Dr.

Edward Howell: A Man With an Urgent Message By Ron Rendelman

"When we eat cooked, enzyme-free food, the body is forced to produce enzymes needed for digestion... This 'stealing' of enzymes from other parts of the body sets up a competition for enzymes among the various organ systems and tissues of the body. ,The resulting metabolic dislocations may be the direct cause of cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes and many chronic incurable diseases." r. !dward "owell A slight man, supremely dedicated, peers through a microscope. He studies, with intense concentration, the movements of a tiny cousin to the water flea the Daphnia Magna. Occasionally, he adds food to the Daphnia's water to observe the digestive process through its transparent skin. Over the years he has studied the birth and death of hundreds of si !week generations of Daphnia, comparing the effects of raw and cooked food. "he man is Dr. #dward Howell, outstanding biochemist and pioneer in the food en$yme field. Dr. Howell was dedicated to proving, irrefutably, that many degenerative diseases Americans suffer and die from, are caused mainly by eating cooked food whose en$ymes have been destroyed, instead of a balanced diet with plenty of en$yme rich raw foods% Dr. Howell was born in &hicago in '()(. He held a limited *llinois medical license +the same as a medical doctor with the e ception of surgery, obstetrics and materia medica,. *n ')-., he founded a private sanitarium for treating long!lasting diseases with physical and nutritional procedures. His research into food en$ymes represented the first study that recogni$ed their significance to human nutrition. "he way Dr. Howell liked to put it/ 01hen we eat cooked, en$yme!free food, the body is forced to produce en$ymes needed for digestion. "his depletes the body's limited en$yme capacity. "his 'stealing' of en$ymes from other parts of the body sets up a competition for en$ymes among the various organ systems and tissues of the body. "he resulting metabolic dislocations may be the direct cause of cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes, and many other chronic incurable diseases.0 One might conclude from these words that en$ymes are life itself. *n fact, they cannot be synthesi$ed as vitamins can, but they are all around us working silently. "hey cause fruit to ripen and spoil, beer to ferment. eyes to see. 1ithout them we would die. &ancer specialists are discovering certain en$ymes are completely lacking in the blood and urine of cancer victims. 2ut Dr. Howell insisted en$ymes are not catalysts as has been stated often. &atalysts are inert substances. "hey possess none of the life energy we find in en$ymes. 3or instance,

en$ymes give off a kind of radiation when they work. "his is not true of catalysts. "he proteins in en$ymes serve only as carriers of the activity factor. 3rom the dawn of history, man has known and made use of en$ymes in various fermentation processes. However, it was not until '4(- that 5a$$ar 6pallan$ani noted that meat could be li7uefied by the gastric 8uice of hawks. *t wasn't long before 9hilip 6ynag 9hysick of 9hiladelphia used this knowledge when he treated malignant ulcers in humans with gastric 8uice. *n more recent years, Armour and &ompany began using the en$yme papain on meat, eliminating the e pensive process of fattening cattle on corn. "hough those steaks may be delicious, their long range effects on the body are suspect, at least from Dr. Howell's viewpoint. As for cooked food in general, Dr. Howell confirmed the findings of 9rofessor 6chaefer of the Mayo 3oundation who made a study of 3ilipinos and Malays whose diet relies on rice three times daily. "heir pancreas, which is forced to work hard to produce digestive en$ymes. is both relatively and absolutely heavier +from :; to ;. percent, than that of occidentals. "his e tra activity seems to have a wearing!out effect for in many case studies, their pancreas has been found to be in a state of atrophy. Also, according to Dr. Howell, there is incriminating evidence that cooked food contributes to a pathological over enlargement of the pituitary gland, which regulates the other glands. One hundred percent of people over ;., who died from accidental causes, were found to have defective pituitary glands. #n$ymes in raw food normally allow for self digestion. 2ut it seems that cooked food, with its fibers broken down and en$ymes destroyed passes through the digestive system more slowly than raw food. *t tends to ferment, throw poisons back into the body, cause gas, heartburn, headaches and colon problems. *n America, colon cancer has become the number : ranking cancer killer. &olon therapists estimate the middle!aged American meat eater may be carrying around from eight to fifty pounds of collected fecal matter on the walls of his intestines. &olonic irrigations and intestinal cleansers invariably reveal cord like mucous and black, hard debris. Many studies on remote tribes confirm large, soft stools passed soon after each meal and unimpacted intestines. "heir diets/ raw nuts, fruit, vegetables, grains, goat's milk and small portions of meat. *s it wise to eat a totally raw diet< =o, according to many researchers. ...some vitamins and minerals, as in potatoes, are more easily assimilated when vegetables are cooked. *n Dr. Howell's words, 0...some raw foods cannot supply nourishment because their calories are enclosed by tough fibrous cell walls, re7uiring considerable time for the digestive fluids to break through.0 Dr. Howell found evidence which showed a substantial difference between cooked and raw calories. #ating mostly cooked food can be linked to obesity.

"hat people need to take in en$ymes either by eating raw food, or supplementing, is evidenced by the many tests Dr. Howell made. *n one laboratory, rats fed totally cooked foods lived two years, while rats fed a partial diet of raw food lived three years, or -. percent longer. '"hough there isn't hard evidence to support it, humans might conceivably increase their life spans 8ust by maintaining proper en$yme levels. 1hile many people feel fasting is beneficial, few understand why. Dr. Howell e plained/ 01hen a person fasts, there is an immediate halt to the production of digestive en$ymes. "he body's en$ymes are free to work on repairing and removing diseased tissues. &ivili$ed people eat such large 7uantities of cooked foods, the body lacks the en$ymes needed to maintain good health. Most people who fast go through a healing crisis. =ausea, vomiting, di$$iness may result, caused by en$ymes attacking pathological tissue discarded through elimination. 1hen Dr. Howell first became aware of the importance of raw food in the diet, he was troubled, knowing most Americans would be unwilling to change their eating habits. An alternative was an en$yme supplement that could be taken with each meal. 6ince he knew digestion actually began in the stomach, logic dictates an en$yme that would be effective there. After much e perimenting Howell discovered plant or fungal en$ymes were effective. His final choice was certain strains of the Aspergillus plant containing en$ymes man uses in digestion protease for protein, amylase for carbohydrates, lipase for fats. # periments confirmed that better digestion in humans resulted. >eports began to come in of improvements in ailments like arthritis and psoriasis. One woman, whose husband was arthritic, wrote/ . . after spending many thousands of dollars on doctor bills with no results, my husband took en$ymes for several months. At the end of that time, he got rid of his crutches, and now is able to work every day and feels 8ust wonderful.0 Dr. Howell's contribution to our understanding of en$ymes and their relation to ,disease is incalculable. He was a man with a message for a generation dying, at an alarming rate, from degenerative diseases. #eprinted from $estways, %ay &'(' !dit. )ote* r. "owell's book, !nzyme )utrition is available on the +,-T $ook .ist, page &/.