Why Cooked and Processed Foods Lack Enzymes—and What It Means for Your Digestion
Think about the staples of a typical modern diet: baked pasta and breads, grilled or fried meats, pasteurized dairy, canned and packaged products. What do they all have in common? They’ve all been exposed to high temperatures during cooking or processing, which destroys the natural enzymes originally present in those raw ingredients (Are raw foods healthier than cooked foods?).
Enzymes are extremely sensitive to heat, and most become inactive at temperatures above 117 °F (47 °C). That means when you boil pasta, bake bread, or can vegetable soup, the enzymes that were in the flour, grains, or fresh produce are deactivated. By the time these foods reach your plate, they are essentially “enzyme-free.”
Consequences of an “Enzyme-Free” Diet on Digestive Health
As a result of eating enzyme-free food, your body has to supply 100% of the digestive enzymes needed to break these foods down. In contrast, in a more ancestral diet—made up mostly of raw foods—nature would share the workload, since raw foods still contain active enzymes that help digest part of themselves.
For example, researchers have observed that a raw apple contains its own enzymes that can self-digest between 40% and 60% of the apple in the intestine, leaving the body to handle the rest (Enzymes: The Necessary Companion of a Dead Diet — Ann Arbor Holistic Health). But when that same apple is baked into a pie, those beneficial enzymes disappear entirely.
Natural Enzymes vs. Added Enzymes
Many modern foods are extremely low in enzymes because they are cooked or pasteurized. Our current diet is full of products like — pasta, bread, meat, and canned goods — that are “enzymatically dead” due to thermal processing.
Constantly eating meals that are poor in enzymes places extra stress on the digestive system. The pancreas and other organs must work harder than otherwise necessary to produce enough amylase, protease, lipase, and other enzymes to break down large, cooked meals. Over time, enzyme-deficient in meals can cause partially digested food to remain in the intestine, leading to fermentation and gut irritation.
An “Enzymatically Dead” Diet Can Lead To:
- Extra stress on the pancreas.
- Partially digested food, which causes → fermentation and intestinal irritation.
- Uncomfortable symptoms such as: heaviness, bloating, acid reflux, and irregular bowel movements.
As a result, after a big, cooked meal, y You may recognize these symptoms: that have a heavy, bloated feeling or after a big cooked meal, acid reflux. This may also lead to, or irregular digestion later on.
Relative Enzyme Deficiency
When your body’s enzyme production can’t fully meet your dietary enzyme demand, you essentially have an enzyme insufficiency (at least relative to your diet). Even without a medical diagnosis, you may experience subtle digestive issues simply because of the gap between an enzyme-poor diet and your digestive capacity, because tThe modern diet forces the body to work at 100% without any natural support.
The good news? You can bridge this gap by taking digestive enzyme supplements—basically replenishing what cooking has taken away.
👉 In the following article, Digestive Enzyme Supplements: Benefits, Usage, and How to Improve Your Digestion with Bellyé, we’ll explore how digestive enzyme supplements help restore digestive balance.
