Fermentation is an amazing natural tool
that can help make food more digestible, nutritious,
and flavourful.
Fermentation is all down to the actions of
tiny natural microbes,
who colonize and cultivate everything from
our digestive systems to the food we eat.
There are three basic forms of fermentation:
Lactic acid fermentation;
when yeasts and bacteria convert starches
or sugars into lactic acid in foods
like sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, yoghurt,
and sourdough bread.
Ethyl alcohol fermentation; where the pyruvate
molecules in starches or sugars
are broken down by yeasts into alcohol and
carbon dioxide molecules
to produce wine and beer.
And acetic acid fermentation of starches or
sugars from grains or fruit
into sour tasting vinegar and condiments.
Each of these kinds of fermentation is down
to the work of microbes
specialized at converting certain substances
into others.
Microbes use carbohydrates for energy to fuel
their survival.
To make use of that energy, organic chemicals
like adenosine triphosphate
deliver it when needed to every part of a
cell.
Microbes, and our own body cells, use respiration
to generate ATP.
Fermentation is similar to the kind of respiration
that takes place
when there isn't enough oxygen present, namely
anaerobic respiration.
However, unlike respiration, which uses pyruvic
acid,
fermentation leads to the production of different
organic molecules
like lactic acid, which also leads to ATP.
Fermentation can have several stages depending
on what's being fermented,
and the length and stages of fermentation
will vary
depending on what's being made.
