I have had some questions lately concerning enzymes and raw food. I am a certified raw food chef.

Enzymes and living food foster good health.

Enzymes are vital for healing the body, and also helping you look youthful, feel healthier, and become more energized.

Enzymes are small molecules used by all the cells in the body to make new proteins, nucleic acids, fats, sugars, and therefore provide the energy required to run all the functions of the cell.

Consuming foods rich with living enzymes will also make you feel more satisfied, because your body is getting fed nutrient-rich food on a deep cellular level. Food cravings are usually caused by ingesting nutrient empty, processed, synthetic, artificial and/or dead foods, because your body is desiring nutrition in order to function properly.

Living food (also known as raw food) is whole food that hasn’t been heated or processed higher than 105 to 118 degrees. The high heat temperature destroys the life-force of the food. Live enzymes that regenerate our cells and feed our body are bountiful in living (raw) foods.

As we age, we lose the ability to produce sufficient digestive enzymes.

Eating certain foods (such as creature foods, cooked, irradiated, microwaved, pasteurized, and processed foods), improperly chewing food, and even chewing gum make our body utilize more of our digestive enzymes than necessary. These actions deplete the amount of our enzymes for use in digestion. Without digestive enzymes, there would be an absence of raw materials to keep our cells operational. When we are completely depleted of living enzymes we die.

If the food we eat isn’t broken down properly, our body won’t completely absorb it. We absorb most of our nutrients in the intestinal tract through the intestinal wall. A clean intestinal wall will help the nutrients be absorbed. The integrity of the intestines is essential to our health and well-being.

Toxins and acid accumulate in our body over time through various actions like breathing polluted air, eating processed or fast foods, being exposed to carcinogens in various cleaning solutions, and more. Over time, they can build up in the body and create inflammation, as well as health and weight problems.

A detox cleanse helps flush out toxins deep in the body’s cells and clean out the intestinal tract.

Anyone over the age of 40 should consider taking a high-quality digestive enzyme supplement approximately five minutes before each meal. This will supplement the body’s enzymes and aid the body’s ability to break down the food being consumed.

Chewing our food is a function that serves to jump-start the digestive process while in the mouth and bring pleasure to consuming food.

It is vitally important to always chew your food slowly, because the better the food is chewed, the easier it will be for the body to digest it. Ideally food should be liquefied by the time it is swallowed. The more we chew our food, the slower we eat.

It takes the brain about 10 to15 minutes to become aware of the stomach being full. We tend to eat less, and digest our food more efficiently, by eating slower.

In the American culture, we are encouraged to drink liquids with our meals. Unfortunately, drinking liquids with our meals dilutes the body’s digestive enzymes and makes it harder for the body to digest the food.

Eat ample amounts of fresh, uncooked, organic fruits and vegetables. These whole foods provide nutrient-dense live enzymes that feed our body, and they contribute additional live enzymes to support our digestion. For example, eating a whole, fresh, organic apple will provide about 40% additional live enzymes that will help with the digestion, whereas a cooked, processed, or in other words, dead food, won’t contribute any live enzymes.

Our health depends on eating the highest quality foods that are more alkalizing and grown fresh locally. Processed foods and meats are very acidic.

Disease thrives in an acidic environment. Our bodies need to maintain a certain pH balance in order to survive. If we eat too many acidic foods (like creature, processed, synthetic foods or supplements), our bodies will naturally attempt to adjust the pH

balance. To adjust the pH balance and to become more alkaline, the body will pull calcium from the bones to neutralize or buffer the acid. Eating a diet high in fresh, whole fruits and vegetables will contribute to a more alkaline-rich diet, which can help with the maintenance of the pH in the body.

I’ve started eating enzyme-rich foods from the Chemical Free Body company. These foods are free of chemicals, additives, fillers, and anything other than the certified organic, gluten-free, GMO-free, soy-free, dairy-free plant-based foods themselves.

They have a “Detox, Restore, and Energy Bundle” (which contains an enzyme & probiotic rich green food powder that I love) on sale right now.

(Tim James the founder of Chemical Free Body, has been on my radio show a couple of times explaining his journey to health through healthy foods and lifestyle changes).

I also love the live, enzyme-rich organic vegetable (broccoli & radish) microgreens powder from The Indoor Organic Gardens of Poughkeepsie. (Remember to put “Nancy” in the Discount Code box to get a nice Discount). (This powder is great for pets also).

As we enter into the upcoming festive season, be sure to add some healthy, raw, organic, enzyme-rich foods to your diet for a healthier winter holiday.