Customer Reviews

Food Enzymes: Missing Link to Radiant Health

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have read other explanations of how enzymes work in the body, but this is the first one I've actually understood! Smokey did a wonderful job of explaining this topic to people with no prior knowledge of enzymes. You come away from this short and to-the-point book feeling that you have learned a great deal about how your body works, and wanting to eat raw foods with lots of enzymes to help your body recover as well as maintain, its health. Is very motivational as well as instructional, at a basic level.

This is a great intro book into the complex world of enzymes and how they interact with our entire system.

I learned that obesity, diabetes, psoriasis, and many other ailments can be pre-empted--or at least postponed a long time--by a healthy supply and balance of enzymes. In some cases, a partial or full reversal is possible. In the same vein, enzyme balance aids digestion in such a way that controlling sugar is a natural side-effect.

However, cooked/canned foods and aging combine to drastically deplete our enzyme reserves. Canned foods are devoid of enzymes and the more heat we apply to raw foods, the fewer the enzymes left. Fully cooked items usually have zero enzymes as well.

I do want to mention a bit about the research sources. On the one hand, more than half the cited studies are both powerful and highly convincing. On the other hand, little, if any research refers to reputable US-based research findings. I don't believe this suggests that the author's reasearch is flawed. Instead, it points out just how pig-headed the F.D.A. and the U.S. mainstream medical community still are regarding supplements in general and enzyme therapies in particular.

A few months ago, I began an organic approach to controlling sugar. By replacing refined sugar with plant-derived Stevia,* my fasting glucose plummeted from 119 to 104 in the first week and I effortlessly lost 14 pounds in four months. All this, with no other dietary/exercise adjustments.

My gut tells me that both supplementary enzymes and an increase in raw foods form the perfect backup approach to substantially improved health, enhanced sugar control, and continued weight loss. This book makes a strong case that I might be right.

Because this book is concise and very well-edited, I got through it quickly, yet I yearn to reread it. I know that second and third readings will no doubt allow the material to fully sink in. Although this marks the first of potentially five or six books I intend to read on enzymes, I feel like I got off to a really great start.

* Until 1995, the F.D.A. banned Stevia and ordered regular searches and seizures of trucks suspected of carrying these plant products, imported from South America. Since 1995, the F.D.A. forbids manufacturers from labelling Stevia as a sweetener. Instead, it must be marketed as a "dietary supplement." As a result, a tiny fraction of one percent of U.S. sweetening is done with Stevia, while 70 percent of the world sweetens with Stevia. In Japan, that figure is 90 percent. Don't you just love the sugar and artificial sweetener lobbyists?

Several online retailers sell Stevia, but beware of its high concentration. A little goes a VERY long way. A 2-ounce bottle yeilds 225 drops and an 8-ounce beverage only needs one or two drops. By overusing, newbies ruin their drink or recipe and never use it again. Stevia really is vile if overdone. Then again, so is sugar and Aspartame.

In recipes calling for a cup of sugar, non-diabetics can use one teaspoon of sugar and sweeten the rest with Stevia. The trick is to add the Stevia drops at the very end. Slowly. If the entire recipe weighs in at 80 ounces, then add 10 drops and taste it. Then add two more drops at a time, until you reach the desired level of sweetness. Just Google Stevia to pull up retailers or you can Google Stevia and F.D.A. to learn more about that story.

The beauty of Smokey's work is that he takes dry science and makes it digestable for the non-scientist. He has also created a way for all of us to act on the knowledge put forth by Viktoras Kulvinskas and Dr. Edward Howell. Though this is given to us in a short, final chapter (Juicing, Enhancements, and Alternatives), it is undoubtedly the most important part of this book and one that the reader should pay close attention to. This is where the "rubber meets the road" to wellness. Move from "armchair reading" to "quarterbacking" your life!

If you're interested in the basis for the Food Enzyme Concept, you will be better off with the original, Dr. Edward Howell's book, "Food Enzymes for Health and Longevity." Santillo's book is an enthusiastic abstract of some of the highlights of Dr. Howell's work, but the details got a little scrambled in translation.

AS A PASTOR of 50 years I spent much time in hospitals and funeral homes, puzzled over American sickness compared with primitive populations, and over the lack of sickness in animals until they eat our food. The answer, I now know, is in our almost total lack of food enzymes. Food Enzymes by Dr. Santillo is the best place to begin reading.
Dan Carr

Santillo writes an enthusiastic and engaging overview of the needs and science behind enzyme supplementation. Speaking as a consumer and interested reader, not as any type of health practitioner, I found the book to be exciting and it has certainly influenced my outlook in terms of dietary choices and need for attention to enzyme intake and food processing.

Santillo writes an enthusiastic and engaging overview of the needs and science behind enzyme supplementation. Speaking as a consumer and interested reader, not as any type of health practitioner, I found the book to be exciting and it has certainly influenced my outlook in terms of dietary choices and need for attention to enzyme intake and food processing.

I saw this book in my friend's house and decided to read through it based on our discussions in enzyme activity, structure and then eventually biochemistry and chemistry. My friend is not a scientist and told me that the book made some claims of enzymes not being proteins at all. I have a PhD in organic chemistry and chemical biology from UC Berkeley and I understand that even if someone who knows the area extremely well needs to explain a difficult concepts in the field of biochemistry (enzyme activity in this case) he/she will run into eventual errors in shrinking the information down to layman's terms. For that reason, I would only leave it to the experts not someone with a Doctor of Naturopathy and Master Herbalist to do the explaining. These types of degrees seem to be coming out of nowhere these days and all I recommend is for people to read this book carefully and if they want to make the adjustments in their lifestyle go ahead, but please don't do it because somebody just filled your brain with erroneous concepts in science that they themselves are not even remotely familiar with.

Another excellent book on the importance of enzymes. I have quite a few of those, but I still learned new things from this book. Well-worth buying it.