PROLOG _ All food phenomena begin with molecules.

Part I.
How can I study food?
Chapter 1.
The easiest and most useful way to study food
1.
Just because life is complex doesn't mean food should be either.
2.
The more you simplify, the more depth you gain.
3.
There are only four key ingredients in food.
Chapter 2.
How to Read Food by Molecular Structure
1.
Size: The molecule is 1 nm (nanometer)
2.
Motion: Molecules are in perpetual motion at supersonic speeds.
3.
Shape: All information is contained in the molecular shape.

Part II.
The Four Atoms and Molecules That Rule Food
Chapter 1.
Water is the simplest yet most profound molecule.
1.
Life requires water
2.
The specialness of water comes from hydrogen bonds.
3.
Water Quality: What Makes a Difference in Water Quality?
4.
Knowing solubility gives you half the understanding of physical properties.
Chapter 2.
Carbohydrates are various forms of glucose.
1.
The reason why you must swallow what is sweet and spit what is bitter
2.
Starch is the largest molecule in the universe.
3.
Cellulose is the most abundant organic compound on Earth.
Chapter 3.
Proteins have as many functions as there are types.
1.
The sophistication of life comes from the sophistication of proteins.
2.
The dynamism of life comes from the fluctuations of proteins.
3.
Protein is a versatile material that is difficult to handle.
4.
Protein material-specific characteristics
Chapter 4.
Fat is the simplest and most stable
1.
The properties of fatty acids are determined by their length and folded shape.
2.
Life begins with the creation of a boundary with a cell membrane.
3.
The fifth nutrient, isoprenoids

Part III.
Molecules that change the properties of foods in small amounts
1.
Commonalities Between Food Additives and Plant Secondary Metabolites
2.
Colorants: Molecules that add interest to foods at 0.001%
3.
Flavoring ingredient: A molecule that creates food diversity at 0.01%
4.
Flavor component: A molecule that controls the balance of flavor at 1%
5.
Preservative: 0.01% organic acid that inhibits microorganisms
6.
Dietary fiber and thickeners: molecules that change texture by 1%
7.
Emulsifiers and solvents
8.
Amino Acids and Minerals: Things Even Plants Have a Hard Time Making
9.
Energy metabolism, free radicals, and antioxidants
10.
Vitamins and coenzymes

Appendix _ My thoughts on the value of food
EPILOGUE _ Understanding the Science of Food through Pictures

Most of the food is made up of water components.
Imagine a delicious meal prepared with care by a first-class chef right before your eyes.
But if you put this dish in a blender and blend it all at once, no one will want to eat that unknown substance.
Even though only the physical properties have changed.
In this way, physical properties affect the taste and identity of food.
Any food ingredient, whether fruit, vegetable, or meat, once ground in a blender, loses its identity.
When an apple is in its original shape, anyone can easily tell that it is an apple, but when it is made into juice, it is difficult to tell that it is an apple until you drink it.
Even if you grind an apple, about 80% of people can recognize it, but only 50% can recognize a tomato, and less than 10% can recognize a cucumber or cabbage.
In this way, physical properties are the basis of taste and are the most important factor that allows taste and aroma to shine.
However, it is really difficult to find efforts to scientifically understand the properties of matter.
The recently attempted 'molecular gastronomy' is the beginning of a scientific approach.
Molecular gastronomy, founded in 1992 by French chemist Hervé This, explores the changes that occur during cooking at the molecular level.
As a result, it brought a breath of fresh air to cooking by suggesting new recipes and ways to use ingredients.
However, it is difficult to see this novelty as the essence of molecular gastronomy.
What's new is that such technology has been applied to cooking, but it's not really new to processed foods.
Most of the techniques of molecular gastronomy, such as making ice cream in an instant with liquid nitrogen or dry ice, using transglutaminase as a protein glue, and making bead-shaped jellies with sodium alginate, are already used in processed foods.
The core idea is to reinterpret food and cooking through the new framework of science and find the essence of taste, and the novelty is just a bonus.

