Nutrition Tips - How do enzymes relate to digestion?

My name is Christine Marquette and I'm a registered dietitian with the Austin Regional Clinic and I'm going to talk to you about how enzymes relate to digestion. When you eat any food initially you start the process as you are chewing, there's a few salivary enzymes from your tongue that do very, very, very minimal digestion of things like carbohydrate. As you chew up your food and you swallow it, it travels down your esophagus to your stomach the acid in your stomach also starts to break down the food further. From there it starts to enter your small intestines or your digestive tract and at that point, that's where enzymes really start to play a roll. Your pancreas will release three different types of enzymes. It will release amylase protease, and lipase. These three enzymes enter your small intestine and they have very specific purposes. Protease is going to target proteins and help to start breaking those down further. Lipase is actually going to help break down fat molecules and amylase is going to help further break down carbohydrate molecules. So the further these items are broken down, the better your body can actually absorb them for energy and for other uses. So for example, protein is used primarily to build muscle, carbohydrate is used primarily for energy and fats are going to be used for both energy and for storage. It's also used to help maintain the flexibility of your cells and tissues and to regulate your body temperature. Other food items that contain enzymes include some different fruits, for example, papayas and pineapples contain enzymes but a lot of times enzymes don't have as big of a role as the enzymes from your pancreas as far as your actual digestion. Those enzymes play a bigger role when you are using them for example as tenderizers of meat. A lot of times you will have meat tenderizer that has either papaya enzymes or pineapple enzymes to help soften that meat. Again it's more for palatability, more for enjoyment of that particular food. Sometimes a person may need to take prescription strength enzymes if they suffer from chronic pancreatitis or even possibly acute pancreatitis. Again if without those enzymes being produced by your pancreas you won't absorb the nutrients from your foods. So that's just a little bit of information for you on how enzymes relate to digestion.