Newbie and Active enzymes in foods?

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone,

I just joined this group and am very much looking forward to learning

about alternative medicine!

I have a question that I can't get a satisfying answer to and thought

I'd post it here in hopes someone knows the answer. In my recent

readings about whole foods etc. I keep running into the notion that

it's good to have 'active enzymes' in foods. Now, I'm a cell

biologist and I know that whole enzymes can't cross a cell membrane.

And even if they could, they would be degraded in the cell and it's

amino acids used in cell metabolism. So, unless I'm missing something

really basic here (which is possible as I'm not a physiologist), I

don't understand why it's so important to have active enzymes in your

food. Is it maybe that as you chew and break open plant (read:

vegetable) cells the active enzymes will start to degrade the

material and help therefore digestion? It's the only thing I can come

up with.

I hope someone can enlighten me.

Thanks!

Aline