Food Enzymes for Health & Longevity [Paperback]

Dr.Edward Howell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1994

Revised and enlarged 2nd edition, this book includes much of the research material utilized by Dr. Howell to develop the "food enzyme concept." It also includes hundreds of references to support the conclusions and sets forth a number of principles.

Product Details

• Paperback: 222 pages
• Publisher: Lotus Press; 2 edition (January 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0941524280
• ISBN-13: 978-0941524285
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #133,140 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent proof for raw diet promoters, November 27, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Food Enzymes for Health & Longevity (Paperback)

This book takes the view that the human body is totally dependant on Enzymes for health and longevity. Whilst not rejecting orthodox nutritional principles it concludes that the body utilises food enzymes for digestion and converts spare enzymes for the 1001 other metabolic processes our body undergoes each day. Dr Howell establishes through copious(!) references tot he literature that our body has a limited capacity to store and produce enzymes and that cooking food effectively destroys the enzyme content of foods. He reaches the conclusion that the Western Diet of cooked and processed food substains us for only so long and begins to poison us from a fairly early age. Being a non-medical person I couldn't challenge any part of this book and would recommend it unreservedly to anyone looking to research the area of natural nutritition and medicine.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars this "revised edition" is a fraud, February 8, 2010

By 

James Daly (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Food Enzymes for Health & Longevity (Paperback)

OK, this book is not really a fraud, however this "revised and enlarged" edition had additions to it that were so badly written that I initially thought it was a fraud.

The book Enzyme Nutrition was referenced from Ron Schmidt's book, The Untold Story of Milk. It was also recommended in Sally Fallon's book: Nourishing Traditions. When I saw a 2nd edition was also available, I thought it would be good to get both. After reading both books carefully, I found this 2nd edition very confusing.

The introduction and interview at the beginning of this book recapped some of the basic information in the original. It explained that cooking food destroys the enzymes in food. When we eat nothing but cooked food, we eat food with no enzymes. To compensate, our pancreas must produce digestive enzymes, and this puts unnecessary wear and tear on our pancreas. Also, the pancreas is so busy producing enzymes, it never gets a chance to create hundreds of metabolic enzymes that keeps the body's tissue in good health. Eating modern processed and cooked foods are missing enzymes that contribute to many of the modern degenerative diseases we see today. Unfortunateally, I cannot see how the information in the following chapters support his theory, as it does in the original.

The nameless editor of this 2nd edition claims it contains "all the material in the 1980 edition of the of the book, with minor correction and modifications for the sake of clarity." (page 1) Except for the introduction and first interview, the rest of this book is more confusing than the original. The wording of this book has more complex medical terms than the simple wording for the layman found in the original.

If you don't believe me, preview both books on Amazon.com for yourself! (the paper back edition - NOT the kindle edition) Compare the contents and you can see what I mean. The contents of the original, has 9 concise chapters that uses simple words to explain enzymes to the layman. If you look at the "revised edition" you will see over 23 chapters with complicated medical terms. I looked at chapter 22, and noticed it was titled "Hypoglycemic and hypoglycosuric action of enzymes" I forgot the difference between hypoglycemic and hypoglycosuric was, so I looked them up in the glossary. Hypoglycemic was in the glossary, but Hypoglycosuric was not! According to the back cover, this glossary was "incorporated to facilitate understanding of the contents." Yet this is foolish, because if this was really a "revised edition" with only "minor modifications for the sake of clarity," it would not need a glossary. Nor would it need an ending chapter called "summary and conclusions." Nor would it need a following chapter titled "condensed summary and conclusions."

A lot of other useful information is missing, such as the 4-page long warning about refined sugar, linking sugar to obesity and coronary heart disease is missing. The useful information about enzyme activity in seeds is missing - explaining why it is important to soak or sprout seeds is missing. Most of the useful information about the importance of raw milk and raw meat is more difficult to understand.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. This is why I Initially thought this book was a fraud.

Added summer 2010

When I re-read page 2 of the preface, Howell makes it very clear that this book is a rough draft. So, I ordered an older copy of "food enzymes for health and longevity," that was copyrighted in 1980. (this book is copyrighted in 1994) I found in copyright statement that it was originally published under the title "status of Food Enzymes in Digestion and Metabolism," copyright 1946. When I looked on P. 165 of Howell's other book "Enzyme Nutrition, The Food Enzyme Concept," I found some information about Dr. Howell. After he wrote the "Status of Food Enzymes in Digestion and Metabolism," he spent the next 20 years expanding on it. He completed "Enzyme Nutrition" a 700 page book, and then wrote an abridged version, called "Enzyme nutrition, the food enzyme concept," which is his other book available on Amazon.

That is why this book is so confusing. Not because the information in it was intentionally scrambled, but because it is really just a rough draft! The problem is that when it was copyrighted again in 1994, the nameless editor does not tell you this in his preface. Also, the editor also provides a garbage glossary. That is why I was so unhappy when I wrote my original review.

So my conclusion is this: Only get this book if you loved "Enzyme Nutrition, the food enzyme concept." You may find a little more interesting supporting information in the interviews. I still find the majority of the body of text is still confusing and difficult to read.

Added Winter 2011

When I read the book "The Trophoblast and the Origins of Cancer" By Nicholas Gonzalez, and Linda Isaacs, there are physiologists that discredit enzyme therapy in treating cancer patients because they say that when enzymes are taken orally, they are destroyed by the digestive system. On page 141 they quote directly from this book - as supporting evidence to show that the physiologists who were discrediting enzyme therapy were wrong.

They quoted a section from this book:

What I believe is one of the most outstanding researches so far recorded on the fate of enzymes when taken orally was undertaken by Masumiz, Medical Clinic, Tohoku Imperial University, Japan. Masumizu's work is remarkable in several ways. The experiments were conducted, not upon isolated specimens of urine, but upon the complete 24 hour excretion, thereby insuring the presence of all enzymes excreted, instead of only a portion. The experimental animals, 10 rabbits, were given by os [mouth], 5 grams of pancreatin or 5 grams of fungus amylase for each rabbit per day. Since this dosage is comparatively enormus for small animals, the experiments prove beyond doubt that even large quantities of enzymes can be a absorbed and find their way into the urine. Although Masumizu proved that urinary excretion of amylase was approximately doubled when the enzymes were given, he was unable to secure any increase in the serum amylase concentration at all. He remarks that in all his experiments the level of amylase in the serum always remained constant and his figures bear out this contention. This confirms the observation of Oelgoetz who likewise found the serum amylase level uninfluenced by ingested enzymes...

The reason I quoted this was because to me, the layman who is interested in nutrition, the above paragraph made no sense to me, and typical of the reading found in this book. However, if you are getting your PHD in using pancreatic enzymes to treat cancer - than this could be a useful resource for you!

I am still not going to change my rating for this version of the book because of the horrible glossary, and the lack of information in the preface, explaining what exactly this book is a revision of.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not for the average reader, October 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Food Enzymes for Health & Longevity (Paperback)

This book has a lot of good information, but it reads like a research paper (which it was origionally, I think). Unless you're doing a research paper, there might me more helpful books to buy.