Raw food enzymes are delicate dynamos. Delicate because many enzymes start to be destroyed when they reach a temperature of 118-140 degrees Fahrenheit, and they are obliterated when they stay at that temperature for even a miniscule period of time. Dynamos because these powerful biochemical catalysts are necessary for digestion, breathing, talking, moving, cellular energy, tissue and organ repair, neutralization of toxins, and brain activity.

First, some background: back in the 1930s, when biochemists were discovering the last batch of vitamins and minerals like vitamin B6 and vitamin K, researchers were also learning that proteins act as catalysts for all chemical reactions in the body. They called these proteins enzymes. Scientists initially identified eighty enzymes eighty years ago; today more than 5,000 enzymes have been discovered. Our minds can barely comprehend how complex the role of enzymes is when you consider that a single human liver cell contains at least 1,000 different enzyme systems.

Enzymes not only initiate chemical processes in the body by removing parts, adding parts, or just snipping off a piece to change their makeup, they do so quickly and efficiently. Without enzymes, life would slow to a standstill because chemical reactions inside our bodies wouldn’t happen fast enough unless enzymes were part of the mix. Enzymes seem to be particularly important for proper digestion, followed by tissue and organ repair.

The late Edward Howell, M.D., and author of the seminal book Enzyme Nutrition, was among the pioneers who began studying the role of enzymes in the late 1920s and early 1930s. After extensive clinical and laboratory research, he began sounding the alarm about the importance of eating the right foods to ensure a proper level of enzyme activity within the human body. He was particularly attentive to the role that digestive enzymes play in keeping us healthy because when the digestive tract goes off the rails, life can be miserable. Just ask anyone suffering from food poisoning or diarrhea resulting from the intestinal flora imbalance caused by taking antibiotics.

Cooking food destroys important enzymes, said Dr. Howell, and a diet composed exclusively of cooked food puts a severe strain on the body, drawing down its reserves.

The result, according to Dr. Howell, is a shortened life span, illness, and lowered resistance to stress of all types. He pointed out in his book Enzymes for Health and Longevity that humans and animals on a diet comprised largely of cooked food, particularly grains, have poorer health that is evident when certain organs are examined postmortem.

Dr. Howell formulated the following Enzyme Nutrition Axiom: the length of life is inversely proportional to the rate of exhaustion of the enzyme potential of an organism. In other words, the increased use of food enzymes promotes a decreased rate of exhaustion of the enzyme potential. Another sage rule can be expressed as follows: whole foods give good health; enzyme-rich foods provide limitless energy. Unfortunately, our diets largely do not consist of these health-giving foods, and even if they did, the grains, fruits, and vegetables coming from our soil-depleted fields don’t hold a candle to the nutritious bounty found in harvested crops prior to World War II.

While we could all stand to include plenty of raw foods in our diets—bountiful salads teeming with greens, tomatoes, and onions instead of cooked broccoli, baby carrots instead of crinkle-cut potato chips and sour cream dip, and a bowl of in-season strawberries and blueberries instead of a heaping helping of vanilla ice cream—the reality is that few people think “raw” when purchasing nutritional supplements.

But here, too, we need to make changes.

Now we can.

Recently, Garden of Life introduced its line of Vitamin Code RAW multivitamins and singles. These exciting formulas use certified organic fermented raw fruits and vegetables together with single nutrients to synergize the power of nature. No heat is ever used, simply the alchemy of the beneficial microorganisms that are part of the fermentation process. This is why the nutrients retain high-enzyme activity.

Dr. Howell said that although the body can manufacture enzymes, the more you use up your enzyme “potential”—meaning a regular diet of cooked, canned, or processed foods—the more you place yourself at risk for developing nutrient deficiencies that translate into serious health problems further down the line.

This is where supplements made from raw ingredients— such as Vitamin Code raw food-created nutrients—supplement the body with enzymes missing from cooked foods.

When you consume Vitamin Code raw food-created nutrients, you are consuming all of the vitamins, minerals, enzymes, probiotics and phytonutrients contained therein the whole food. Simply heating foods can result in the loss of hundreds of these co-factors, especially enzymes, probiotics and phytonutrients. When you add different chemical treatments and adulteration to the mix, you are often left with food that is a shell of its former self. The same can be said for some multivitamins too. Their herbs and nutrients often are heated and adulterated, and their synergistic ingredients are removed through the modern sciences of purification and use of organic chemistry to produce synthetic nutritional isolates.

Each vitamin and mineral contained in the Vitamin Code RAW formulas is individually cultivated, resulting in a process that mimics plant activity. With its certified organic raw whole food base consisting of the healthiest foods such as bananas, parsley, strawberries, cucumbers, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, bell peppers, and more, combined with beneficial bacteria, arguably the most potent vitamins and minerals in the world are created, replete with plenty of code factors produced by the interaction of beneficial bacteria on the vitamins and minerals and whole raw plant base. This intelligent process perfectly mimics nature.

In nature, plants transform inorganic material into useable bioavailable nutrients with the help of soil bacteria. Similarly, the Vitamin Code Process, carried out in a Food and Drug Administration registered sterile modern facility, uses ancient methods of fermentation with friendly bacteria such as S. cerevisiae and L. bulgaricus to transform isolated nutrients, renaturing them into whole foods.

This creates the most powerful vitamins and minerals, as was proven by Nobel Prize-winner Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, who discovered ascorbic acid but ultimately proved it was a far less purified chemical, far closer to nature, that provided the most potent health benefits. That was because the vitamin C was replete with peptides, plant cofactors, beneficial organisms, phytochemicals, and antioxidants and energy code factors such as superoxide dismutase, glutathione, and coenzyme Q10. These are naturally occurring code factors; they’re not added like typical multivitamins but are known to occur as code factors intrinsic to the process.

At no point during the cultivation process are the vitamins and minerals treated, adulterated or cooked. More importantly is what you won’t find on the label. No binders or fillers.

With pure encapsulation, Vitamin Code raw food-created nutrients are 100 percent active, meaning that every ingredient contained within has nutritional value and purpose.

Vitamin Code RAW multivitamin and singles represent a huge breakthrough in how we think about dietary supplements. As mentioned, the notion that our vitamins should be enhanced with benefits from beneficial bacteria (also known as probiotics) creates a whole new concept for consumers and the industry—one to which only a few of the very best companies can aspire at this time—but it’s all part of a healthy evolution of our understanding of how nutrients work best—and they seem to work best within a matrix of all their related compounds or code factors.

Whether you are shopping for a multivitamin for men or women, a prenatal supplement, or an iron, antioxidant, or weight loss preparation, be sure to check out Vitamin Code RAW formulas to obtain the raw power of nature’s most important foods and nutrients.

Resources

Vitamin Code RAW multivitamins and all of Garden of Life’s products can be found at health food stores and wherever the very best nutritional supplements are sold. Be sure to visit www.gardenoflife.com for more information, or call them toll-free at 866-465-0051.

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