A popular supplement brand, Physician’s Choice, might be paying young influencers (who don’t even know how to pronounce “digestive” properly) to spread misinformation about their digestive enzymes. They state bold claims about weight loss, such as “you’re not fat, you just have bad digestive health,” and that the enzymes will “clear out all the junk we eat here in America” causing your belt size to decline in a matter of weeks.
Why do I suspect Physician’s Choice is paying people to make these claims? Because I’ve found at least three influencers who say the EXACT same promotional script (two of which both pronounce “digestive” in the same incorrect way). Companies might have found an FCC loophole where they can make total B.S. claims via small-time influencer mouths. As long as the company itself isn’t making the false statements, they seem to stay below the legal radar. But enough about that. Their sketchiness will be addressed in another blog.
Today I’m going to talk about WHY these claims are so freaking wrong. Allow me to break this down for you because your body (and your wallet) deserve better.
Video version of blog here: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP82Tc2Vx/
Table of Contents
Let’s Talk Real Digestion
In order to understand why these “lose weight with enzymes” claims are garbage, you need to understand how your body actually processes food.
We extract calories (energy) from our food. We either use that energy to do stuff or we store what we don’t use (fat and glycogen). For us to get that energy, our digestive system needs to break down large, honkin’ chunks of food into teeny, tiny bits that we can absorb.
When you eat, say a piece of toast, you chew it up and mix it with saliva. Your saliva contains enzymes that start breaking down the carbohydrates in the toast. These enzymes are like molecular scissors, snipping large carbs into smaller carbs. This process continues all the way through your digestive system, until those carbs are broken down into their tiniest form: simple sugar molecules.
absorbed by your intestinal cells. Less energy is absorbed from your food.
Your body can only absorb these simple sugars if they are completely broken down into single sugar molecules. If any of the carbs remain bonded together, your small intestine can’t absorb them. Instead, those sugars pass into your large intestine, where they feed bacteria (hello, bloating and gas), draw water (hello, diarrhea), and eventually get excreted without ever giving your body energy.
Where they can cause bloating, gas, and diarrhea. You poop them out without getting any calories from them.
Therefore, if digestion is incomplete, you absorb fewer calories. That’s not usually a goal, it’s just a sign something’s wrong.
What if Digestive Enzymes Actually Worked?
Supplemental digestive enzymes, when effective (who knows if the Physician’s Formula ones are), improve digestion. They help your body break those final bonds, turning indigestible sugars into absorbable ones. Sounds great, right?
Well, here’s the catch: that means you actually absorb more calories from your food, not fewer.
that they are SINGLE sugar molecules, they will be absorbed and used as energy.
So if you’re taking digestive enzymes that work, congratulations! You’re now extracting more energy (aka calories) from your meals. You’re probably also tooting n’ pooping your pantaloons less, so that’s a win! The use of digestive enzymes can help malnourished people gain weight. Farmers add them to chicken feed to fatten up poultry.
The point? Digestive enzymes can support nutrient absorption, not weight loss. The more nutrients you absorb, the more calories you absorb. Anyone claiming otherwise is either confused, misinformed, or being paid to sell you something.
Let’s Recap
- Digestive enzymes help break food down into absorbable nutrients.
- Better absorption = more energy (calories) taken in.
- Saying digestive enzymes cause weight loss is like saying better gas mileage wastes more fuel. It just doesn’t make sense.
- And finally, please don’t take health advice from rando influencers reading scripts on Instagram! I already caught two of these dudes cosplaying at being doctors!
Bottom line: If you’re struggling with bloating or nutrient absorption, digestive enzymes might help—but if you’re hoping they’ll melt body fat, you’re barking up the wrong science tree. Want real change? Start with understanding your body and look into the root cause of your bloating issue.
Now go forth, stay skeptical, and keep learning!
—Lana, your Investigative Dietitian
