5 Foods That Contain Digestive Enzymes
The human body naturally produces digestive enzymes, which are crucial in the breakdown and absorption of nutrients. The pancreas, liver, and gallbladder are some of the organs responsible for the secretion of digestive enzymes needed to break down macronutrients.
However, illness and poor dieting can lead to inadequate production of these digestive enzymes. Such situations can create discomfort, such as bloating, build-up of gas, and other digestive disorders. This piece highlights the top 5 foods you should be eating to ensure your body never runs short of digestive enzymes.
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What are digestive enzymes?
When you consume food, your digestive tract swings into action to break down any proteins, vitamins, fats, and carbohydrates present in your meals, it is only after these nutrients have been broken down that your body can absorb them and put them to good use. Your body needs to secret digestive enzymes to facilitate the digestion and absorption process.
Types of enzymes
Though our bodies produce many different digestive enzymes, the primary types are protease, amylase, and lipase. Protease breaks down proteins and converts them into amino acids and peptides, which are the building blocks of cellular tissues in our bodies.
Amylase works on carbohydrates and starches, breaking them down into sugars to meet the body’s energy demands. Lipase works on fats to convert them into fatty acids. Other notable daily digestive enzymes include maltase, sucrase, and lactase. Lactase handles the sugars present in dairy products while maltose and sucrose break down maltose and sucrose, respectively.
5 foods that are rich in digestive enzymes
Though our bodies can produce these enzymes naturally, you can still do yourself a favor by consuming foods rich in digestive enzymes. Most of these dishes are best consumed raw since exposure to high temperatures can destroy these delicate enzymes. Below are the top five foods that can boost your digestive system.
Raw honey
Honey is known to be well endowed in digestive enzymes such as protease, invertase, and diastase, essential in breaking down proteins, sugars, and starches. This superfood is most beneficial in its raw. Processed honey often goes through heating procedures that destroy digestive enzymes.
Avocado
Avocados are packed with lipase, a digestive enzyme central in the breakdown of fats. Consume them as a smoothie or incorporate them in desserts and salads.
Pineapple
This punchy fruit contains bromelain enzymes that are crucial in the metabolism of proteins. Bromelain is sensitive to heat, so it’s best to consume your pineapples raw.
Bananas
Famous for their high concentration of potassium, bananas contain maltase and amylase enzymes central in the digestion of carbs and malt sugar, respectively.
Ginger
Ginger consumption boosts the body’s ability to produce digestive enzymes. It is also rich in Zingibain, an enzyme that aids in protein digestion. Consume it as ginger tea or grate it into salads for maximum benefit.
The above 5 foods are readily available in most food stalls. Even better, you can get creative with your recipes by blending multiple fruits into a super smoothie. For more information, you can check out places like Probulin.
Sudarsan Chakraborty is a professional Blogger and blog writer. He lives and breathes in the blogging industry. He regularly writes on Widetopics to keep all the readers updated with the latest facts on wide range of topics.
