Introduction to Enzymes in Cacao

I frequently receive inquiries from raw foodies who are seeking enzyme-rich, cold-processed cacao - so I decided to educate myself on this subject.

It is extremely frustrating to me that many of the raw foodies I've encountered simply don't know what they're talking about. Rather, they tend to believe (and repeat) the dubious marketing "information" that they hear from businesses which are trying to sell them over-priced raw food products.

Following is what I've learned about enzymes and cacao. I hope other people might find this information interesting and useful.


ENZYME: a specialized protein that catalyzes a specific chemical reaction.

CATALYZE: to bring about a change; to aid in a reaction.


WHAT EXACTLY DO ENZYMES DO?

Enzymes cause myriad different changes and reactions, but one of their most common functions is to help break relatively large molecules into smaller, more useful ones.

Enzymes play a critical role in the digestion of food. For example, when you put food in your mouth and start chewing, your salivary glands excrete enzymes that assist in the breakdown of different foods.


SOME ENZYME TRIVIA: why is saliva sometimes used in alcohol production?

In 2005 I was offered a drink of chicha in a village in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Chicha is an alcoholic drink which is traditionally prepared by women who thoroughly chew a starchy plant product, such as cassava or maize. The resulting juice is spat into a bowl and then fermented.

This method of preparation is disgusting to most Westerners - I personally couldn't bring myself to swallow this saliva-rich concoction. But there is a very good reason why chicha is prepared in this way: yeast cannot ferment starch. In order to produce alcohol, yeasts need sugar. This is where amylase enzymes come in: the amylase enzymes in the chewer's saliva convert the starch into sugars, which can then be fermented, to produce alcohol.


GENERAL CATEGORIES OF ENZYMES FOUND IN CACAO:

Protease: an enzyme that catalyzes the splitting of proteins into smaller parts, known as peptides and amino acids. Example: endoprotease

Peptidase: an enzyme that catalyzes the splitting of peptides into amino acids. Examples: aminopeptidase, carboxypeptidase

Invertase: an enzyme that catalyzes the breakdown of sucrose into glucose and fructose. Examples: cotyledon invertase, pulp invertase

Glycosidase (also called glycoside hydrolase): a glycoside molecule is one in which a sugar part is bound to some other part. A glycosidase enzyme catalyzes the breakdown of the glycosidic linkage, thereby generating two smaller sugars.

Oxidase: an enzyme that catalyzes an oxidation/reduction reaction. In these reactions, oxygen is reduced to water (H2O) or hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Example: polyphenol oxidase.


ENZYMES AND CACAO FERMENTATION

Enzymes play a central role in cacao fermentation. For example, it is a process known as enzymatic browning which produces the classic brown colour of chocolate. For more information on this subject, please see my earlier blog post: Cocoa Fermentation 101.

For much more detailed information about the enzymes in cacao, see:
Hansen, C.E.; del Olmo, M.; Burri, C. (1998)
"Enzyme activities in cocoa beans during fermentation"
Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, Vol. 77, Issue 2, pp.273-281
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/1429/PDFSTART


RAW FOOD AND ENZYMES: what's the story?

If you're not a raw food enthusiast, you're probably completely unaware of the furore surrounding the issue of enzymes and raw food. For the uninitiated, here's a little bit of background information about raw foodism ...

Raw foodies choose to eat foods that have never been heated above a certain temperature. The temperature limit differs depending on who you ask, but the most common upper limit is 46C (115F).

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According to the Wikipedia entry for Raw foodism:

"Raw foodists typically believe that the greater the percentage of raw food in the diet, the greater the health benefits. [...] Adherents of raw foodism believe that consumption of uncooked foods encourages weight loss (and stability, without the risk of re-gaining), while also preventing and/or healing many forms of sickness and chronic diseases. Some medical studies have indicated that different forms of raw food diets may lead to various health problems, while other studies have shown positive health outcomes with such diets."

Among other things, "Raw foodists believe that digestive enzymes (such as amylases, proteases, and lipases) aid digestion. Heating food above 104-120 degrees Fahrenheit degrades or destroys these enzymes in food."

In the early 20th century "The dentist Weston Price visited numerous hunter-gatherer tribes around the world in the 1930s, and noted that the healthiest native-tribes he saw all incorporated significant amounts of enzyme-rich raw animal and raw plant foods in their diets."

"To date, scientific literature describing health and nutrition aspects of raw foods or living foods diets is limited [...]"
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Many raw foodies want to eat cold-processed cacao and chocolate products because of a belief that these products are rich in beneficial enzymes. A common belief amongst raw foodies is that enzyme-rich foods are "lively" or "alive", and that eating "lively" food is good for you.

I have a number of points to make in response to these beliefs:

* Is cold-processed cacao "lively" or "alive"?
No, it is not. The process of fermentation kills the cacao bean, no matter how cool a temperature the fermentation takes place at. If a cacao-based product is chocolate-brown in colour, then the cacao is no longer alive.

* Are "cold-processed" cacao products richer in enzymes than cacao which has been fermented at normal temperatures of up to 50C (122F)?
This is a difficult question to answer. To the best of my knowledge, nobody really knows. I have been unable to find any information that clearly proves or disproves the idea that cold-processed cacao is richer in enzymes than normally-processed cacao.
Furthermore, I have been unable to find any evidence that "cold-processing" techniques actually exist for cacao. Numerous "raw chocolate" sellers claim to use secret, proprietary technology for cold-processing their cacao. However, because they are unwilling to allow third-parties to observe their processes, it is impossible to know whether or not they are being completely honest.

* Assuming that cold-processed cacao is richer in enzymes than normally-processed cacao, what are the health implications of this enzyme-richness?
My research has failed to produce any evidence that enzyme-rich foods confer any health benefits of any description to humans.

As the Wikipedia article quoted above states: "Raw foodists believe that digestive enzymes (such as amylases, proteases, and lipases) aid digestion. Heating food above 120 degrees Fahrenheit degrades or destroys these enzymes in food."

The raw foodies are correct on these points: digestive enzymes certainly do aid digestion, and heat does destroy enzymes - but the human body produces digestive enzymes anyway.

You do not need to eat amylase: it is produced by your salivary glands and pancreas.
You do not need to eat protease: it is produced by your pancreas.
You do not need to eat lipase: it is produced by your pancreas.

Also, it is interesting to note that some raw foods actually inhibit digestive enzymes.

Raw foodies like to quote Edward Howell, the author of "Enzyme Nutrition", a book which was first published in 1946. For a detailed (and sceptical) discussion of Howell's ideas, see Part 2B of "Looking at the Science on Raw vs. Cooked Foods" over at beyondveg.com

As the author of the linked article writes: "Tortora and Anagnostakos [1981, p.629] report that 90% of all nutrients are absorbed in the small intestine. Digestion in the small intestine relies on bile and pancreatic enzymes, because a large part (but not 100%) of the food enzymes are destroyed in the stomach prior to the food reaching the small intestine".

And finally: "the supporters of Howell's theories make the common rawist error of adopting an unproven theory, and then aggressively demanding that others disprove it. By all logical standards of evidence, the burden of proof rests on those who propose a theory to provide evidence for it; a burden the rawists would apparently prefer to be able to reverse or escape. Thus, those who advocate speculative claims, such as the ones Howell put forward, are logically required to provide reasonable proof, and the proof provided is not adequate."