Which Enzymes Survive the Gut and Do They Really Matter?

[Guest guest]

Many who advocate for raw foods invoke the enzyme issue as a major

reason for a raw diet. For example, Dr. Mercola says the following in

a recent article:

" Why are raw foods so beneficial to you? Because they exist in their

natural, unaltered form, the way nature intended. All its inherent

synergistic benefits are left intact.

When you cook foods, on the other hand, enzymes that are necessary for

metabolic purposes in your body are destroyed. ... Eating enzyme-dead

food places a burden on your pancreas and other organs and overworks

them, which eventually exhausts these organs. "

I thought most exogenous enzymes were destroyed in the gut anyway. The

heat of cooking denatures proteins, but the acid in your stomach

typically does the very same thing. Pepsin in the stomach breaks down

the denatured proteins into shorter chains of amino acids. Once the

food reaches the intestine, macromolecules including enzymes and other

proteins are not able to pass through the epithelium (cells lining the

gut); they must be broken down first, into small peptides and amino

acids. The epithelial cells themselves break down any remaining

peptides into free amino acids before release to the bloodstream.

My nutrition textbook does state that a few proteins may be absorbed

whole but does not elaborate. Does anyone have more information on

this topic?

Tom