Edward Howell

Edward Howell was an American alternative medicine quack who wrote a pseudoscientific book on enzymes and nutrition.

Background
Howell was not a qualified physician or nutritionist. It is alleged he obtained a "limited medical license from the state of Illinois", although no details about this license exist. He worked for six years at the Lindlahr Sanitarium, a naturopathic hospital. In 1932, he established the National Enzyme Company. He is alleged to have treated many patients with his "enzyme therapy". He was a Research Director for the Food Enzyme Research Foundation in Florida.

Howell invented the "Food Enzyme Concept":

False claims
Howell promoted four false claims about enzymes:


 * 1) Enzymes in raw foods help in digesting the foods themselves once they are put into the human digestive system.
 * 2) Cooking destroys these food enzymes forcing the body to produce more of its own digestive enzymes.
 * 3) The human body has a finite lifetime of "enzyme potential" for manufacturing digestive enzymes.
 * 4) Enzymes in raw food carry a mysterious "life force".

His claims about enzyme's are bogus and have been discredited.

According to nutritionist Andrea Giancoli a Los Angeles-based spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, whilst it is true that enzymes are broken down by heat, "those enzymes are denatured—and thus inactivated—when they reach our stomachs. Our stomach acids are designed to break down proteins very efficiently." Even if plant enzymes might reach the small intestine intact their "overall contribution to human digestion appears minimal."

The idea that there is a finite number of enzymes in a lifetime is false. The human body is efficient at producing them as long as one lives. Howell promoted the myth that midichlorians enzymes carry a mystical "life force". This idea is mystical, not scientific. His claims have been described as crackpot, unsupported by evidence and pseudoscientific.

Publications

 * The Status of Food Enzymes in Digestion and Metabolism (1946)
 * Enzyme Nutrition: Unlocking the Secrets of Eating Right for Health, Vitality and Longevity: The Food Enzyme Concept ISBN 978-1-101-66252-6 (1987)
 * Food Enzymes for Health & Longevity: Revised and Enlarged ISBN 0940676273 (2014)