Fermented foods are an important part of the human diet. While the types of fermented foods consumed as well as the processes used to create them vary regionally, the majority of human populations globally deliberately produce and consume fermented foods as a central part of their diets. This pattern is in contrast to that of other vertebrates, including nonhuman primates. However, it remains unclear when and why humans began to include high amounts of fermented foods in their diets. Here, we review existing knowledge regarding the timing and impetus for the emergence of fermented food use by humans and put forth a new hypothesis that fermented food use began as a “predigestion” strategy to increase nutrient availability in harsh, terrestrial environments with physically and chemically defended food resources. We explore support for this hypothesis in comparative behavioral and physiological data from extant nonhuman primates. Together the data presented in this paper suggest that food fermentation may have had an impact on human evolutionary trajectories via interactions with human biology and health. Future work should build on this foundation to interrogate these processes in more detail.

中文翻译：

---

预消化是人类使用发酵食品的进化动力

发酵食品是人类饮食的重要组成部分。虽然所消费的发酵食品的类型以及用于制作它们的过程因地区而异，但全球大多数人口故意生产和消费发酵食品作为他们饮食的核心部分。这种模式与其他脊椎动物的模式形成对比，包括非人类灵长类动物。然而，目前尚不清楚人类何时以及为何开始在饮食中加入大量发酵食品。在这里，我们回顾了关于人类使用发酵食品的时间和动力的现有知识，并提出了一个新假设，即发酵食品的使用开始是一种“预消化”策略，以通过物理和化学方式增加恶劣的陆地环境中的营养供应。保卫粮食资源。我们在现存的非人类灵长类动物的比较行为和生理数据中探索对这一假设的支持。本文中提供的数据共同表明，食物发酵可能通过与人类生物学和健康的相互作用对人类进化轨迹产生了影响。未来的工作应该建立在这个基础上，以更详细地询问这些过程。