Many people suffer from indigestion and experience unpleasant symptoms after consuming certain foods. There are various reasons for this, but often it can be caused by low production or low activity of the body's digestive enzymes.
Digestive enzymes are proteins that help the body break down the food we eat into smaller particles. Carbohydrates, fats and proteins are large and complex molecules that rely on specialized digestive enzymes to break down food so that the nutrients can be absorbed and utilized by the body.
One group of digestive enzymes are called proteases (or peptidases). These break down proteins. Another group breaks down fats and is called lipases. Furthermore, there is a third group of enzymes that break down carbohydrates. One example is amylase. Within these three groups of enzymes, there are several different enzymes that complement each other during the digestive process and are active in the different pH environments in the stomach and intestines.
SHIFT™ Zym Broad Spectrum is a supplement of vegetable digestive enzymes that help the body break down food containing carbohydrates, proteins and fats, and is a useful supplement for those who struggle with digestion in general.
Digestion of dairy products
If you experience indigestion when consuming dairy products, it may be due to lactose intolerance or an immune response from the protein components of the product you are eating. SHIFT™ Zym Milk & Gluten can help to effectively break down dairy and gluten.
Lactose, also known as milk sugar, is a carbohydrate that is too large for the body to absorb. The enzyme lactase is therefore necessary for the breakdown and absorption of lactose. In lactose intolerance, there are too small amounts of lactase in the intestinal mucosa, and you may therefore experience indigestion after consuming lactose-containing foods. SHIFT™ Zym Milk & Gluten has lactase added to help increase the level of this enzyme and facilitate the breakdown of lactose in dairy products.
Whey and casein are protein components in milk. Casein is made up of many different proteins, and whey is typically a mixture of beta-lactoglobulin and alpha-lactalbumin proteins. These must be broken down by enzymes in order to be utilized by the body. Indigestion can be caused by the body's lack of sufficient amounts of protease enzymes required for protein digestion. Protein hypersensitivity can also present itself as a hypersensitive reaction from the body's immune system. The protein may be completely harmless, but the body recognizes it as a foreign substance and starts a defensive response that can lead to various ailments. The combination of different protease enzymes in SHIFT™ Zym Milk & Gluten is designed to break down milk proteins into smaller peptides that are less likely to bind to antibodies, as well as making them easier to digest and absorb.
Digestion of gluten
Gluten consists of the proteins gliadin and glutenin, which are difficult to break down in digestion. Undigested gluten can trigger the body's immune system to attack the lining of the small intestine, leading to varying levels of gluten sensitivity. Specific proteases in SHIFT™ Milk & Gluten effectively break down the peptide bonds in gluten from the ends and from the inside, before the gluten has time to enter the small intestine. This can help ease the digestive distress related to gluten sensitivity.
