In regards to eating meat

[Tenet Nosce]

I wonder if the health-giving properties of live plant foods really are because of the enzymes (as some raw foodists suggest) or because of something less tangible...the lifeforce itself.

I know that the levels of some nutrients are higher, but I've always wondered if it is really enough to make that much of a difference.

In the Taoist system this life force is what they call chi or qi. It can come from food, water, air, or even sunlight. The chi mixes in the body and becomes materialized as the blood and body fluids.

So a lipase supplement would help digest fat that is consumed, but not the stored fat in the body? Can you elaborate?

Well there is a barrier that is formed between the gut and the body by certain cells called epithelial cells. They are bound together by what are known as "tight junctions". As you can imagine, they are pretty tight! They are like spot welds between cells and are about 3.5 nanometers across.

So basically "stuff" going from the blue side to the pink side needs to get past the tight junction. This might be a nutrient, a toxin, or even a microorganism. Now an enzyme like lipase is actually quite large, as molecules go. There are actually all different kinds of lipases ranging from around 25 to 65 kilodaltons. But remember... there are innumerable types of enzymes that aren't digestive enzymes. They do other things in the body.

Typically, enzymes don't make it past the gap junctions. Which is a good thing, otherwise when the digestive organs released them into the gut lumen, they would just get reabsorbed into the body instead of digesting our food. Actually, the whole point of digestive enzymes is to break down the food to the point where it is small enough to make it past the gap junctions. Or to simply release nutrients into the lumen which are already small enough to pass, but were trapped inside larger structures that needed to be destroyed by the enzymes.

Incidentally, if one were to drink massive amounts of plain distilled water, the shift in osmotic pressure could cause nutrients to pass the other way through the gap junctions- from the pink side to the blue side- and that is probably not that great of a thing either.

Inflammation in the gut causes these cells to swell up and is caused by three things: injury, allergy, or attack. When chronic inflammation happens then the gap junctions start to widen. If they get big enough all sorts of garbage can start getting into the body that normally wouldn't let pass.

Also, toxins dumped out by the liver just start to reabsorbed and recirculated. Not to mention bacteria, yeast, and worms which can gain direct access to the blood. This is not a good thing.

But even if the lipase could get in, the first place it would go is the liver, since that is where the blood flow from the digestive tract leads. The liver is the body's basic sentinel system and it is kind of designed to quarantine and eliminate anything that is bigger than a particular size.

I imagine any lipase that made it that far would either be further broken down, or excreted back out in the bile. It would never make it to the fat cells in the belly. Fat cells in the belly use lipase to break down fat stores... but that lipase needs to be manufactured inside the cell.

Enzymes are expressed from the inside out, not the outside in. :idea:

Yes, it can help to take digestive enzymes to help with the digestion of food if the body is not making its own... and yes some of these are already inside the cells of the foods themselves. And yes they are destroyed by heat and light.

But in that respect, a sun oven would do just as much damage to those enzymes as a gas burner. I think that Essene bread recipe might be hinting at some other energy source coming from the Sun. I am reminded of lembas bread.

Not so many fat vegans.

I've seen them. Believe it or not. But that was my point... if eating dead food made the body fat, then why didn't I gain any weight during that time when I was hardly eating any live food?

No? I think it's rather intriguing and warrants further investigation into why that is.

It is intriguing... just not a cohesive argument for anything!