Nu-Zymes: Good, Bad, or Gimmick?

[Becka]

http://www.mpdirect.com/index.asp?Pa...12&dc=mpgoogle

My mom started taking this stuff, because her friends take it, and they told her it worked. I just wanted to know if any one had hear about it, if it works or if its just a gimmick.

Thanks All...

[Johnka]

Digestive enzymes can be a good thing. I'm not familiar with this brand, but it looks fine. One thing to consider is that they help you digest more of your food, meaning that more calories will be absorbed from what you eat, which can equate to weight gain. This is great for people trying to bulk, but for others not so good. Of course, they can be added to any diet if caloric intake is adjusted accordingly.

Here is a bit about digestive enzymes from an article in Rugged Mag.

Digestive Enzymes: This is crucial, and it is my contention that this is a major differentiation between a "fast" metabolism and a "normal" metabolism (whatever that is). Picture this; you're trying to build a brick house (which you are), and you've got a conveyer belt delivering bricks to the workers. The problem is, you've got hundreds of bricks being delivered at a rapid pace, with only a few workers to take them off and start building the house. Consequently, most of these bricks are just getting dumped off the end of the belt and left unused.

So you have some options here, you could add more bricks (calories), but that won't do much good if you don't have anyone to pull them off the belt. You could slow down the belt to give the workers more time to grab the bricks (which is a great plan, discussed later). Finally, you could just hire more workers! This is where the enzymes come in to play. Digestive enzymes are like workers pulling bricks off of the belt, or physiologically speaking, extracting calories from your small intestine and delivering them to the blood stream so that they can be taken up by target tissues. Avoid using an inferior enzyme product, however, or you will be wasting your time. Most importantly, find one that has an enteric coating, allowing it to pass through the stomach undenatured to reach the small intestine, where it can be broken down to do its job.

One of the drawbacks to a good enteric coated enzyme complex is the astronomical price of most of them, although recently I have discovered a highly effective product made by "Pharmacist's Ultimate Health" at a fraction of the price of most others. Check them out here.

Take the tablets about 20 minutes before a solid food meal, or 30 minutes before a liquid meal. If using the aforementioned brand, take two tabs before each meal, including your during/post workout drink. Enzymedica also makes a good product called "Repair" which comes in an optional enteric-coated capsule, but can be harder to find than the non-enteric coated version. I have seen "hardgainer" clients put on 6-8 pounds in a week simply by adding in the use of enzymes.

[Becka]

OH NO!! LOL... I am absolutely POSITIVE that my mom does not want to "bulk", and I am sure all her friends taking this pill do not want to either since they are all in their late 30's to mid 40's. I will be sure to email this news to all of them! Thank you Johnka!!!

[Johnka]

Well, they're not only for bulking. This magazine only recommended them for that purpose, but they can be used for a healthy lifestyle otherwise, and even for slimming down. But you just have to take into consideration that they do allow you to utilize more calories from what you're eating.