Research in animals has shown that the production of digestive enzymes is independent of diet. The most obvious conclusion is that the pancreas becomes hypertrophied, or enlarged, because it is forced to keep up a high digestive enzyme output.” When they are switched back to a raw-food diet, their pancreas shrinks back to normal size. What is interesting is that when mice are fed cooked foods, the ratio of their pancreas weight to total body weight becomes approximately that of a human’s. “In all of nature, the human pancreas is three times larger, as compared to total body weight, than that of any other animal. “Evidence…strongly suggests that eating foods devoid of enzymes as a result of cooking, food irradiation, and microwaving causes an enlargement of the pancreas and also stresses associated endocrine glands….” writes Gabriel Cousens, MD, in his book Conscious Eating. While cats’ and dogs’ pancreatic and intestinal tissues can and do produce amylases that are fully capable of digesting carbohydrates, the lack of salivary amylase reminds us that nature did not intend carbs to be their primary source of nutrition. In addition, commercial dry kibble is also much higher in carbohydrates than the carnivore’s natural prey diet. In dogs and cats that eat heat-processed pet food, those enzymes are absent the pancreas must provide all the enzymes needed to digest the food. When heat destroys (“denatures”) the natural shape of enzymes, they become nonfunctional. In those scenarios, both internal lysozymes and various external organisms (bacteria, fungi) contribute to the food breakdown normally performed by the pancreas. Wild canids commonly take advantage of the lysozomal process by burying parts of the carcass, and digging them up and eating them weeks later. However, when a carnivore kills a large prey animal, that carcass is likely to sit for a while (it takes about two weeks for a mountain lion to consume a whole deer). The argument could be made that a carnivore’s GI transit time is too fast for lysozymes to have a meaningful impact on digestion. Because the natural prey diet of canines and felines is consumed raw, these lysozymes may also contribute to efficient digestion of food. These packets of enzymes break open upon cell death, and help break down (digest) the contents of the cell, either for recycling (in a living body) or decomposition. In addition, all cells carry within them the means for their own destruction in the form of lysozymes. Carnivores don’t spend much time chewing nor do they consume many carbohydrates, so there is no need for amylase in the mouth. Herbivores and omnivores have flat molars that crush and chew food, but the carnivore’s dentition is perfectly designed to capture and kill prey, and to rip and tear meat from bone. This reflects their expected diet of meat and organs from prey. Most mammals produce amylase in the saliva, but dogs and cats do not.
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