doTERRA TerraZyme Digestive Enzyme Complex is a proprietary blend of active whole-food enzymes and supporting cofactors that are often deficient in cooked, processed, and preservative-laden foods. These powerful digestive enzymes support the body’s constant production of enzymes that are critical for healthy biochemical functions, including efficient digestion of food nutrients and cellular metabolism of nutrients into energy.* doTERRA TerraZyme includes a variety of whole-food enzymes that help with digesting proteins, fats, complex carbohydrates, sugars, and fiber.

doTERRA TerraZyme is safe and effective and can be taken with every meal. It includes the doTERRA tummy tamer blend of peppermint, ginger, and caraway seed extracts to promote gastrointestinal comfort. The tummy tamer blend is especially helpful for those needing targeted digestive health, such as with protein, fat, and carbohydrate intolerances (like lactose).*

Enzymes

Enzymes are specialized proteins that function as catalysts in almost all cellular functions and chemical reactions in the body. Enzymes play a critical role in growth, healing, and reproduction. They’re also necessary for breathing, thinking, immune function, hormone regulation, detoxification, food nutrients digestion, and conversion of nutrients into energy in cells, among many other functions.*

Enzymes can originate inside and outside the body. Endogenous enzymes are produced in the body and can be classified as metabolic enzymes and digestive enzymes. Metabolic enzymes are active in blood, tissues, and organs. Digestive enzymes are produced in the mouth, stomach, pancreas, and small intestine. The liver produces bile salts bilirubin, bile acids, and phospholipids that aid in fat digestion. Together, they help the body convert food to usable nutrients. Exogenous enzymes originate outside the body and are classified as food enzymes. Food enzymes are found in raw, unprocessed foods and break down nutrients during digestion.*

The body’s ability to constantly produce metabolic and digestive enzymes is limited by raw material availability and production capacity. If your diet doesn’t include sufficient food enzymes to break down the food you eat, your body’s endogenous enzyme resources must be directed toward producing digestive enzymes to speed conversion of food to bioavailable nutrients. Production capacity directed toward digestive enzymes is capacity that isn’t available for producing important metabolic enzymes.

The body’s constant need to produce digestive enzymes can result in decreased levels of metabolic enzymes that are critical for optimal health and cell function. One important metabolic enzyme is superoxide dismutase (SOD), which protects cells from free radicals. Metabolic enzymes are also necessary for energy production, tissue growth and repair, and management of toxic waste products. When you eat foods that are rich in food enzymes, your body uses fewer resources to produce digestive enzymes and has more capacity to create optimal levels of metabolic enzymes.*

Food Enzyme Deficiencies

Fresh, raw foods naturally contain sufficient enzymes for proper digestion. However, when food is cooked and processed, these naturally occurring food enzymes can be destroyed. The pasteurization, sterilization, radiation, preservation, freezing, and microwaving involved in our modern food supply can render enzymes inactive or alter their structures so much that they become useless to the body. Food processing can also remove important vitamin and mineral cofactors of enzymatic chemistry in the body.

You can reduce the internal demand for digestive enzyme production in your body by including more fresh, raw foods in your diet. Some experts suggest a healthy diet would see at least 60% of food nutrients coming from fresh, raw foods—a good goal but not always practical in modern day. A whole-food supplement of food enzymes is a more convenient way to guarantee sufficient enzymes.