No matter what type of food you feed, your pets can only be as healthy as what they can digest.

Without enzymes, digestion simply can’t happen.

When your cat or dog eats a meal, the enzymes needed for digestion come from two sources – your pet’s body and the food itself.

Even though your pet’s body makes some of the needed enzymes, it also relies on naturally occurring enzymes in food for optimal digestion.

Once food enters your pet’s mouth, various enzymes work together to break it down into smaller units so they can be absorbed. Four different types of digestive enzymes aid in the process:

1. Protease breaks down long protein chains into digestible amino acids.
2. Amylase breaks down carbohydrates and starches into simple sugars for the body to use as fuel but is only produced in small amounts in dogs and cats.
3. Lipase breaks down fats into free fatty acids so they can pass through the intestinal wall.
4. Cellulase, an enzyme not naturally produced by cats and dogs, breaks down the fibres in fruits and vegetables, including grains, to release the nutrients stored inside the cell walls.

These enzymes help unlock vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other important nutrients in the food so your pets’ bodies can absorb and assimilate them.

Properly absorbed nutrients benefit your pets in multiple ways – from feeling more satisfied after meals to having increased energy.

Your pet’s body produces thousands of enzymes that aid in an array of chemical reactions involving energy production, metabolism, detoxification, muscle movement and so much more.

There are two major types of enzymes: metabolic and digestive enzymes.

Digestive enzymes are produced mostly in your pets’ pancreas and are released into their duodenums to help digest food coming from the stomach. And your pet’s intestines can also secrete amylase and other digestive enzymes.

Metabolic enzymes work throughout your pet's body to help build and maintain every cell, tissue, and organ. Here are just some of the many functions other than those involved with digestion that enzymes assist with:

• Support the immune system.
• Help reduce minor food sensitivities.
• Support healthy teeth and gums.
• Promote normal cell growth.
• Help maintain healthy cholesterol levels that are already within the normal range.
• Promote healthy skin and help reduce excessive shedding.
• Support the body’s detoxification processes.

While there are many different types, your pet’s body doesn’t produce unlimited enzymes.

Because the digestion of food is a high-priority task for survival, your pet’s body will do almost anything to provide the digestive enzymes needed for that important function. If the food contains little or none of its own enzymes, the pancreas must supply more.

Many holistic veterinarians recognise that a lack of enzymes – both digestive and metabolic – may be a major factor in less-than-optimal health.

Too few enzymes for digestion can affect your pets’ regularity and lead to occasional bloating and gas. Inadequate metabolic enzymes can impact the health of your pets’ cells, tissues and organs, and speed up the ageing process.

A lack of digestive enzymes may also result in incomplete digestion, allowing partially digested food particles to enter the bloodstream directly from the large intestine. When this happens, less-than-optimal health may result.

When your pets’ diets contain sufficient enzymes to digest the food, there is sufficient nutrient digestion, assimilation and absorption, and less digestive and pancreatic stress.

Dogs and cats of all ages may benefit from supplemental digestive enzymes, especially if they have any type of pancreatic or gastrointestinal (GI) issue.

Plus, certain breeds of dogs don’t naturally produce enough digestive enzymes, which can leave their bodies in short supply.

As your pets age, their bodies’ production of enzymes declines. So, older pets can often benefit from the addition of digestive enzymes.

Sometimes, you’ll notice physical clues that your pets may be low in enzymes and could benefit from more. These signs include:

• Occasional abdominal discomfort, gas, bad breath or vomiting.
• Irregularity.
• Minor food sensitivities.
• Lack of energy.
• Itchy and irritated skin.

An integrated veterinarian, Dr Karen Becker, writes that some conventional veterinarians say that supplemental digestive enzymes aren’t needed because, dogs, in particular, can adapt to eating high-carb diets (kibble, biscuits and canned pet foods) without them.

And she further elaborates on why disagrees with them...

While other species of mammals produce salivary amylase, dogs and cats don’t. So a dog’s or cat’s pancreas must produce large amounts of amylase to deal with the refined and heat-processed starch, cellulose and carbohydrates, (kibble diets) something they are not designed to do.

Research shows substances called Advanced Glycation End products (AGEs) are produced when starch in foods is high-heat processed (used to make kibble and canned diets.) In humans, AGEs have been shown to have an adverse effect on the pancreas.

The pancreas serves many important roles in the body, including the production and secretion of digestive enzymes. When the pancreas is adversely affected, it can compromise this vital process, so supplementation can be incredibly beneficial for animals eating highly processed, carb-based pet food.

Supplemental enzymes can help take the load off your pets' bodies to produce enzymes as well as promote optimal health and cellular function throughout their bodies.