Enzymes are actively involved in the absorption of nutrients that support metabolism.

Enzymes are proteins. Like other proteins, enzymes consist of long chains of amino acids held together by peptide bonds. They are present in all living cells, where they perform a vital function by controlling the metabolic processes whereby nutrients are converted into energy and fresh cell material. Furthermore, enzymes take part in the breakdown of food materials into simpler compounds.

Eating begins the digestive process during which enzymes go to work. One enzyme is already at work in your mouth while you chew; Amylases break down starch into smaller sugars - dextrins and maltose. Typical starchy foods are potatoes, pasta and rice.

When the food reaches your stomach, acidic gastric juices start to flow from special glands. The partly digested food and gastric juices are then churned around in your stomach and propelled into the duodenum. Pancreatic juice is released from the pancreas and this neutralizes the acid. An enzyme contained in the juice chops starch into its simplest sugars, and another breaks the protein down further into amino acids. So far, any fat has remained untouched, but now an enzyme made in the pancreas, a lipase, digests the fat. About seven hours after you have eaten your food, it passes from the duodenum into the small intestine where most of the nutrients liberated by the enzymes are absorbed and pass into your blood.

The enzymes have helped to transform food into tiny nutrients that the body can absorb and use to renew aging cells and to provide energy. Each day muscles burn up several hundred grams of carbohydrate and fat for energy. Without enzymes, our bodies would cease to function.

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