The second part of chapter seven begins with Dr. Howell and the food enzyme concept. Dr. Howell was born in 1898 and researched scientific literature on the subject of enzymes. He was considered by many who had a background in the field of nutrition and natural foods to have been the world's leading expert on enzymes until his death in 2000. He authored a book titled "The Status of Food Enzymes in Digestion and Metabolism" which was later reprinted in 1980 under the title "Food Enzymes for Health and Longevity."
His original work cited over 400 references which were a part of his personal collection of 700 scientific papers. The section quotes Dr. Howell several times on certain points pertaining to his theory which he called "the food enzyme concept." In one statement Howell says"
"It seems that we inherit a certain enzyme potential at birth. This limited supply of activity factors of the life-force must last us a lifetime. The faster you use up your supply of enzyme activity, the quicker you will run out. Experiments at various universities have shown that, regardless of the species, the faster the metabolic rate, the shorter the life-span. Other things being equal, you live as long as your body has enzyme activity factors to make enzymes from. When it gets to the point that you can't make certain enzymes, then your life ends. When a food is heated to 212 degrees, the enzymes in it are 100 percent destroyed. If enzymes were in the food we eat, they would do some, or even a considerable part, of the work of digestion by themselves. However, when you eat cooked, enzyme-free food, this forces the body itself to make the enzymes needed for digestion. This depletes the body's limited enzyme capacity. I believe diets of cooked food are one of the paramount causes of premature aging and early death. I also believe this is the underlying cause of almost all degenerative disease. This state of enzyme deficiency stress exists in the majority of persons on the civilized, enzyme free diet."
The section continues, in Howell's words, with more detail about disease, the digestive process, and how it correlates to enzyme activity. Further on Dr. Howell relates an important fact about enzyme inhibitors:
"Some raw foods, seeds and nuts, contain what are called enzyme inhibitors. Nature doesn't want the seed to germinate prematurely and lose its life. When you eat raw seeds or raw nuts, you are swallowing enzyme inhibitors that will neutralize some of the enzymes your body produces. In fact, eating foods with enzyme inhibitors causes a swelling of the pancreas. All nuts and seeds contain these inhibitors. Raw peanuts contain an especially large amount.
"There are two ways to destroy enzyme inhibitors. The first is cooking; however, this also destroys the enzymes. The second and preferable way is sprouting, which destroys the enzyme inhibitors and also increases the enzyme content by a factor of three to six."
Howell then points out that rats eating an enzyme free diet versus rats fed a diet of raw food had a 30 percent shorter lifespan. "If this held true for human beings," Howell says, "it may mean that people could extend their life-spans by 20 or more years, just by maintaining proper enzyme levels." Dr. Howell's food enzyme concept seems to hold true if one considers that he lived for 102 years, practicing what he preached.
The next section in Chapter 7 details the principle enzymes in milk: lactase, galactase, lactoperoxidase, lactoferrin, catalase, amylase, lipase, and phosphatase. Further information is given about each of these enzymes and their benefit to the human body. There are two types of pasteurization used on milk today which destroy most of these enzymes. The first involves heating milk to 161 degrees for 15 to 20 seconds called HTST or high-temperature short-time method. The second method is called UHT or ultra-heat treatment and heats milk for a fraction of a second to 230 degrees.
Dr. Weston Price and Dr. Josef Romig, as well as other doctors observing the traditional Eskimo diet and their health, are introduced in the next section of Chapter 7. The Eskimo people subsisted on a diet high in enzymes contained within fermented raw meat and fish. Dr. Howell described a report by a physician who published his findings in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, "He has never seen a single case of malignancy during seven years of practice in the region. Gastric or duodenal ulcer, acute or chronic nephritis, or scurvy, are extremely rare. Teeth are in excellent condition. Rheumatic fever, asthma, and the common cold are rare. In the performance of urinalyses running well into the thousands during seven years, not a single case of glycosuria (glucose, or sugar, in the urine, a sign of diabetes) was seen."
Dr. Rabinowitch, was a member of the Eastern Artic Patrol to Baffin Island. The expedition's purpose was to prevent the extinction of the Eskimo race. He said, "When food is abundant, a healthy Eskimo, living under primitive conditions, will eat five to 10 pounds of meat or more a day and the greatest meat eaters are in the northerly regions. The Eskimo disturbs our ideas about the high-protein (and high-fat) diet. There were no signs of any heart disease except an apical murmur in one case. All of the tonsils had healthy pink surfaces and no pus was found upon pressure. No case of cancer or diabetes was seen." Dr. Rabinowitch also found that no ketone bodies were present in urine samples of Eskimos eating a primitive diet of mostly uncooked, raw, and fermented meat. This showed that Eskimos were completely metabolizing the fats and proteins unlike most people in the west who eat large amounts of cooked animal proteins and fats.
The importance of the vital nature of enzymes and fat-soluble vitamins supplied in the traditional western diet by raw whole milk, butter, and cheese cannot be overstated. The last part of this section reads, "Most westerners would prefer to consume their raw animal food as raw milk and raw milk products rather than raw meat and fish, and obtain their fat-soluble vitamins from butter rather than organ meats. This western food preference makes access to raw, unprocessed dairy products a necessity if we are to reverse the tide of chronic disease that has engulfed our culture."
There are surely other raw food sources available which contain enzymes. The last section in Chapter 7 covers this topic in more detail. It states that the level of enzymes in a food are proportional to its calorie content. Vegetables and fruits pale in comparison to the enzyme content found in raw dairy products. Mangoes, papayas, bananas, pineapples, and avocados are some of the richer sources of enzymes found in plant based foods. Unprocessed, unpasteurized honey is another food containing a good source of enzymes. Chapter 8 will cover milk in the last traditional cultures.
Note: We have endeavored to condense the 29 pages contained in Chapter 7 into two parts which cover perhaps 10 percent of the information printed in the book. For those interested in more detail and the primary references cited, we recommend searching out the book. Also, you may check out the Archive Page if you missed the first reviews of this book, you will find links there to the previous reviews.