How Papaya Enzymes Help Digestion

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Papaya is a rich source of valuable proteolytic enzymes, such as papain, chymopapain, caricain and glycyl endopeptidase, that can greatly aid in digestion. This is especially true of meals that contain meat or other concentrated forms of protein.
But, as this page will show, papaya enzymes can have many other health benefits and may have an even more important role to play when taken on an empty stomach.

Protein Digestion and Papaya Enzymes

Many of us eat large amounts of low quality meat each week that can put great strain on our digestive system and enzyme producing pancreas. Processed meats, with additives such as the potentially carcinogenic sodium nitrite, are particularly worrying from a health perspective.
To make matters worse, rushed meals, extra large serving sizes, low digestive enzymes and stomach acid production, and poorly functioning digestive systems in general all contribute to this meat often ending up only partially digested by the time it reaches the lower intestine.
Here it can putrefy as it is acted upon by masses of flatulence causing bacteria. But smelly gas is the least of the potential health problems caused by undigested protein in the colon.
The place to fix flatulence and other more serious health issues associated with poor digestion, such as constipation, leaky gut syndrome and IBS, is not at the end of the process in the colon, but at the beginning. Proper chewing is important to break up food and can significantly assist carbohydrate digestion, but to get a head start on protein, proteolytic enzymes like the papain in papaya can really help.

What is Papain and What Does It Do?

The term proteolytic actually means protein digesting and, as an enzyme, papain is one of the most effective at breaking down meat and other proteins, comparable to the enzyme pepsin that we produce in our pancreas. In fact, papain is often preferred to pepsin in scientific cell isolation procedures as it is considered more effective. It is also used commercially as a meat tenderizer.
Papain works by cleaving the peptide bonds of complex proteins, breaking them down to their individual amino acids, ready for use in the growth and repair of your body.
Introducing papain into a meal containing meat can significantly speed up its digestion. It may also help with the breakdown of other ‘troublesome’ proteins, such as the gluten in wheat and the casein in milk, that are often implicated in digestive problems.
Some people suggest that papain and other plant based enzymes would be destroyed in the hydrochloric acid of the stomach and see no value in them.
But other nutritional experts believe that while papain may be rendered inactive with high levels of stomach acid, at least some would continue working again once it passes through to the alkaline environment of the small intestine.
Aside from these varying views, there is often a period, estimated at around half an hour to an hour, between when food is first eaten and when large amounts of hydrochloric acid is produced. During this time, salivary enzymes and any plant-based enzymes in the food (or taken with it) begin the process of digestion. In this window of time the addition of papain into a meal can greatly increase protein breakdown.
All of this recommendation can be used with papaya tablets.