Enzymes Essay
Essay by review • February 5, 2011 • Essay • 722 Words (3 Pages) • 1,368 Views
Enzymes
Enzymes are the sparks that start the essential chemical reactions our bodies
need to live. They are necessary for digesting food, for stimulating the brain,
for providing cellular energy, and for repairing all tissues, organs, and cells.
There are three types of enzymes: metabolic enzymes, digestive enzymes, and food
enzymes. Metabolic enzymes catalyse, or spark, the reactions within the cells.
The body's organs, tissues and cells are run by metabolic enzymes. Without them
our bodies would not work. Among their chores are helping to turn phosphorus
into bone, attaching iron to our red blood cells, healing wounds, thinking, and
making a heart beat. Digestive enzymes break down foods, allowing their
nutrients to be absorbed into the bloodstream and used in body functions.
Digestive enzymes ensure that we get the greatest possible nutritional value
from foods. Food enzymes are enzymes supplied to us through the foods we eat.
Nature has placed them there to aid in our digestion of foods. This way, we do
not use as many of the body's "in-house" enzymes in the digestive
process. This is important to remember. A present theory is that humans are
given a limited supply of enzyme energy at birth, and that it is up to us to
replenish our supply of enzymes to ensure that their vital jobs get done. If we
don't replenish our supply, we run the risk of ill health. There is a that
theory mentions that the length of life is inversely proportional to the rate of
exhaustion of the enzyme potential of an organism. The increased use of food
enzymes promotes a decreased rate of exhaustion of the enzyme potential."
In other words, the more food enzymes you get, the longer, and healthier, you
live. As food enzymes are destroyed at temperatures above 118 F processed foods
contain few, if any enzymes, and that the typical diet is enzyme-deficient. When
we eat this type of diet, we could well be eating for a shorter and
less-than-healthy life. This shows the importance of eating raw fruits and
vegetables because they are "live foods"; that is, foods in which the
enzymes are active. The more enzymes you get, the healthier you are. And the
more raw foods you eat, the more enzymes you get. Enzymes carry out the role of
detoxification -- breaking down toxic substances so that they are excreted and
cannot build up to possibly cause harm. Although this is done by metabolic
enzymes, research shows that enzymes found in the foods that we eat, although
not food enzymes -- may help our bodies do this. Recently enzymes have been
found that can neutralise chemical warfare agents. The enzymes can be used to
rapidly decontaminate facilities, equipment, and vehicles. At present a project
is studying enzymes that catalyse the detoxification of organophosphate
insecticides. The project is showing that green barley extract may
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