Digestive Enzymes

What Is a Digestive Enzyme Blend?

Enzymes are proteins that break food into pieces small enough to absorb. The body makes its own; a digestive enzyme supplement adds more. These sixteen all come from plants or microbes, and they are chosen for the parts of a meal human enzymes handle least well: bean sugars, lactose, phytic acid, plant cell walls.

How It Works in the Body

The human pancreas makes amylase, protease and lipase, and little else. Plenty of plant food arrives wrapped in structures none of those three can open. Alpha-galactosidase splits raffinose and stachyose, the sugars in beans and cruciferous vegetables. Lactase acts on lactose, the sugar in milk. Phytase acts on phytic acid, which binds minerals in grains and legumes.

An acid-stable protease keeps working at stomach pH, while cellulase, xylanase, pectinase, hemicellulase and beta-glucanase open plant cell walls further along.

What It Supports

• Carbohydrate digestion: Amylase, glucoamylase and invertase support the breakdown of starch and sugars.
• Bean and vegetable sugars: Alpha-galactosidase acts on raffinose and stachyose before gut bacteria reach them.
• Dairy sugar: Lactase splits lactose, which many adults make less of the enzyme for.
• Plant fiber: Cellulase, xylanase and pectinase support the breakdown of plant cell walls.
• Protein digestion: Proteases and papain support protein breakdown across a wide pH range.

Who It May Suit

Plant-heavy eating puts the most work on these enzymes: beans, lentils, cruciferous vegetables, whole grains. The capsule is HPMC and every enzyme comes from a plant or a fungus, so it suits vegetarians, vegans and anyone avoiding pork or beef.

Good To Know

Enzymes are measured in activity units rather than milligrams, so they are counted in HUT, GDU and SKB; the number describes what the enzyme does, not what it weighs. Talk with your provider before use if you take a blood thinner, or if you have celiac disease or a food allergy, since enzymes do not make a food safe to eat.