A complete blend of ten active plant-based enzymes to break down fats, carbohydrates, proteins, sugars and fibre resulting in healthy digestion, improved nutrient absorption, increased energy levels and reduced hunger.

What is Udo's Choice® Ultimate Digestive Enzyme Blend?

Intended for use as a replacement for enzymes lost in the cooking and processing of food and to make up for decreased internal enzyme production due to age, this complete blend of ten active plant-based enzymes breaks down proteins, fats, carbohydrates, soluble fibre, starch, milk sugar and complex sugars resulting in healthy digestion, improved nutrient absorption, increased energy levels and reduced hunger. It does this by providing enzyme activity combinations, which are precisely balanced to optimize the body's utilization of food nutrients.

What Do Enzymes Do?
Without enzymes, we could not exist. Our bodies' reactions would be too slow for life to be possible. The human body makes and uses more than 3,000 kinds of enzymes that speed up chemical reactions and save energy. Digestive enzymes are like scissors that cut up the foods we eat into basic building blocks that our body then absorbs and reassembles to build cells, tissues, organs glands and entire body systems. If our digestion is compromised then so is our health. Many enzymes on the market today are made from animal organs - hog stomach, bovine pancreas, lamb forestomach etc. These individual animal enzymes work only in a narrow pH range, and are usually only capable of digesting protein or fat. Udo's Choice Ultimate Digestive Enzyme Blend, however, is a broad spectrum plant and microbially derived enzyme supplement that has a wide pH range of activity, allowing it to function throughout the entire digestive tract.

Why Do We Need to Supplement with Enzymes?

Caffeine, alcohol, illness, pregnancy and stress all take their toll on our enzyme reserves. Our bodies also produce fewer enzymes as we age but the main cause for digestive enzyme shortage is our modern diets. Today's diets don't contain as much enzyme-containing raw foods as they once did, and modern food processing techniques and cooking destroy nearly 100% of these naturally occurring enzymes. Raw foods may not even contain as many enzymes as they should, due to environmental factors, depleted soil and preservation techniques. So the body is left to try and compensate by producing more internal digestive enzymes, but its ability to do this has limits. Enzyme-deficient foods put a burden on the digestive system that it wasn't designed to handle. Incomplete digestion can lead to poor nutrient absorption, fatigue, digestive upset, food allergies and other health conditions. Partially digested food particles escaping from the gut cause an immune response, and the body may also "steal" enzymes from the immune tem, compromising it even further.

The Importance of Protein Digestion

Ultimate Digestive Enzyme Blend is especially rich in protein digesting enzymes. This is because when protein digestion in particular is poor, many problems can arise such as bloating, acid reflux, inflammation, food allergies, autoimmune reactions and impaired immune function.

The protease (12,500 HUT of protein digesting enzyme) in Ultimate Digestive Enzyme Blend has been formulated to be active in the stomach where most digestion occurs. In order to increase protein digestion in the intestines, bromelain (50,000 PU), which prefers the more alkaline pH of the small intestine, has been added to complete the digestive process. These high doses of protease and bromelain, with their abilities to be effective at the necessary pH, make Ultimate Digestive Enzyme Blend a superior formula.

International Standards for Enzyme Potency

Enzyme potency is best measured in terms of enzyme activity. Weight measurements are not appropriate and can be misleading, as there is not a direct relationship between weight and units of activity. In fact, an enzyme will still have a weight even if it has been destroyed and has no activity.

Also if a low potency enzyme is used, the weight will be even greater, because it requires more enzymes to achieve the same activity level as the higher potency enzyme.

The measurements on Ultimate Digestive Enzyme Blend reflect the activity of the enzyme, so you can see that they are active and working at breaking down foods. It should also be noted that the amount of filler may also contribute to the weight of an enzyme product, but with the FCC measuring system, the weight of any filler is irrelevant.

The internationally recognized and accepted standard for measurement is by Food Chemical Codex Units. However, the law does not require their use and those who express enzyme potency in units other than the FCC standard are perpetuating the confusion concerning enzyme potencies and are preventing the consumer from making an informed choice through comparison of activity, not weight of enzyme products. Ultimate Digestive Enzyme Blend is made according to the FCC method, and therefore uses the FCC measuring system to define the potency of the enzymes.

Maximum Results

Enzymes have no taste. For best results, open up and mix the contents of one capsule of digestive enzymes throughout cold or warm (but not piping hot) foods, or swallow capsules during the meal. It is most important to take digestive enzymes with foods that are rich in protein, as poor protein digestion can trigger many health problems. Ultimate Digestive Enzyme Blend comes in 100% vegetarian capsules and is made from 100% plant-based and microbially derived digestive enzymes using the solid state fermentation method recommended by the FCC. Beet root fibre is used as a filler due to its non-allergenic properties. Maltodextrin may be present in trace amounts only.