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Enzymes are biological catalysts. Catalysts are chemicals that speed up chemical reactions and/or allow chemical reactions to happen at much lower temperatures than would normally be required.

Thus enzymes are used in the digestive system (of all animals, not just humans) to speed up the chemical reactions that break food down into simple enough molecules (e.g. starches to simple sugars, proteins to amino acids, fats to fatty acids) that they can easily be absorbed in the small intestine. Without the enzymes help the intestines would need to be hundreds of times longer than they already are and even then much of the potential nutrient value of the food would still be lost and one could easily starve with a full belly.

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10y ago

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