Stomach Acid

HDN: When people get enzymes from food, aren't they destroyed by stomach acid and therefore of little or no value?
HOWELL: This is not true. Although most nutntionists claim that enzymes in food are destroyed in the stomach, they overlook two important facts. First of all, when you eat food, acid secretion is minimal for at least thirty minutes. As the food goes down the esophagus, it drops into the top portion of the stomach. This is called the cardiac section, since it's closer to the heart. The rest of the stomach remains flat and closed while the cardiac section opens up to accommodate the food. During the iime the food sits in the upper section, little acid or enzymes are secreted by the body. The enzymes in the food itself go about digesting the food. The more of this self-digestion that occurs, the less work the body has to do later. When this 30 to 45 minute period is over, the bottom section of the stomach opens up and the body starts secreting acid and enzymes. Even at this point, the food enzymes are not inactivated until the acid level becomes prohibitive. You see, food enzymes can tolerate chemical environments many times more acid than neutral.

HDN: Do animals also have a special section of the stomach where food digests itself?
HOWELL: Absolutely. In fact, some creatures have what I call a food enzyme stomach. There are the cheek pouches of monkeys and rodents, the crop of many species of birds, and the first stomachs of whales, dolphins and porpoises. When birds, for instance, swallow seeds or grains, these grains lie in the crop for 8 to 12 hours. As they sit, they absorb moisture, swell up and begin to germinate. During germination, enzymes are formed which do the work of digesting the seeds and grains. Whales, dolphins and porpoises have a first stomach which secretes no enzymes. Whales, for examples swallow large quantities of food without chewing it. The food simply decomposes and digests itself. In the flesh of the fish and other marine life the whale eats is an enzyme, called cathepsin, which breaks down the fish once it has died. In fact, this enzyme is present in almost all creatures. After the whale's catch has liquefied itself, it passes through a small hole into the whale's second stomach. It mystifies scientists how the whale's catch can get through that small hole into the second stomach. They have no idea that self-digestion was at work.