Are you throwing shade at my Bass-o-matic?
It’s the entrained air that makes a perfect smoothie tickle one’s tastebuds…
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Not sure that I want to ingest enzymes that cross the blood/brain barrier…
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I don’t think you could put a baggie of carrots in there; aside from the valve in the pouch to let the juice out, the input has to be “pre-masticated”, which is like sending the fruit through the grinder on your KitchenAid (or chewing it). Seems like the machine just squeezes the pouches really hard, which makes the $400 price tag sound even more ridiculous.
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Cold pressed or regular snake oil?
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Yup, that’s exactly what I was saying. It’s not so much DRM (i.e., “you can’t use our competitors’ identical products, mwah hah hah”) as a way for the machine to protect itself from people trying to use things in it it can’t handle.
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Most definitely. Heat destroys enzymes. That’s science. And yes, there’s absolutely a difference in their relative benefit to you.
Anyone who makes claims otherwise is lying to you and almost certainly selling snake oil. No exceptions. (I can do that too!)
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One of my favorite sketches 
Totally sick of course…
IT’S AMAAAAAZING. 
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While it is an article that they did for a newspaper, I’m assuming that these PhD’s know what they are talking about:
Enzyme hype gives some people a headache
Raw fruits and vegetables contain very small amounts of enzymes. And since enzymes are all proteins, the vast majority will be destroyed by normal stomach acid and the digestive enzymes produced in the stomach and small intestines. Consequently, the enzymes in fresh fruits and vegetables have no measurable effect on the digestion of food and it is highly unlikely that any significant amount of the intact enzymes are absorbed into the body.These facts have not prevented people from making all kinds of wild and magical claims about the supposed benefits of food enzymes. Many enzymes have found their way into dietary supplements. The claims made for their benefits can be humorous to anyone who understands how enzymes really work.
…
Despite all the scams, some enzyme products really do what they claim. For example, the products Lactaid and Beano are both legitimate enzyme products. Lactaid is a concentrated source of the enzyme lactase, which helps with the digestion of milk sugar, beneficial to those with lactose intolerance. Beano contains enzymes that help to reduce the gassiness of beans by digesting some of the carbohydrates known to produce gas. These products work because some of the enzymes survives digestion long enough to have the intended effect.Many enzyme products are based on very confused rationale and the minor amounts of enzymes in raw food are unlikely to affect body function.
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um you might want to do some studying before calling BULLSHIT and then spreading your own.
Pepsin also does not break down most other enzymes and usually increases their activity.
True many enzymes aren’t absorbed through the intestines, BUT, talking about enzymes and ABSORPTION is just stupid and a HUGE misunderstanding of enzymes and their function in the body in general. People don’t require most dietary enzymes so that they can absorb them into their bloodstream, that isn’t what they are for in the body, nor what they do. Enzymes play an enormous role in processing the food in the gut and making the nutrients in the food absorbable and usable to your body. Enzymes are even how our bodies make many vital essential nutrients “in house”, and most of that happens in the intestines as well. They are the workhorses of our body allowing us to convert foods into usable nutrition, even many of the bacteria in our gut require enzymes for various processes. Enzymes are necessary for life. They aren’t direct nutritional factors themselves, rather the crucial processors of most of our necessary nutritional factors.
No one ignorantly writes off the importance of our microbiome because we don’t absorb the bacteria in our guts into our bloodstream (well if we are healthy). You have to understand the ROLE something plays and WHERE it is used.
Also, just for the record this is ALSO wrong. There are a number of exceptions, serrapeptase and nattokinase are both absorbed in the intestines and can be measured in blood and tissue levels. There are a number of enzymes that are absorbed and used by the human body that we know of and likely many we don’t know about yet, but most enzyme use is in the intestines, so we want to use them up for their intended purpose, not absorb them. they aren’t vitamins or minerals. duh.
The human body benefits tremendously from consuming foods with enzymes and enzymes have been shown in clinical trials to do everything from increase blood nutrient levels, to reducing inflammations and auto-immunes issues that start in the gut wall. The gut plays a huge factor in the immune system. It is also where we manufacture most of our neuro-chemicals via enzymes.
