Papain or bromelain help digest protein? Sure ! Unfortunately meat naturally contains neither papain nor bromelain and fortunately the natural enzymes in meat don't digest it.
I see, so you very , very grudgingly admit that enzymes in raw plant foods can help digestion. Well, it's a start, I suppose.
These plants are not so stupid to produce enzymes capable to digest their own fruits or tissues. Similarly animals are not so stupid to produce enzymes that digest their own tissues, organs, muscles etc.
You're missing the point. Dr Howell and others were purely suggesting that the work of enzymes occurs after ingestion. There are plenty of substances/catalysts that only act when exposed to specific conditions. In the case of a plant, it would not be beneficial for a plant for its fruit to digest itself while on the stalk, but it would be beneficial for the plant if the fruit digested itself while in the gut of some animal.
Again if there were any, meat would actually just digest by itself when left on butcher's shelf or in fridge within a few hours
That's not what Howell and co were suggesting. They were stating that the enzymes in raw foods start working after ingestion into the body. And besides, not even Howell or others contend that enzymes in raw foods are a major component of digestion only a minor one with issues only appearing in the long-term if enzyme-deficient foods are constantly ingested.
It has essentially to do with the absence of heat generated damage and toxins. Damaged proteins for instance by racemization or glycation are much harder to digest than intact proteins because of the fairly high stereospecificity of our own digestive enzymes The key (enzyme) no longer fits well into the damaged lock (heated protein)
Well that at least is slightly better than previous claims re pemmican.
I just asked for the reference (journal,year, authors, page etc) of a scientific paper in peer reviewed journals supporting your claim that enzymes in a given raw food are capable to digest that same food.
I provided you at the bottom of that article with a bibilography of numerous scientific papers showing the benefit of enzymes in raw foods re digestion. You conveniently chose to ignore it.
Here are some mentions of enzymes in raw meats, helping to predigest the meat:-
"According to the Food Enzyme Concept, “There is a mechanism operating in all creatures
permitting food enzymes to digest a particular fraction of the food in which they are
contained.” For example, raw meat contains an enzyme known as cathepsin, which is
widely distributed in muscles and organs. After the death of an animal, their tissues
become acidic and this promotes catheptic activity. This enzyme, therefore, promotes
autolysis and aids in pre-digestion by animals that consume this raw flesh."
The clincher, in my view, that really debunks the notion that enzymes in raw foods are wholly unessential is the fact that the rich enzyme-content of human mothers' milk, is specifically designed to make sure the infant almost perfectly digests the milk, to an extent far greater than with other kinds of raw food:-
"For example, human milk has a good amount of
lipase which assists the baby in digesting the high fat content of milk, which it certainly
needs. Bovine milk also contains scores of enzymes (35+ different known enzymes),
most of which are destroyed by pasteurization, that are health promoting." taken from:-
http://www.aruraclinic.com/listing/EnzymeNutrition.pdfWhat I am more concerned about is the fact that the vast majority of RVAFers report that "high-meat" is so much, much easier to digest than standard fresh raw meats. Now, of course, one can equivocate and state that bacteria in the high-meat is the sole reason for such easier digestion, but it is just as possible that enzymes in the aged raw meat and enzymes produced by bacteria within the high meat are responsible for that, too. *At any rate, the only way to verify all this would be to remove all enzymes from raw foods without harming them via heat, and then doing a decades-long study with such foods to see if the enzyme-producing glands suffered as a result by comparison to rawists eating enzyme-rich raw foods. An unlikely scenario.