Digestive Enzyme Purpose & Functions

What are Enzymes?

Enzymes are molecules that speed up or enhance a chemical process. They must have exactly the right shape and chemical makeup in order to interact with other molecules. They are very specific in their functions and typically perform only one chemical activity. Enzymes can help to build up biochemical structures, or help to break them down. They can also help convert energy into a form the body can use.

There are two major categories of enzymes in the human body: digestive enzymes, and systemic enzymes. Digestive enzymes work inside the digestive tract, breaking down the food we consume into particles of the right size and chemical forms so that they can be properly absorbed and utilized by our bodies. Systemic enzymes exist, and carry out vital functions in our blood, tissues and inside every cell of our body.

Here is an animation that shows how the shapes of the enzyme and the substrate (the molecules affected by the enzyme) interact:

Digestive Enzymes

Because the nature of enzymes is that they do only one job well, you need to get the right type of enzymes for the specific type of foods you want to work on. For example, lactase is an enzyme which acts on lactose (a milk sugar). In this case, the action of the enzyme is to break the lactose down.

When using digestive enzyme supplements, you should consider the foods you have problems with and then choose a product that contains at least those types of enzymes. Many enzyme supplements include a broad selection of these, to ensure good digestion of the most common food types. Here is a list of the common digestive enzyme types and foods they help to break down.

• amylase – breaks down carbohydrates, starches, and sugars which are the primary component in most fruits, vegetables, and many snack foods
• diastase – also helps to digest vegetable starch
• glucoamylase – breaks down starch to glucose

• lactase – breaks down the sugary component of milk – lactose • sucrase – digests complex sugars and starches
• maltase – digests disaccharides to monosaccharides (malt sugars)
• invertase – breaks down common white table sugar (sucrose)

• alpha-glactosidase – helps with digestion of beans and legumes, including soy products, seeds, roots, and tubers

• protease – breaks down proteins found not only in meats, but in nuts, eggs, and cheese
• pepsin – breaks down proteins into peptides
• peptidase – breaks down small peptide proteins to amino acids

• bromelain – from pineapple stems and juice. It breaks down a broad spectrum of proteins, has anti-inflammatory properties, and is effective over very wide pH range
• papain – from raw papaya. Works on a broad range of substrates and in a wide pH range. Good for breaking down both large and small proteins

• trypsin – this is an animal-derived product, made from their pancreases. It also breaks down proteins
• alpha – chymotrypsin – another animal-derived enzyme, for the breakdown of proteins

• lipase – breaks down fats from most sources: dairy products, nuts, oils, and meat

• cellulase – breaks down cellulose, which is a tough-to-digest plant fiber