It is pretty foolish to write off enzymes just because you’ve replaced your first misunderstanding (enzymes aren’t absorbed) with a second misunderstanding (dietary enzymes don’t do anything), and pile onto that with another misunderstanding that stomach acid breaks down all the enzymes when it doesn’t.
Maybe some Alpha Galactosidase would help reduce that gas, there is a lot of ignorant sh*t talk/smell coming from that mouth. (in case anyone doesn’t know Beano®, it is a commercial enzyme product to reduce gas and help break down foods that cause gas, and yes it works in the intestines, you don’t absorb it.)
Enzymes are like the the tiny wrench in the ikea box, they might seem small and insignificant, but they are damn near essential if you plan on making anything useful out of the stuff in the package.
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It honestly amazes me I haven’t been in this conversation more. My family still has orchards, I make juice all the time, and if someone buys Beano and a bag of sugar I can tell you exactly what laws they are about to break.
I guess from my perspective, a bag of carrots, some apples, celery, and spinach… Go nuts. (Yes, that last bit was on purpose 
)
Pro tip, don’t juice raw onions or raw garlic. There are… Consequences.
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A quote from the enzyme institute? Kinda like refuting global warming with a quote from the Petroleum Institute…
Proteins Are Degraded to Amino Acids - Biochemistry - NCBI Bookshelf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22600/
Stomach acid denatures (unfolds) the proteins so that the pepsin can start breaking them down. Unless the enzymes are immune to the PH level, they will be unfolded – most of the enzymes will be denatured.
How does pepsin “increase the activity of other enzymes”? That doesn’t make sense unless the other enzymes don’t get denatured by the HCl and have some extra cruft attached to them that pepsin cuts off to make them more effective.
They are chosen because they happen to be able to survive the acidic stomach environment: Stomach acid will generally denature most proteins – including enzymes (especially the *ases that are active in the higher PH environment of the intestines).
a very common solution is to use the lactase produced by another organism, which is acid-active and acid-stable. This organism is a fungus called Asperguillus niger and from it, a lactase enzyme can be isolated which is active in a very wide range of pH. Actually, A. niger produces a number of useful enzymes. The product Beano contains another enzyme called Alpha-galactosidase, which helps to break down complex carbohydrates, which can help decrease flatulence and other GI distress from eating beans and other problematic starches.
I don’t have an issue with the absorption of enzymes, but they make it to the small intestine because they are typically taken orally between meals and have an enteric coating to help them survive the stomach.
I’ll even quote the king of woo (Mercola) for that:
Getting enzymes from your digestive tract into your bloodstream isn't as easy as it would seem. As I've already discussed, enzymes are very susceptible to denaturing and must be helped to survive the highly acidic environment in your stomach. They are often given an "enteric coating" to help them survive the journey through your digestive tract... ...It is crucial that, in order for enzymes to be used systemically, they must be ingested on an empty stomach.
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glass houses? 
hee hee
interesting read, but they say a lot of incorrect stuff, like their statement that “raw fruits and vegetables contain very small amounts of enzymes”. Enzymes are what ripen fruit and convert the sugars and fruit is one of the most concentrated natural sources of enzymes second really only to animal digestive organs. Most enzymes used in commercial processing that isn’t synthesized is extracted from directly from fruit. Bromelain and Papain are classic examples. Most fruit and berries contain extra enzymes to assist in their breaking down via digestion, while their seeds and pits contain enzyme inhibitors to prevent those from breaking down so they pass. The plants specifically adapted to providing nutrition in exchange for help propagating.
they also contradict what they are saying almost every other sentence by stating how X enzyme increases the utilization and absorption of X.
