When to Take Digestive Enzymes (+5 Benefits)

From bacon and burgers to Brussels sprouts and beans, many people often experience uncomfortable digestive-related symptoms after eating certain foods.

But you’re not alone—surveys reveal that up to three-quarters of Americans deal with gastrointestinal-related symptoms on a regular basis.

With this increasingly high prevalence of indigestion, you may have come across digestive enzymes in your search for supplements to improve gut health. 

But what are digestive enzymes exactly, and how do they work? 

In this article, learn all about the main types and benefits of these digestion supporters, what to expect when taking digestive enzymes, and the best time to take them. 

When Is the Best Time to Take Digestive Enzymes? 

The best time to take digestive enzymes is before you eat—ideally about 10 minutes before—which is enough time for them to reach your stomach and mix with gastric juices. 

This is because of the cephalic phase of digestion—the mouthwatering that happens when we see food, which triggers pancreatic enzyme release. 

If you can’t remember to take them 10 minutes before your meal, taking digestive enzymes right when you start eating should still do the trick. 

However, taking digestive enzymes after you eat will unfortunately not help you at all, as the food has already started digesting and passing through the stomach. 

Hi-Health Digestive Enzyme Complex

• Description

  Just take 1 of these capsules filled with critical enzymes about 10 minutes before eating to ease digestive discomfort and support healthy digestion.

• Ingredients

  Ox Bile Extract, Pancreatin USP, Pancrealipase, Papain, Adsorptive Diatomaceous Earth, Duodenal Substance, Pepsin 1:3000, Gelatin Capsule DR (Embo Cap), and Natural Vanilla Powder

See Price at Hi-Health

What Are Digestive Enzymes?

The word “enzyme” simply means a protein that helps speed up, or catalyze, a reaction in the body.  

In this case, digestive enzymes are proteins we secrete to help facilitate the breakdown of food into smaller building blocks that our cells can use. 

Digestion happens in two primary ways—the mechanical digestion of chewing and the enzymatic pathway that uses these little protein catalysts to break down food particles.

All of the food we eat is made up of three macronutrients that require digestion before they can be absorbed—proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.

For example, we can’t just absorb a turkey and cheese sandwich whole—it needs to be broken down from protein, fat, and carbohydrates into amino acids, fatty acids, and sugars. 

How Do Digestive Enzymes Work?

Digestive enzymes are produced and released by several organs throughout our 30-foot-long gastrointestinal tube, including the mouth, stomach, pancreas, and small intestine.  

Interestingly, the sight and smell of food are enough to trigger the first stage of digestion—you’ve probably noticed this if your mouth has ever started watering upon seeing or smelling your favorite food.

Although you may think that most digestive enzymes would be produced in the stomach or intestines, the pancreas is the superstar when it comes to enzyme secretion—it produces the primary enzymes that help our body break down carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.

When enzymes break down food into their smaller units, they can be readily absorbed, which occurs primarily in the small intestine. 

The end-products of digestion also include vitamins, minerals, and water, which cross over the intestinal mucosa and enter the lymph or blood to be used by our cells for various activities.

However, although our guts naturally secrete digestive enzymes, their production begins to decline with age, stress, disease, or poor diet. 

Inadequate enzyme action will lead to incomplete food breakdown, causing those painful and uncomfortable symptoms after meals.

What Are the Main Types of Digestive Enzymes?

The three primary digestive enzyme families include: 

• Amylase: Breaks down starchy carbohydrates into single sugars like glucose. You can test your mouth’s enzymatic action by letting a Saltine cracker dissolve on your tongue—that’s the carbohydrate-breakdown action of salivary amylase.
• Protease: Breaks down protein into amino acids.
• Lipase: Breaks down fats into fatty acids and glycerol molecules.

However, there are dozens of other enzymes that we can supplement with to help us break down and absorb foods, including: 

There are single-enzyme formulations—like lactase supplements to break down dairy sugars or the alpha-galactosidase found in Bean-O—and broad-spectrum digestive enzymes designed to help you comfortably eat a wide range of foods.

Rather than buy a dozen single-enzyme supplements—and have to remember which one to take with each meal—a broad-spectrum, multi-enzyme digestive aid can do all the work for you.  

An example of a multi-enzyme supplement is Onnit’s Total Gut Health, which contains 16 powerful enzymes—as well as prebiotics, probiotics, and stomach acid boosters—to keep your digestion rolling smoothly. 

What Are Natural Sources of Digestive Enzymes? 

In addition to digestive enzyme supplements, there are also natural, food-based sources of enzymes that you can add to your diet to facilitate digestion.  

Foods with the greatest amounts of natural enzymes include:

• Pineapple—contains the protease bromelain
• Papaya—contains the protease papain 
• Mango—contains amylase
• Raw honey—contains amylase, invertase, and some protease 
• Bananas—contain amylases and glucosidases, another enzyme that breaks down complex carbohydrates like starches 
• Avocado—contains lipase
• Kefir—a fermented milk product that contains lactase, lipase, and proteases
• Kiwi—contains a protease called actinidain
• Ginger—contains the protease zingibain 

Top 5 Benefits of Digestive Enzymes

1. Improves Digestion

Unsurprisingly, one of the leading benefits of digestive enzymes is improved digestion.

