When it is in its natural state, raw and unprocessed, the food you eat contains—along with its many nutrients—the enzymes you need to break down that food. But many of us exist on a diet of primarily cooked food, and digestive enzymes are extremely sensitive to heat. In fact, they are more sensitive to heat than vitamins, and are destroyed by any heat above 48 °C (118 °F); imagine what cooking does to digestive enzymes and to your digestion! Not only cooking, but also pasteurization, canning, and microwaving destroy digestive enzymes.

Our plant enzymes possess four major benefits over enzymes derived from the pancreas of animals.

Firstly—and obviously—, they are suitable for vegetarians.

Secondly, they are active over a broader range of foods than animal-derived enzymes.

Thirdly, they begin their work earlier in the digestive process than animal enzymes. Plant enzymes begin working in the stomach; animal enzymes begin working only later, in the intestines. So plant enzymes spare the body a lot of work by predigesting food before it is exposed to your body’s own pancreatic enzymes.

Finally, plant enzymes avoid the possible risk inherent in animal-derived enzymes that your body will recognize them as its own pancreatic enzymes and diminish its own production.