Enzymes are catalysts of chemical reactions, meaning they initiate and increase the rate of cellular processes such as metabolism. Without enzymes, reactions in the body would take place too slowly to sustain life. The best digestive enzyme supplements are responsible for breaking down the food that you eat into their building blocks, which are small enough to be absorbed in the intestinal tract. Once absorbed, these building blocks can either be used for energy or stored for later use. To fully act on your food, these enzymes are secreted in your digestive juices such as saliva, stomach acid, pancreatic juice and bile.

Types of Digestive Enzymes Found In Supplements

The human body produces three main types of digestive enzymes: amylase, protease and lipase. Each has a unique function, and all work together to allow you to digest your food and absorb its nutrients properly.

Amylase

This class of enzymes is responsible for digesting the starches and complex carbohydrates that you eat into their simple sugar subunits. Because of their size, your body is not capable of absorbing starches or sugars that are larger than one subunit. The most common amylase in your body is alpha-amylase, which is in both saliva and pancreatic secretions. This is the enzyme that allows you to digest foods like potatoes, pasta, corn, and bread. When you are deficient in amylase, eating these foods will cause gas and bloating, and may cause several other symptoms throughout the body.

Protease

Protease is another class of enzymes in the body, but these are responsible for breaking down protein. Digestive proteases in your body are pepsin, trypsin and chymotrypsin. Pepsin is released in your stomach, and the other two are found in your pancreatic secretions. Protein is the building block of most of the structure of your body, including your muscles, bones, skin and hair. It is also required for most of your bodily processes in the form of cell signalling molecules, hormones and immune molecules. Protein is found in foods like meat, dairy, nuts and legumes. The inability to properly digest protein results in foul-smelling gas and stool.

Lipase

The third major class of digestive enzymes in the human body is lipase. This molecule is responsible for the digestion of dietary fat into free fatty acids that are easily absorbed in your gut. It is secreted by the pancreas and released in the intestines. Dietary fats that require the presence of lipase can be both unhealthy saturated fats found in french fries and potato chips and the health-boosting fats from fish oil and olive oil. The inability to properly digest dietary fat can result in steatorrhea (fat in the stool), or pale floating stools.

Lactase

Another digestive enzyme that commonly requires supplementation is lactase. This enzyme is responsible for digesting the primary sugar found in milk, called lactose. Deficiency in this enzyme is a common condition known as lactose intolerance. Symptoms of lactose intolerance are nausea, gas, cramping and diarrhea when the sufferer eats dairy products such as milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, and so on.

Naturally Occurring Enzymes

Enzymes occur naturally in all raw foods. When we refer to the "ripeness" of a food we are talking about its readiness to be eaten. Ripe foods become the most abundant in enzymes that are used for your proper digestion. Unfortunately, these naturally occurring enzymes are quickly destroyed by cooking or processing. This means that the average person has a diet that is deficient in natural enzymes. This external deficiency forces the body to do more work to compensate and digest the food, or else the foods are not properly digested. When your body cannot properly digest and absorb the nutrients from the food that you eat, it results in a condition called "malabsorption".

Understanding Malabsorption & How It Affects Your Health

This condition differs from malnutrition, where the person may not be eating enough food or nutrients to sustain their body. Malabsorption has many different causes, but ultimately results in the sufferer no longer getting the nourishment that they need from the food that they eat, even though their diet is sufficient in nutrients. Unfortunately, because things are not being digested or absorbed properly, supplementation of nutrients often cannot help with this condition. 

The signs of malabsorption depend on the particular subset of enzymes affected. In general, this condition creates several different digestive symptoms such as reflux, gas, bloating, foul flatulence, undigested food in the stool, as well as pale and floating stool. Because this condition can also result in a variety of nutrient deficiencies, it can account for symptoms such as dry skin and hair, cracked and peeling nails, slow healing, muscle wasting, and even weight loss. If you suspect that you may have malabsorption, it is important to contact your healthcare practitioner to do further testing to determine what type of nutrients you are lacking and how to help you digest them better in the future.

Key Nutrients Often Found In The Best Digestive Enzyme Supplements

Co-supplementation & Digestive Enzyme Supplements

Many enzyme supplements will contain other ingredients to promote their particular purpose. Some examples of common additives are listed below:

Betaine HCl

One common substance found in these formulas is betaine hydrochloride (betaine HCl), which can act as a source of acid for the stomach to help further digestion. Many enzymes need to be activated before they can function in the gut, and it is often acid digestion that causes this activation. Because of this, acid supplementation can help to increase how well the enzyme supplement works.

Pancreatin & Digestive Enzyme Supplements

Another addition may be glandular extracts such as pancreatin, which are made by concentrating the pancreatic juices of an animal. This extract will include the most naturally occurring enzymes in the ratio of the animal from which they were extracted. 

Ox Bile

This digestive aid is created from the bile of oxen and can help to promote proper fat digestion in someone with insufficient bile production of their own, whether due to cholecystectomy, or unknown causes.

Exploring Enzyme Activity and USP

Showing an amount of enzyme by weight is not pertinent information on a supplement label as it is the enzyme's activity that is important and independent of weight. Thankfully, all three major digestive enzymes are contained in pancreatin. This is a standardized product that has been rated by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP). The USP is a rating system that enables the comparison of different products sold in the market.

Because it is purified, pancreatin has standardized quantities of enzyme units in it and is often used as a point of comparison for digestive enzyme supplements. Each milligram (mg) of pancreatin contains at least 25 USP units of amylase activity, 2 USP units of lipase activity, and 25 USP units of protease activity. Any supplements labelled with 3X, or 4X are referring to this standard dose (ie. 3X contains 75 USP units of amylase activity per mg and so on).

Shopping For The Best Digestive Enzyme Supplements

Eating a diet that contains more raw fruits and vegetables can help to supply you with more enzyme-rich food. If this is not an option, there are many commercial digestive enzyme preparations, each with a unique mix of enzymes. 

Choose a supplement that contains enzymes for the type of nutrient(s) you have trouble digesting. There are vegetarian and animal-source supplements. Digestive enzymes can be in tablets, capsules, liquid or powder form. Each type of enzyme has different units of strength, and unfortunately, there is no standardization about which units are used on the product label, making it difficult for the consumer to judge the potency of potential enzyme supplements. Enzyme supplements may contain betaine HCl, to increase stomach acid and facilitate the workings of the enzymes, or ox bile, to digest fats.