How Digest Enzymes Can Help You Lose Weight

Our gut health is the center of our health and longevity. It is the epicenter of everything, such as the absorption of nutrients, the breakdown of bacteria, where our immune system functions, and so much more. Probiotics and prebiotics break down food and help the digestive tract absorb nutrients. However, when they are exhausted from stress, lack of proper nutrition, or sickness, it can make breaking down food and bacteria harder. That is where digestive enzymes come in to help assist them in their job. In today's article, I will share what Digest enzymes are and how they can help improve your gut health and lose weight.

What are Digest Enzymes?

Digest enzymes are created in the gut, mouth, pancreas, and gallbladder to help break down proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. They speed up the process of your body recognizing nutrients in food so it can be digested faster and get to where the body needs them. There are different enzymes for different things, for example;

- Amylase- Helps breakdown starches and carbohydrates

- Protease: Helps with breaking down protein

- Lipase: Breaks down fats

When we do not have enough digestive enzymes in our digestive tract, we can develop symptoms such as bloating, gas, constipation, and cramping. Over time, this can destroy our gut bacteria, putting us at risk of leaky gut, autoimmune conditions, and more.

How Enzymes Affect Inflammation

Digest enzymes use proteins to help break down food, making it easier for digestion to work more efficiently. With food being more broken down, it helps to prevent inflammation from accumulating or inflammatory responses from happening. The way it works is when we eat food, our body has enzymes that break down food, but then here come the other digest enzymes generally added from a supplement or enzyme-rich foods that begin to help break down the food even more.

When food is more broken down, it makes it easier for your digestive tract to do its job. Likewise, improving your gut health will decrease inflammation.

How Enzymes Can Improve Weight Management

A better digestive tract means better nutrient absorption from your food. With better absorption, you can have regular bowel movements, better appetite control, proper hormone secretion, and less bloating, gas, or constipation. In addition, eating more digestive enzymes can aid your metabolism, along with a stress-free lifestyle, a whole food-based diet, and a regular exercise routine.

Digest enzymes do help with the breakdown of fat. However, if you have a high-calorie diet from processed foods, fast food, and unhealthy eating habits, digestion enzymes can cause you to gain some weight. The best approach to incorporating enzymes in your diet is to include them while you begin to eliminate any inflammatory foods from your diet. Getting a fresh start can be very beneficial for your body to re-establish its balanced amount of digestive enzymes and build a more substantial gut in the process.

Here are two studies conducted and found success using digest enzymes, which aided in weight loss.

According to a study, lipase inhibitors may help reduce fat absorption by 30% by minimizing lipase production in the pancreas and stomach, resulting in weight loss.

A study conducted on 40 obese women revealed that using orlistat for a prolonged period could help suppress appetite and hunger by increasing specific hormones in the body.

What foods contain digestive enzymes?

Digest enzymes come from the foods we eat, primarily fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables contain prebiotic fiber, which helps to build digestive enzymes, which help with the breakdown and absorption of food. So what are the most abundant foods to incorporate with the most digestive enzymes in your diet?

Pineapple- Pineapple contains an enzyme called bromelain; these enzymes are proteases that help break down proteins. A study on people with pancreatic insufficiency, in which the pancreas cannot make enough digestive enzymes, found that taking bromelain combined with a pancreatic enzyme supplement improved digestion more than the enzyme supplement alone.

Papaya- This fruit is similar to pineapple as it also breaks down proteins from an enzyme, mainly papain. Studies have shown that taking a papaya-based formula has improved symptoms of IBS, bloating, and constipation.

Mango- contains amylases, which help with the breakdown of carbohydrates. It is mainly turning carbohydrates into glucose and maltose. The riper the mango, the better the digestion enzymes. Amylases are also created in the body, in the pancreas and salivary glands, which help to regulate your blood sugar and the absorption of carbohydrates. That is why it is recommended to chew your food for extended periods, so you break down the carbs better and have better absorption of the food.

Organic Honey- is an abundant food with a large number of nutrients. Including numerous digest enzymes, such as the following;

- Diastases: Break down starch into maltose

- Amylases: Break down starch into sugars like glucose and maltose

- Invertases: Break down sucrose, a type of sugar, into glucose and fructose

- Proteases: Break down proteins into amino acids

Ensure you buy unfiltered raw Honey from a local farmer or at your local farmer's market. The sourcing and quality of your Honey are essential.

Bananas- Contain Amylases and glucosides that help break down complex carbs and turn them into simple more absorbable forms of sugar. Bananas are also high in fiber, which also helps with digestion. They performed a study on 34 women with how much eating bananas would improve gut bacteria, and women who ate two bananas a day saw an increase in gut bacteria in just two months.

Avocados- contain lipases, which help break fats into smaller molecules, making them more absorbable. Lipase is also created in your pancreas, but eating more will only improve your body's ability to break foods down.

Kefir- is a fermented milk beverage where cultures are added to milk to create more bacteria. These cultures are from yeast, lactic acid bacteria, and acetic acid. During fermentation, bacteria digest the natural sugars in milk and convert them into organic acids and carbon dioxide. This process creates conditions that help the bacteria grow and adds nutrients, enzymes, and other beneficial compounds. Kefir contains proteases, lipases, and lactase enzymes. Lactase enzymes help with the breakdown of sugars in milk products.

Fermented Foods- foods like sauerkraut, miso, tempeh, fermented onions, and pickles all contain probiotic bacteria, which help increase your gut's good bacteria. These foods help increase digestion enzymes and healthy immunological cells to boost your immune system. Many studies have shown that probiotics can ease digestive symptoms, such as bloating, gas, constipation, diarrhea, and stomach pain, in healthy adults and those with IBS, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis.

Incorporating the right foods improves your body's ability to absorb nutrients and improves the way you break down and get rid of toxins. This improves your body's ability to manage its weight and helps manage it. The better your gut can function, the easier it will be to manage and maintain healthy body weight.