There are only four key molecules that make up food and its properties.
The beginning of life (food) is water.
Of all the substances that make up life, water is the most abundant.
As we all know, our body is made up of 65% water.
At birth, it is about 90%, but as we grow, it decreases until only that much remains.
Vegetables are 95% water, and most foods are about 80% water.
Plants are rich in carbohydrates.
Photosynthesis is the process of creating glucose, and when glucose is modified, numerous sugars such as fructose and sucrose are created, and when glucose is chained long, it becomes starch, cellulose, or dietary fiber.
Since water and carbohydrates together make up about 93% of plants, it can be said that plants understand carbohydrates.
Animals only need to know the additional protein here.
Although fat is also present in large quantities, the essential fat content is only about 2%.
The fat content is higher than that because any excess energy is stored as fat, but we do not need that much fat for life.
Calcium, phosphorus, and all the minerals that make up the rest of the bones add up to less than 5%, and if you exclude the components that make up the bones, it is only less than 2%.
In any case, life is mostly made up of water, carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, so if you just understand this, that's it.
This is also true for food.
Ultimately, the ingredients that determine the physical properties of food are water, carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Although these do not have taste or smell on their own, they have a decisive influence on the physical properties, and these properties in turn affect the taste.

Ingredients that provide special functions in small amounts in foods
Food additives were widely criticized until 10 years ago, but if you analyze their ingredients, you'll find they are no different from natural ones, and only contain very small amounts.
Rather, the food with the most additives is the powdered milk that children eat.
This is because all nutrients, such as amino acids, vitamins, and minerals, are classified as food additives.
And a significant portion of it is chemically synthesized.
Naturalness has nothing to do with the safety or nutritional value of a food, only with emotional value.
The same goes for pigments.
These are not likely to be safer or more effective than synthetic ones because they are natural.
Rather, there are many unverified ingredients.
It's just a marketing sham created by blind faith in nature.

Flavoring compounds are small molecules that dissolve in water.
The reason we like sweets is because our bodies need a lot of calories.
Although spiciness is now known as a sensation of pain, it is actually a sensation of temperature.
Capsaicin in chili peppers stimulates TRPV1, a receptor that senses the hottest temperature on the tongue. TRPV1 is a receptor that detects high temperatures above 42℃, and when it is suddenly activated in large quantities, the brain mistakes it for a burn (pain, hot).
So, to reduce the damage from the burn, the brain secretes saliva from the mouth, sweat from the head and face, and at the same time releases endorphins, natural painkillers.
However, since it is not a real burn, the pain soon goes away and the pleasure from endorphins causes a mild ecstasy.
You get addicted to that spicy flavor.

Like this, there are many ingredients in food that provide special functions even in very small amounts.
In addition to the food additives, colorings, and flavorings mentioned above, flavoring substances, thickeners, emulsifiers, preservatives, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals are ingredients found in trace amounts in foods, and each of these has its own unique principle and performs a special function even in small amounts.
Understanding these functions and avoiding misunderstandings is the way to truly understand food.

Understanding molecules is understanding life.
There are always many misunderstandings and prejudices about food.
However, all things are made of atoms, and between the inanimate atoms and the living cells, there are only molecules.
Molecules move without any intention or will, but only according to the characteristics of their size and shape, without stopping for a moment.
It is decomposition and synthesis, solubility and crystallization, softness and hardness, flowability and coagulability.
The harmony of such properties is ultimately the basis of life phenomena.
For a long time, we have been exaggerating the efficacy and risks of water, carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, which make up most of food and life, by blindly interpreting them through fragmentary experiments without understanding them.
Of course, life is complex, and in some cases, even small molecules can become signaling substances in a system and make a crucial difference.
But that's not what food does.
It is a phenomenon that occurs due to the promise given by life.
And even in such phenomena, the physical reality of the molecule itself, such as whether it is large or small and whether it dissolves in water or fat, is more important than you think.
So, while dealing with the phenomenon of physical properties, we have dealt with the commonalities of life phenomena little by little.
Nature has no boundaries, and so knowledge is more connected than we think.
All phenomena of nature are governed by the same laws.
The phenomenon of alginic acid solidifying when it meets calcium is similar to the phenomenon of the egg solidifying when a sperm meets the egg, preventing any other sperm from entering.
I hope that we can understand food through physical phenomena and the essence of life phenomena.
The basis of life is molecular phenomena, and molecules have no intention or will.
There is only size, shape, and movement.
Understanding how they move and are controlled is the beginning of understanding life phenomena.