Overeating or bolting down the wrong foods can lead to bodily reactions such as excess gas and acid, bloating, and grogginess. Do you often find yourself needing an antacid after eating certain types of food? If you know what I am referring to here, the problem is most likely due to eating a diet of highly processed or over cooked food.

This type of food is indigestible, your body simply can not eliminate it efficiently. Indigestible food is food that has had all of its naturally occurring enzymes, and other healthy nutrients removed. Lack of enzymes in food is also known as denatured food. Enzymes are what causes fruit to ripen, spoil, and rot. Ever notice how margarine does not spoil or rot? No enzymes present, indigestible, not good for you.

Enzymes are necessary catalysts for healthy chemical reactions inside the body. Enzymes are, very simply put, protein based substances that bind with other nutrients that bring about changes in the body by speeding up tasks such as digesting food, absorbing nutrients, and maintaining and repairing tissue. More than 2,000 different enzymes play an active role in digestion and many other important bodily functions.

Enzymes work together in perfect harmony with other necessary nutrients called co-factors such as vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, and phytochemicals.

Nature's perfect complex requires all of the other team players to be present or the game does not happen. That may be the biggest reason why supplementing with synthetic vitamins and not whole food vitamins, or supplementing with various other nutrients alone does not work. No single nutrient without the others will be the single magic bullet. Nature is more complex than this. So, enzymes without co-factors will have no activity.

The average modern diet consists of too much processed, nutrient deficient, and over cooked food. Heating any whole food above 118 degrees F destroys enzymes, and other important healthy nutrients. A good rule to follow in getting more enzymes is; raw before cooked, steamed veggies before boiled, poached before hard-boiled, and cook meats rare before well-done.

Some experts believe that 80 percent of our expended energy goes into digesting a typical over cooked and processed meal. Our over burdened digestive system works 24/7 trying to break down food that , for the most part, is indigestible or will only be partially digested. This could take days to eliminate a meal, or never!

Because of this continual process, only about 20 percent of body energy is left to handle other important functions like thinking, breathing, seeing, and immune system support, to name only a few. It goes like this... if you want to stay healthy, or get healthier, you must free up more of your digestive and elimination process.

No matter how many trans fats, or how much white sugar and flour, or any other indigestible substance you may ingest, your body will try to break it down by means of enzymes. Foods that are easy on your body to digest and eliminate are natural whole, raw, or lightly cooked. Your body will not have to waste energy on producing enough digestive enzyme juices to turn food into a half way usable form.

Most modern societies eat a truck load of non-foods that were never intended to produce a healthy body. We know that we did not evolve as a species over the centuries eating stuff like burgers, fries, pizza, sodas, and beer. Our digestive system simply can not break down these chemical bombshells. This stuff does not get thoroughly digested, and without enzyme activity, it will just sit in the intestines forever, putrefying.

In time, some of this leaks out of the intestines into the blood stream taxing the whole body. Body organs that were never meant to eliminate toxins try to do just that. Organs such as kidneys, lungs, and skin can become inflamed and diseased trying to eliminate toxic residue from a poor diet and an inadequate digestive process. The unfortunate consequences of over cooked whole foods, or fast food diets.

Consciously choosing to eat healthier includes eating more food in its raw form as much as possible, or lightly cooked. Try eating at least one meal a day with this thought in mind, by helping support your body in a more productive digestion and elimination process.

Ideally we should be eating 80 percent of our food this way, but unfortunately that is most likely not going to happen for most of us. What can you do to further support this important process in your body, and get rid of possibly large amounts of built up sludge in your intestinal tract?

By supplementing with a good digestive enzyme supplement product found at any local health food store, you will be making a wise decision to improve your overall health.

Each and everyone of us can benefit from this special knowledge, from the elderly to small children. We have to put back what is not in our food. This is far cheaper to do than run to your local M.D., who never studied much about enzymes in medical school, than to treat diseases by masking symptoms with drugs.

Look for a complete enzyme supplement that breaks down the four main components of a human diet:

1.fats / Lipase

2.protein / Protase

3.carbohydrates / Amylase

4.cellulose or fiber / Cellulase

Remember to look for the suffix 'ase' tacked on to the name that designates it as an enzyme that breaks down that specific component.

Enzyme supplements are a simple solution to a whole variety of health challenges. If you have had a doctor tell you that your diet is harming you physically, and sacrificing your longevity, should it not make sense then, that the right food and drink would be able be to restore your physical condition, if only you knew how? Do not count on most doctors to know how, as they have been trained to use drugs, surgeries, and other intrusive measures.

What solvent is nature's perfect element to wash down and carry nutrients to absorb them, plus carry away any toxic build up inside you? Why nothing more than water of course!