Differences Between Probiotics and Enzymes

Oct 30

Many people I talk to get these two important bodyworkers easily confused — and they are NOT the same thing.

Enzymes

Enzymes are complex proteins that stimulate chemical changes or reactions in other substances. Enzymes are an essential catalyst in our bodies, and they do so many important functions. There are three types of enzymes: digestive enzymes, food enzymes, and metabolic enzymes.

Digestive Enzymes

First and most important, digestive enzymes help us digest, assimilate, utilize, and eliminate our food by breaking the food down into a liquid called bile to absorb nutrients in our small intestine.

When teaching classes on nutrition, we do a simple test; take 2 bowls and 2 instant oatmeal packages. In one bowl, put just the oatmeal and water, and in the other bowl, put the oatmeal, water, and a capsule or two of enzymes.

Within one hour, the bowl with the enzymes has turned into a thin liquid because it breaks down the oatmeal flakes. This illustrates how enzymes work to break down our food for us.

Enzymes also help to neutralize toxins in our bodies, they help to repair tissue and build new cells. They also help to hold calcium and other minerals in our bones and prevent the buildup of calcium in other organs such as gall stones and kidney stones.

Food Enzymes

Food enzymes are present naturally in raw foods. When you ‘snap’ broccoli, you hear the enzymes holding onto the molecules in the broccoli. When you cook the broccoli “to death,” — it removes the enzymes.

When you let the broccoli sit in your refrigerator for 3 weeks, it starts to get flimsy and no longer has its snap. That is because the enzymes are now inactive. The more food is commercially processed, the fewer enzymes it has in it.

We are all born with a ‘reserve or savings account full of enzymes. Every time we eat raw foods, we put enzymes in our reserve. Every time we eat ‘dead’ food, or food with no enzymes, we must pull enzymes out of our reserve to digest the food.

Once we get to be 30-35 years old, our bodies are often depleted of enzymes -- our savings accounts are empty! Unfortunately, I have seen this age drop more and more every month with my customers. People do not eat enough raw food with enzymes.

Raw food diets

You may have heard of ‘raw food’ or ‘living food’ diets. This is a diet where people only eat live or raw food that contains enzymes. The idea is that if the food does not have enzymes, it is considered dead.

Live food has a completely different frequency than dead food. It is alive with enzymes and often natural probiotics, thereby feeding the person with nourishing food instead of dead.

So, let’s say we eat a carrot. We have enough enzymes to digest the carrot and a little bit left over to put in our reserve. But then let’s say we eat a roll. There are no enzymes in the roll. So, if we don’t have enough enzymes, what happens?

Our pancreas produces enzymes, our liver produces enzymes, and our stomach produces enzymes. But if these organs are stressed or the reserves are empty, where can our body get enzymes?

Our bodies then go to our bones to get enzymes — as our body uses enzymes to hold calcium in our bones. So now our body says — digestion is much more important than holding the body up. So now we end up with calcium out of solution from our bones, which is a step towards osteoporosis.

Now the good news is you can start to eat more raw foods to get more enzymes in your body. Also, you can purchase food enzymes to help replenish your savings account. When purchasing enzymes, you should look for words that end in the suffix –ase. Some popular enzymes are Protease, Amylase, Lipase, Cellulase, Invertase, and so on.

Enzyme products

Enzymes are not alive; they are either active or inactive. Enzyme products are typically sold in capsules, but you can also purchase in liquid form, which is great to use topically for injuries and healing damaged tissues. Encapsulated products may also contain other ingredients, like Hydrochloric Acid, often shown as Betaine HCL, or papaya enzymes –which be shown simply as papaya enzymes, or you may see bromelain, which is an enzyme that comes from pineapples.

These can be beneficial for some people but watch out for other fillers, which are not needed and can only add more unneeded toxins into your body. As always, read the label.

Another important fact to know is that all enzymes are not the same. Some enzymes help digest proteins, and some are for digesting carbohydrates, some digest fats, and some help digest milk products.

For example, Lipase is the enzyme that our bodies use to digest fat. If you no longer have a gall bladder, many health professionals highly recommend that you take lipase regularly to help the liver do the job previously done by the gall bladder.

Enzymes help activate digestion, but also enzymes can help buffer or neutralize the acid in our bodies. They can especially help with over-acidic stomachs. And it is also important to know that enzymes can vary greatly in what pH they are activated in. It may be beneficial to take your saliva pH to find the appropriate enzymes that work best with your digestion. Ask your health professional for some help or reach out to me if you have questions on this.

Metabolic Enzymes

Finally, metabolic enzymes are those enzymes that the body makes. These enzymes help with detoxification and energy production. They run the body’s systems and are connected to every working organ in the body.

Even our spinal disks are composed mostly of enzymes. That is why taking enzymes internally and spraying them on topically can help repair disk injuries. I have many clients, including myself, repair disk injuries with enzymes.

Probiotics

Beneficial Bacteria, or Probiotics as they are often called, are the good bacteria that live inside our small and large intestines. Also called Microflora, it is estimated that there are between 40–80 trillion of these microorganisms in our bodies.

The majority are found between the end of the small intestine and the distal colon. Also, it is now known that our Appendix holds a reservoir of beneficial bacteria.

