Dariusz:

> I understand their workings in sproutable nuts, seeds and grains, but am
> not sure about dried fruits (raisins and such), seaweed or even honey (or
> pollen).  Could anyone comment on the status of the enzymes in those foods?
> In other words, just how ALIVE are these foods?

First, focusing on enzymes to judge the quality (or the rawness) of a food is
somewhat reductionist. A food can be alive but "dormant" (dried grains are alive
but inactivated), and can be alive but denatured (like grains dried at high
temperature, or humans burned to the 3rd degree)...

Now, I see only two reasons for which eating live enzymes could be useful for
the body:

 1] Pre-digestion in the stomach
 2] Maybe some enzymes aren't destroyed by the stomach acids and could be useful
for the body.

 Let's discuss these two aspects.
 1] Enzymes may help digestion, but obviously, if you put a green banana in a
room at 98.6 F for 2 hours, it won't transform into a fully ripe banana. The
most important parts of digestion are: aging (ripening, sprouting, proteolysis
of meat, etc) outside the body, and the digestion by the body's enzymes. That's
why ripe fruits or aged meat taste better for most people. The same even applies
for carrots (let them age a few weeks in the refrigerator, they will become
softer under the action of their own enzymes).

 2] There is (as far as I know) no evidence that some enzymes from food are
useful for the body apart from digesting the food from which they come. There is
no signs of deficiencies when someone doesn't eat enough live enzymes, contrary
to what happens when someone lack vitamins. And even with the SAD, with a very
little percentage of raw food, you can still reach the RDA. Of course, the
requirements in vitamins are lower if you want to avoid sickness than if you
want "optimal health" (provided it's possible), and maybe eating live enzymes
could help to attain "optimal health", but all of that is speculative and one
shouldn't give enzymes too much importance.

Enzymes are a sort of "catalyzer", i.e. they are left unchanged by the chemical
reaction but they help to cross a barrier of potential. The same reaction can
occur without enzymes, provided you bring enough energy, i.e. you cook your
food. IMHO, it may be one of the reasons why cooked food tastes good: our
tastebuds recognize the endproducts that appear in aged food, and the
concentration of some of those products is abnormally high, thus giving a strong
and pleasant flavor (and in addition, some substances which give a burning-like
stop are destroyed).

Of course, the drawback of cooking is that the endproducts don't appear in
desirable proportions, and other chemical species appear. Furthermore, even
without chemical reactions, the structure of large molecules can be changed
(stereoisomers can be produced, etc).

Now, dried foods are not (or almost not) enzymatically active, because
biochemical reactions require water. It's also one reason why micro-organism
can't live in dried foods, and you can preserve them for months. But since there
remains a small percentage of water (at least a few %), chemical reactions
nevertheless occur very slowly, and the preiod of storage is limited.

When you soak dried foods, they become enzymatically active again. Seeds begin
to sprout, maybe seaweed softens, etc... But except if you want to grow sprouts,
I don't think that it is so important that enzymes are active. Obviously, if you
grind, then soak almonds for 3 hours at 98.6 F, they won't really be digested.
That doesn't mean that soaking is not important, as many of us can experience
that soaked nuts are more digestible. The reason for that is, IMO, our OWN
enzymes won't be able to digest the nuts until enough water replenish the cells.
In other words, soaking nuts make OUR enzymes active in digesting those nuts.

>Forgive me but what is comb honey and how likely is it to obtain some of
>good, instincto quality?

>From Webster's dictionary
Comb:
The waxen framework forming the walls of the cells in which bees store their
honey, eggs, etc.; honeycomb.

Comb honey is generally sold in square boxes of 1-2 lbs (wax included), and is
really raw (while jarred honey is sometimes heated during extraction).

> I suppose I wasn't entirely sure whether foods like honey or seaweed can
>be safely put in the raw group.  After all, they do come in jars and
>plastic bags.

Well, as long as you don't eat the plastic bags...

Dried foods are certainly a bit denatured, in the sense that
 1] Being more concentrated, they have a stronger taste, and our instinct is
less efficient (the taste-change comes too late). But as Kirt said, you need to
be cautious and not eat until the stop.
 2] Drying can damage the cell walls, and mix intracellular with extracellular
chemical species, thus some endproducts appear in greater quantity than in
natural conditions. Maybe it's not a problem. And even if it was, it would be a
problem only for foods dried for several months.

Best,

Jean-Louis
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