The denaturization process starts in the stomach, but only about 20% of the denaturization occurs in the stomach, and only for free proteins or those that are NOT still intracellular in the foods yet to be broken down. most food enzymes are intracellular in the food. The stomach is more of a prep the sludge for continued processing type of organ then stuff doesn’t leave until X.
many enzymes are available in pre-active forms (zymogen or a pro-enzyme) and require activation via alteration to be switch from inactive to active. This activation happens via partial denaturization and auto-calalyzation, being catalyzed by another enzyme, or the remove of an activation inhibitor molecule. Even pepsinogen requires hcl ro be converted to pepsin and be activated. The process of breaking down a food triggers and activates many of its enzymes and starts their catalytic process so that they can do exactly what they need to do and break down and make nutrients available.
Enzymes are PART of the breaking down and converting process, not a victim of it.
enteric coating are just “micro encapsulation” in something that traverses the stomach intact, it is mimicing the same thing that happens naturally to things that are in cells that aren’t broken down in the stomach. enzymes are more likely to traverse the stomach with meals then inbetween and intracellular then extracellular. all eneric coatings are just binding things to food molecules that traverse the stomach intact copying the exact process that occurs naturally.
Part of the confusion when discussing enzymes is a lot of the studies are done on extracted enzyme supplements, which are much more susceptible to destruction during digestion which is why many of the better ones are now enerically coated as you point out. Being inside of a cell of the food that remains intact is even better protection.
I’m not advocating taking supplimental enzymes unless recommended by a doctor, i’m pointing out the large role that food based enzymes play in the process of getting the nutrients from the food out in usable forms. Most of the enzymes in a given food are specific to breaking down and utilizing what is in the food, which is precisely why the plant or animal made them in the first place.
Funny how the main argument that dietary enzymes DON’T DO ANYTHING is a misunderstanding and claim that our own enzymes DO TOO MUCH to the enzymes we eat.
Ironically you can even measure food based enzymes in fecal matter, because a percentage of what we consume passes unprocessed and unused. Thinking it is all 100% destroyed in the stomach, like mercola claims, is pure balderdash.
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Enzyme products, as in pills and over the counter stuff? I was talking about fresh vegetables if I remember correctly. How does this relate? There are a million lame over the counter nutritional substances out there, and absolutely “enzyme” is a buzz word. But I believe that there might indeed be differences between drinking fresh juice that still even has active enzymes in it, from a natural product we were designed by evolution to consume and make energy from, versus a bottle of juice which really has none. Or maybe it’s just the fibre, who the fuck cares honestly. Fresh juice is better for you than bottled juice, and anyone who says otherwise, whatevs biyatches!
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Damn son, take the kids to school… 
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Daaang kid, what was that, summer school? 
@NickyG, @redesigned, @anon29631895 whoa whoa whoa. There is a simpler solution to all this. Just use a simple, cheap fish tank pump to shoot juice up your… You know… The other direction. I for one don’t see any negative consequences for that.
(Denaturing enzymes is a feature, we have gone through selection, nutrition is a tricky science, but it comes down to eat more less-sugary plants more than anything else)
(And I carping know that less-sugary are weasel words, but I also know you know what I mean)
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That was a South Park episode if I remember correctly. The problem is, it ends up with you shitting out of your mouth. No thank you! But as far as enzymic colon cleansing? That must already be a thing, because if not… CHA-CHING! 
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The Juice is Loose, the Juice is Loose! [1]
(and fresh from your caboose)
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A funny, horrifying, funny, horrifying episode. Then more horrifying.
However, back to the point. There are three central pillars when it comes to japhroaig’s take on nutrition:
- Consuming too much will kill you faster. Juicing for many, since they loaded with so many simple sugars, will accelerate this. Regardless of other nutritional benefits.
- Consuming too little will lead to atrophy and mortality, however at a slower pace. Vitamin/mineral/electrolyte deficiencies will catch you fast, however if you keep those in balance you can live a long, strong, healthy life.
- Most importantly, do not rely on nutritional experts. Bodies are “emergent systems”, they adapt. I am preaching to the choir, but I want to be very clear: the nutrition for Usain bolt and Stephen Hawking are wildly different.
So in the end, I’m with @waetherman. If you want one, knock yourself out. Keep reasonable expectations, don’t overindulge, and enjoy.
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