Life Giving Enzymes
by N. Lexie Ross

Some years ago, I was hired to write the brochure copy for a pesticide company. To gain a clear understanding of how the company’s product worked, I called the president who explained proudly that his poison killed insects by crystallizing their stomachs from the inside out. Millions of antacid commercials I'd seen over the years immediately leapt to my mind.

Sometime later, I heard that many morticians were reporting they were using less and less embalming fluid these days because people’s body’s were curiously already partly embalmed, even in the cases of young people.

Which leads me to the topic of live enzymes. Enzymes are the stuff that life is made of. Live enzymes exist in fresh vegetables and fruits.

They don't exist in cooked, canned or frozen foods. That includes micro- wave foods. Nor do they exist in foods picked while green or are altered chemically with pesticides or the other diabolical processes like irradiation and genetic manipulation which is often used today.

If we think about it, animals in nature never select green foods to eat, they  allow them to ripen on the vine.

Because we are no longer getting these important nutrients, a whole new field of nutritional science has evolved over the last twenty years and the general public is now starting to learn the importance of enzymes, co-enzymes and phytochemicals which are found only in ripe fruits and vegetables.

Back in the 1930’s and 40’s, a German physician, Dr. Max Gerson, was curing cancer and tuberculosis at his clinic in Germany. He was among the first to discover the importance of organically grown, whole foods when he conducted research testing the reaction of all types of foods on the body’s various systems. To his surprise, he found that a vegetarian diet of fresh ripe foods and juices was the most health producing.

Back then, Albert Schweitzer called upon Dr. Gerson to cure his wife of T.B. He had taken her all over the world and found no one that could help her. Gerson took the challenge and healed Mrs. Schweitzer.

Dr. Schweitzer was so grateful and so impressed, he invited Dr. Gerson to testify about his findings before the U.S. Congress. At that time, Gerson explained that 80% of all disease could be eradicated by eliminating canned, frozen and processed foods from the American diet.  Needless to say, the commercial food industry quickly discredited him.

Chemical Foods

Today, the challenge of finding ripe, fresh foods grown without chemicals is a daunting task. Because of this, more and more Americans are seeking out organically grown foods. The health food industry is expanding so rapidly that in 1994, Health Food Business Magazine reported in their survey that it would take 20 average sized stores, earning $500,000 each, to equal the earning power of one 25,000 sq. ft. whole foods super market.

Unfortunately, the government is now trying to change the regulations as to what is considered organic which is currently allowing more manipulation of our already chemically altered foods. (It is important that all citizens be vigilant and write to their congressman demanding that organic standards remain free of added chemicals or irradiation.)

Foods grown in organic soil are not only free of chemical toxins, they have a  higher mineral count because the soil is fed with organic material which includes iron- filled garden weeds, crop residue, manure and other natural minerals.

Gabriel Cousins, MD author of Conscious Eating, and Chemist- Nutritionist Dr. Lita Lee of Grassroots Network agree that minerals are the essential catalysts that trigger the function of vitamins and enzymes in our bodies.  If we don't have minerals in our body, our enzymes can't do their job of carrying life giving energy to the blood stream.

We all have a certain amount of digestive enzymes--protease to digest protein, amylase to digest starch and lipase which digest fats in our stomach-- but the supply is limited. If we continue to eat cooked and processed foods that leach enzymes in the digestive process, our ability to digest becomes dramatically hampered. Particularly as we get older.

The habit of downing antacids after meals does not help the situation--in fact, it causes more problems. We are so conditioned to the idea of “taking something,” we don’t stop to ask the source of our discomfort. We don’t realize that poor digestion is the first step toward serious disease. Enzymes play such a strategic role in digestion and the treating of cancer, most holistic physicians feel that enzyme therapy is absolutely essential.

According to Dr. Bernard Jensen, one of the best ways of feeding your body live fresh enzymes is by drinking freshly squeezed juices. I say freshly squeezed because the longer the juice is exposed to air--the less enzymes it has. Don’t let anyone tell you that bottled juices still have the same nutrients--they don’t, if you are a regular juicer, you will soon learn to taste the difference.

Good Ole` Carrot Juice

Of course carrot juice is the most highly recommended because of its high content of beta-carotene which fights cancer. (If you are not a carrot juice lover, you can add apple, celery or a number of other interesting combinations to make it more palatable.) Juice bars are now a permanent fixture in most communities and they offer a number of delicious combinations.

Along with fresh, ripe, organically grown foods and salads, juicing really is one of the fastest and easiest ways to build up the body’s own storehouse of enzymes.

You know Hippocrates said long ago, “Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food.” Award-winning vegetarian chef and author Ron Pikarsky says, “If you don’t have time to be healthy, you’ll have to take time to be sick.”

Being healthy is as easy as making the right choices. And frankly...being embalmed before I’m ready to go, doesn’t sound very exciting. . . I’m heading for the juice bar.

To contact Lexie Ross, click here