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WHAT IS FERMENTATION SOYNATTO ® |
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Harvesting Fuel Molecules From Food Transformation Through Fermentation BIO-FOODS, The Bio-Transformation Company ®
Most people know that fermentation involves a micro-organism, often a beneficial yeast like Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and that the micro-organism is somehow "transforming" the food being fermented. But what is the micro-organism actually doing? Harvesting Fuel Molecules From Food Living cells have evolved a means to derive, store, and use chemical energy from fuel molecules found in food. Energy released by the breakdown of fuel molecules is captured and held within the cell in the high-energy phosphate bonds of ATP (adenosine triphosphate). ATP serves as the major energy "currency" in all living things. That energy "currency" can be "spent" (released) by the cell at any time to perform its work (contracting muscles for example). It's a little like our deriving energy from the breakdown of atoms, delivered to us as electricity and stored in the "currency" of batteries which we carry around until we need to "spend" it (to operate a cellular phone for example). The major fuel molecule found in food is glucose. The first step in the cell's energy-capturing process, called glycolysis or fermentation, is the breaking down of glucose with the aid of specific cell enzymes. The enzymes breaking down glucose, and many other cell enzymes, manipulate and transfer electrons and protons in ways which convert and form certain substances. ATP formation is one example, formation of pyruvic acid is another. Yeast cells also have enzymes that transform pyruvic acid into ethanol, a third of many examples. The conversion and formation of substances by enzymes of cells constitutes the action of fermentation (the original name for enzymes was in fact "ferments"). Fermentation therefore, is essentially a process during which living cells harvest fuel molecules from food in order to generate ATP for their own energy needs. During that process metabolic and bio-chemical alteration or transformation of the physical-chemical makeup of the food occurs. Transformation Through Fermentation For the fermentor cell a major aim is energy production for itself, but luckily a number of other metabolic and bio-chemical changes take place that can improve the flavor, digestibility, shelf life, nutritional profile, and variability of use of the food being fermented. Some examples: Fermentation Bio-Chemically Transforms the Sensual Appeal of Food. During yeast fermentation of dough, minute chemical substances are produced that give bread its characteristic taste and odor, in addition to gas that raises it. During yeast fermentation of grape juice, bio-chemical changes result in the appealing characteristic taste and bouquet of wine, in addition to its alcohol content. Fermentation Bio-Chemically Transforms the Nutritional Profile of Food. Milk is transformed into yogurt. Soybeans are transformed into the more digestible (and tastier) Miso, Tempeh, and Natto. During fermentation Genistin, Daidzin and Glycitin are converted to their utilizable forms Genistein, Daidzein and Glycitein. BIO-FOODS, The Bio-Transformation Company ® Bio-Foods' personnel have over twenty years experience and knowledge in the technology and benefits of transforming foods utilizing Nature itself in the form of active beneficial yeast fermentation. Bio-Foods' SOYNATTO ® for example, is a fermented soyfood with increased levels of Genistein, Daidzein and Glycitein, bio-chemically transformed by Nature itself, with no industrial isolation, extraction, synthesis, or de-naturization. Just the goodness of soybeans, made better by the enzymes of living cells. |
Copyright
January 1999, Bio-Foods, Ltd., All Rights Reserved