>It is my understanding that the undigested food
>(vegans say meat, and I would say cooked meat) gets impacted in the
>colon, along with the mucous layers that the body secretes to protect
itself.

My only question is - why does anyone assume that this is 'bad' or
'un-natural'.

>> On enzymes, the enzymes in food
>> are supposed to have a very minor role in digestion.

>This goes contrary to everything I have read in my health research.  I
>think enzymes are vital and our bodies are depleated in their
>digestive enzymes in order to handle the large amounts of processed
>foods we eat during the course of our lives.

I did some fairly exhaustive research on this a few years ago to either
prove or disprove some claims made by an enzyme hawker. And the original
post is essentially right when it comes to digestion. The enzymes found
in food play a very minor roll (if at all) when it comes to digestion.
Either you make sufficient digestive enzymes, or you don't. You can take
additional digestive enzymes in pill form, but these enzymes are seldom
found in noticeable quantities in the foods we eat.

However, food ingested enzymes *do* have other rolls in the body, and can
be used to treat certain health issues. And you are correct in stating that
the wrong health habits can deplete enzyme stores (but, the 'alternative'
health theory that we are born with a limited amount of enzymes and once
you use them up you're in trouble - is a bunch of hooey).