Product category: Natural Food Supplement
Physiological action: For the support of normal digestive function.
EASY DIGEST intended use: The basic role of our digestive system is the proper digestion of our food and subsequently the absorption of the individual nutrients. There is a need for a sufficient break down of our food in order for these individual nutrients to be released and get absorbed.
The breakdown of our food into smaller pieces or individual nutrients, ready to be absorbed in the small intestine, is done primarily by digestive enzymes.
Digestive enzymes are produced and function within the digestive system of our body. The activity of these endogenous digestive enzymes can be assisted by the presence of other digestive enzymes which are taken in exogenously by means of food supplements.
EASY DIGEST contains the following digestive enzymes of plant origin: amylase, lipase, glycoamylase, proteases, papain, bromelain and cellulase. The product is a food supplement aiming to supplement the common diet of certain categories of people for which there is an impaired digestive function.
Digestive enzymes act like scissors which cut the food which we consume into smaller basic building units which are then absorbed by the small intestine and are used by the human body to make cells, tissues, organs, glands.
Digestive enzymes are diverse and are found in the saliva secreted by the salivary glands, in the stomach secreted by cells lining the stomach, in thepancreatic juice secreted by pancreatic exocrine cells, and in the intestinal (small and large) secretions, or as part of the lining of the gastrointestinal tract. In case the quantities of these endogenous digestive enzymes are not sufficient, digestive function becomes problematic so does our health.
Raw food of plant origin contains natural enzymes which are important to assist the function of endogenous digestive enzymes. However, these enzymes of plant origin found in food are heat sensitive and their activity during cooking could be destroyed up to 100%.
If that happens, pancreas (which normally produces only those digestive enzymes which are needed to complete digestion) over-functions to cope for the increased demand for digestion.
Under these circumstances, human body cannot respond sufficiently to the increased production demand of digestive enzymes. Elderly people or people, in general, consuming alcohol or caffeine normally have partially digested food (mainly protein) in their stomach, leading to digestive disturbances.
Symptoms, such as excessive stomach gas/flatulence, stomach (abdominal) bloating, heartburn (acid indigestion), etc., mainly after meals, are often the signs of a digestive dysfunction caused by a problematic digestion.
Easy Digest is a product which guarantees maximum absorption of nutrients from food since it contains digestive enzymes for many different target substrates:
- Amylase: Enzyme which breaks down starch (carbohydrate) and glycogen found in food into simple sugars.
- Lipase: Enzyme which breaks down fat into individual fatty acids.
- Proteases (protease 3.0, protease 4.5, protease 6.0): Enzymes with the ability to break down proteins. Protease 3.0 generally breaks down proteins under acidic stomach conditions, thus offering a wide range of activity whereas protease 4.5 offers a narrow range of acitvity with absolute specificity in breaking down specific proteins.
- Glycoamylase: Enzyme which breaks down specific carbohydrate molecules, meaning malto-oligosaccharides (e.g. maltodextrin) into glucose.
- Cellulase: Enzyme which breaks down cellulose into to beta-glucose. Cellulose forms the primary structural component of plants and is not digestible by humans.
- Papain & Bromelain: Proteolytic enzymes which come from papaya fruit and pineapple stem, respectively and used to break down inactive proteins found in food, thus facilitating the function of other endogenous proteolytic enzymes (e.g. pepsin, thrypsin, etc.).