Most recent research states that our whole body has beneficial bacteria. They are on our skin, our eyes, in every part of our body. These little organisms do many important functions for us, including killing harmful bacteria, killing fungus, also known as candida, and building B vitamins for the rest of our body to use.

Two of the most damaging substances to our delicate intestinal flora balance are chlorine and fluoride — which is in most tap waters. Antibiotics (which kill helpful bacteria in addition to the harmful bacteria), birth control pills, alcoholic beverages, and many other drugs also contribute to the destruction of this valuable intestinal flora.

Poor eating habits, stress, and antibiotics used in our foods also can wreak havoc in the gastrointestinal area by destroying good bacteria and allowing bad bacteria to multiply.

When your body is low on beneficial bacteria, it can cause gas, bloating, bad breath, constipation, diarrhea, intestinal toxicity, and poor absorption of nutrients. Taking probiotics helps people that are under stress by building important B vitamins.

If you are like me and don’t have an appendix, it is good to take beneficial bacteria regularly always to have a good supply available for your body to use.

If you already have an infection and are taking an antibiotic, it is beneficial to take probiotics when done with your medication. This will replace what the antibiotic killed. Some people find if they are having symptoms while on the antibiotics, that probiotics can help. Check with your health professional for the best results.

Confusion

Where the confusion may come from is that there is an enzyme called Lactase that is used by our bodies to digest milk and is also put in milk sometimes to help people digest it better. People may be confusing Lactase with L-Acidophilus, the beneficial bacteria put in yogurt or Acidophilus milk.

People may be confusing Lactase with L-Acidophilus…

Many people think that if they take L. Acidophilus after a round of antibiotics, that will be sufficient. But this is just one of about 600+ known strains of probiotics that live in our bodies. It is important to know what the drug you are taking pulls out of your body.

There are books on the market that lists nutrients that each drug pulls out of the body. We used to have an on-line program that let us look up each drug to see what nutrients each drug pulled out of the body.

Unfortunately, they have made this information only available to medical doctors now. When I did have access, I was able to see that most drugs and over the counter medicines pull probiotics out of the body.

Replenishing probiotics

Many people think if they eat yogurt or take Acidophilus milk that they are replenishing probiotics efficiently.

1- Typical yogurt that people buy are loaded with sugar and other ingredients impeding the growth of decent supply of bacteria in there to make it past the acid in your stomach to your small intestine.

2- These bacteria typically are not ‘enteric coated’ — which means they are not coated with enteric organisms to make it past your stomach acid to your small intestine, which is where you get the most bang for your buck.

3- Plus, the dairy is most likely not helping the issue. Yogurt made from coconut or hemp milk would be a better option. You can read about the problem with dairy here. Soy is an issue also, and nut milks are high in lectins which many people have issues with but aren’t even aware of it.

Probiotics are living organisms. Unlike enzymes, probiotics do have a life span of a few months to a few years, depending on the strain. The colder these organisms are, the longer their life span. The warmer it is, the shorter their life. If they get over 100 degrees, that will typically kill them.

That is why many probiotics you see are refrigerated or frozen to ensure their natural life span. Many new strains out on the market are now sold as ‘shelf-stable’ — meaning they do not have to be refrigerated. It is still not recommended to leave them in a hot car or a windowsill with the sun shining on them.

Because they have a life span, you should always check the bottle for an expiration date. If there is no date, I recommend not purchasing that brand. Most beneficial bacteria cannot survive in stomach acid. So some brands coat their tablets with enteric organisms to bypass the stomach to deliver the helpful bacterial to the intestines.

Each strain of beneficial bacteria feeds on different food. Some eat yeast, some carrots, and some eat short- and long-chain fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS). When you look at the probiotics bottle, there should be food in there for them to eat. If there is not food in the bottle, the organisms won’t survive, so be sure to read labels to get what is needed for your body.

Some probiotics are food-based, and others are soil-based. Unfortunately, many people’s food supply is so treated with pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones, genetically modified and void of soil-based bacteria, that they do not replenish these regularly.

That is one reason organic fresh food is so important as it allows us to get these important good bacteria in abundance to help our body fight against more harmful organisms.

Many illnesses that people get are often because people have inadequate supplies of beneficial bacteria; including yeast infections, thrush, toe fungus, dandruff, eczema, psoriasis, and other fungus illnesses.

If you have a fungus issue, getting on some quality probiotics can make a big difference. There are probably many other functions performed by the microflora of the intestines that science is still unaware of.

Incorporating fermented foods such as sauerkraut, fermented pickles, kombucha and/or kimchi is one of the best ways to ensure an abundance of beneficial bacteria in your body.

Another interesting fact about enzymes and probiotics is that they both benefit from trace minerals in the body. Minerals help activate enzymes and help probiotics by feeding the cells and tissues where the organisms live, providing them much needed nutrients to keep reproducing.

So now, you know the difference, and hopefully, you can utilize this important information in your health regime.

Reach out to me at truhealthbykasara@outlook.com if questions.

About the Author

Kasara is educated as a Mental Health Therapist, Master Herbalist, Traditional Naturopath and Energy Worker with over 35 years of helping thousands of clients find alternative health options that work. She writes articles on Medium, and on her website http://truhealth.com. You may subscribe to her Medium account or her newsletter to stay connected.

Kasara D'Elene https://TruHealth.com