The most common gastrointestinal symptoms that digestive enzymes can benefit include:

• Heartburn
• Bloating
• Abdominal pain after eating
• Gas
• Constipation
• Nausea
• Irritable bowel syndrome  

While a lot of support for digestive enzymes is anecdotal, we do have some valid research backing up these claims.

In one study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food, 40 adults were randomized to take either a proprietary multienzyme complex or a placebo with each meal for 60 days. 

People in the digestive enzyme group—which contained a blend of amylase, protease, lipase, lactase, and cellulase—experienced improvements in several markers of dyspepsia (the fancy word for indigestion) compared to the placebo group. 

Specifically, the treatment group had significantly reduced symptoms of stomach pain, post-meal distention (bloating), indigestion, heartburn, and nausea, with improved quality of life—and the placebo group had none of these benefits. 

2. Increases Nutrient Absorption

When we break down our food completely, we are better able to absorb the nutrients that are packed inside. 

Pancreatic enzymes, especially lipase, amylase, trypsin, and chymotrypsin, play the most essential role in ensuring we break down food for optimal nutrient absorption.

In people without adequate enzyme output, nutrient malabsorption can occur, which can eventually lead to nutrient deficiencies if prolonged. 

3. May Improve Leaky Gut

Leaky gut is a colloquial term for intestinal hyperpermeability—a condition in which the layer of epithelial cells that line the intestine becomes “leaky” with growing gaps between each cell.

When the intestinal lining becomes more permeable, toxins, pathogens, and too-big proteins can travel out of the gut into the bloodstream, purportedly causing digestive problems like heartburn, indigestion, diarrhea, bloating, and low energy.

Digestive enzymes may be able to help leaky gut because they help you break down and absorb food better—if a food is making its way through your digestive tract without proper digestion, parts of it can sneak through the leaky intestinal wall and cause these symptoms. 

Digestive enzymes can also diminish irritation and inflammation in the gut, which strengthens the gut lining and reduces leaky gut prevalence.

4. Reduces Acid Reflux

High-fat foods are one of the most common triggers for acid reflux, which is when stomach acid travels back up the esophagus and creates a burning feeling. 

Digestive enzymes can help efficiently break down these fatty foods, moving them along from the stomach into the intestines more quickly and relieving acid reflux symptoms. 

5. May Improve Skin Health

It’s thought that one reason behind several skin conditions, including acne, rosacea, and eczema, is excess inflammation in the gut.

Digestive enzymes may be able to help reduce this inflammation that occurs from incomplete food digestion, which leads to leaky gut and potential skin issues.

Plus, nutrient malabsorption may also lead to skin conditions, as we need vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids to have healthy skin. 

Who Needs Digestive Enzymes?

People with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) are at the top of the list of those who absolutely need digestive enzymes because they can’t produce adequate amounts of them on their own. 

EPI is defined as a deficiency of exocrine pancreatic enzymes, which leads to an inability to properly digest food—especially fats. 

Causes of EPI include chronic pancreatitis and other pancreatic disorders, celiac disease, diabetes, Crohn’s disease, short bowel syndrome, and gastric surgery. 

People with EPI have to take specialized prescription enzymes that are known as pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) and contain an abundance of lipase to facilitate fat breakdown.

Other groups who may need enzymes are those with digestive diseases, including celiac disease, lactose intolerance, and inflammatory bowel disease. 

Lastly, people who have uncomfortable symptoms after eating may want to experiment with digestive enzymes to see if their guts improve.

Plus, taking a digestive enzyme and probiotic combination may further benefit digestive health in these latter two groups. 

Side Effects of Digestive Enzymes 

Despite all of the potential benefits of digestive enzymes, they can cause some side effects if you don’t really need them.

If unneeded, digestive enzymes can actually cause some of the symptoms you’re trying to fix, including diarrhea, upset stomach, nausea, or constipation—especially if you take too much of them.

Although rare, some people may experience allergic reactions to some ingredients in digestive enzymes. 

You will need to speak with your doctor first before taking digestive enzymes if you have a history of liver disease, gallbladder disease, or stomach ulcers. 

However, most people tolerate digestive enzymes well in the recommended dosages, which will vary based on product and type of enzyme.

FAQs About Digestive Enzymes

Key Takeaways

• Digestive enzymes are naturally produced in the body but can decline with age, stress, disease, or poor diet. 
• We need enzymes to completely break down food, which improves digestion, absorption, and reduces gastrointestinal symptoms. 
• Other benefits of digestive enzymes include increased nutrient absorption, reduced prevalence of leaky gut, and improvements in acid reflux and skin health. 
• There are single, targeted digestive enzymes—like lactase for digesting milk sugars—and broad, multi-enzyme supplements that can help with a wider variety of food digestion.