s secreted by your stomach lining and collaborates in dietary protein degradation. Pepsin is just one of three primary protein degrading enzymes, each specializing in cutting the links between certain types of amino acids.
Your pancreas secretes enzymes into your small intestines, another important site for food digestion. The primary natural digestive enzymes produced by the pancreas are trypsin, chymotrypsin, amylase and lipase.
Pancreatic amylase finishes what your salivary gland started, breaking starch down to maltose. Trypsin and chymotrypsin also reduce proteins to peptides. And lipase breaks up fats into glycerol and fatty acids.
Lactase is another small intestine digestive enzyme. It’s is essential for digesting lactose, a molecule in milk.
A deficiency of a natural digestive enzyme is a cause for food intolerance. Lactose intolerance is an example of this digestive problem, which is caused by a deficiency of lactase digestive enzyme.
In contrast, a food allergy is caused by your body mistakenly identifying a food as harmful. Thus, your immune system triggers cells to release a certain antibody So the next time you eat that “harmful” food histamine and other chemicals are released, causing an allergic reaction.
One cause of malabsorption is a deficient production of digestive enzymes by your pancreas. This occurs with some pancreatic issues, like pancreatitis. And a deficiency of digestive enzyme may also be a problem for those with cystic fibrosis, celiac disease or Crohn’s disease.
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