How does digestion relate to enzymes? Name some foods digested by enzymes?

Question

How does digestion relate to enzymes? Name some foods digested by enzymes?

Answer 1

All food is digested by enzymes.  Enzymes are proteins that catalyze biochemical reactions, meaning the speeed them up, usually by providing an alternate pathway with a lower activation energy.  Metabolism is the sum total of an organisms biochemical pathways, and catabolism is the type of metabolism that breaks things down.  Proteins are broken down into individual amino acids and then transported to cells in the body either for storage or to be reassembled into new proteins, including the very enzymatic proteins that aided in their break down.  Lipids (fats) and carbohydrates are similarly broken down.  A pure liquid that is useful for the body—H2O—does not need to be broken down, but that's about it.

It's important to note that enzymes are not the only things responsible for digestion.  Mechanical digestion breaks large food particles into smaller ones.  Examples of mechanical digestion are chewing and the churning of the stomach.  Hydrochloric acid (HCl) is a strong acid and the major component of gastric juice; it also breaks down food.