Indigenous Diet Research Articles

Genetic resources of lentil and its utilization in India

Lentil is recognised as the most nutritious rabi pulse and, with respect to acreage, it ranks next to chickpea. It is grown throughout northern and central India. A large percentage of Indians are vegetarian and lentil has long been part of India's indigenous diet, and is a common source of protein. Of about 60 varieties released in India to date, 13 have been developed by hybridization, mostly from parents not distantly related. The narrow genetic base of the presently cultivated varieties and losses due to biotic and abiotic stress factors remain the main cause of concern. Introgression of genes betweenmicrospermaandmacrospermagroups of lentil from closely related species likeL. culinarissubspp. Orientalisand use of biotechnological tools, wherever necessary, have been recommended by various workers to broaden the genetic base of this crop. Direct selection for grain yield through important component traits such as pods/plant, seeds/pod, number of clusters/plant, harvest index, biological yield, early maturing and breeding for better yield quality have been suggested. Realizing the significance of plant germplasm, special efforts have been made by the national bureau to collect the genetic resources of lentil from different states of India. A large number of accessions were characterised and evaluated for various agro-morphological traits, using the lentil minimal descriptor. The core collection comprising 287 promising accessions recorded variation for seed yield and its important component traits; variation was also observed for important morphological traits, using mutation breeding approaches. These genetic resources of lentil have also been screened for tolerance to several biotic stresses and a few lines showed immunity against rust, blight and fusarium wilt and these have been utilized as donors in cross-breeding programmes. On the other hand, wildLensspecies revealed substantial genetic diversity for phenological and agro-morphological characters, including some important diseases of lentil. From these genetic resources, potential donors of desirable traits have been selected after evaluation and characterization and have been utilized in the genetic improvement of cultivars.

Oral health and the postcontact adaptive transition: A contextual reconstruction of diet in Mórrope, Peru

This work explores the effects of European contact on Andean foodways in the Lambayeque Valley Complex, north coast Peru. We test the hypothesis that Spanish colonization negatively impacted indigenous diet. Diachronic relationships of oral health were examined from the dentitions of 203 late-pre-Hispanic and 175 colonial-period Mochica individuals from Mórrope, Lambayeque, to include observations of dental caries, antemortem tooth loss, alveolar inflammation, dental calculus, periodontitis, and dental wear. G-tests and odds ratio analyses across six age classes indicate a range of statistically significant postcontact increases in dental caries, antemortem tooth loss, and dental calculus prevalence. These findings are associated with ethnohistoric contexts that point to colonial-era economic reorganization which restricted access to multiple traditional food sources. We infer that oral health changes reflect creative Mochica cultural adjustments to dietary shortfalls through the consumption of a greater proportion of dietary carbohydrates. Simultaneously, independent skeletal indicators of biological stress suggest that these adjustments bore a cost in increased nutritional stress. Oral health appears to have been systematically worse among colonial women. We rule out an underlying biological cause (female fertility variation) and suggest that the establishment of European gender ideologies and divisions of labor possibly exposed colonial Mochica women to a more cariogenic diet. Overall, dietary change in Mórrope appears shaped by local responses to a convergence of colonial Spanish economic agendas, landscape transformation, and social changes during the postcontact transition in northern Peru. These findings also further the understandings of dietary and biocultural histories of the Western Hemisphere.

Labor, Population Movement, and Food in Sixteenth-Century Ek Balam, Yucatán

Spanish colonization of the Yucatán Peninsula altered traditional patterns of subsistence after Spaniards imposed labor demands and controlled the movement of indigenous Maya. Spaniards established an encomienda and Franciscan visita at Ek Balam in the northern lowlands of the peninsula during the mid-sixteenth century. Complementary forces of doctrina and encomienda fostered the religious, political, and economic subjugation of the Maya. An analysis of zooarchaeological material from an Early Hispanic period feature at the archaeological site of Ek Balam indicates that Spanish restrictions of population movement and restructuring of indigenous labor altered pre-Hispanic patterns of faunal use. Under Spanish hegemony, Maya residents raised small-sized animals of Eurasian origin, especially pigs and chickens, while maintaining the indigenous dog as a primary food source. The animals used at Ek Balam could have been either raised or hunted locally; there is no indication that animals were obtained through either trade or exchange. The pattern of faunal use by indigenous people at Ek Balam differs from Early Hispanic sites in the southern Maya lowlands and elsewhere in the circum-Caribbean. This contrast demonstrates that tropical environmental variability, population density, and Spanish control tactics affected subsistence behavior and the incorporation of introduced fauna in the indigenous diet.

Hypertension, the Kuna, and the Epidemiology of Flavanols

A low sodium diet has often been implicated in the protection of low blood pressure populations from hypertension, but several other dietary factors, including those as yet unidentified, may also be involved. The Kuna Indians of Panama are free of hypertension and cardiovascular disease, but this is changing with migration to urban areas. We compared the indigenous diet of Kuna Indians living on remote islands in Panama (Ailigandi), whose lifestyle is largely hunter-gatherer, with those who have moved to a suburb of Panama City (Vera Cruz). Between April and October 1999, members of a Kuna research team administered a 118-item food frequency questionnaire to133 adult Kuna from Ailigandi and 183 from Vera Cruz. Single 24-hour urine collections and nonfasting blood samples were obtained. The Kuna in Ailigandi reported consuming a 10-fold higher amount of cocoa-containing beverages, 4 times the amount of fish, and twice the amount of fruit as urban Kuna (P<0.05 by t test). Salt added was ample among those living in Ailigandi and Vera Cruz according to both self-report (7.1+/-1.1 and 4.6+/-0.3 tsp weekly) and urinary sodium levels (177+/-9 and 160+/-7 mEq Na/g creatinine), respectively. The low blood pressure of island-dwelling Kuna does not seem to be related to a low salt diet. Among dietary factors that varied among migrating Kuna, the notably higher intake of flavanol-rich cocoa is a potential candidate for further study.

Dietary habits, diversity and the indigenous diet of the turks and Caicos Islands implications for island-specific nutrition intervention

To describe dietary habits in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Food frequency questionnaires were administered to female-household-heads of 144 households randomly selected from three islands' voter's lists (Grand Turk [n = 48], Providenciales [n = 46] and Middle Caicos [n = 50]). Data were collected on the distribution of (a) Households among Levels 0 - 7 of a Food Group Scale, developed using the Cornell Technique of Scaling Dichotomous Data, and based on number of households that consumed seven food groups (meat and legumes, bread/cereals, fruits, vegetables, starchy roots/tubers/fruits; dairy and beverages) weekly; (b) Foods among four categories (common core, island core, occasional or rare) also based on weekly frequency of consumption. Thirty per cent of households on Grand Turk and 37% on Providenciales were at level 7, the most varied and complex diets, compared to 3% for Middle Caicos, which exemplified the indigenous diet of local seafood, beans, and grits (corn) supplemented with imports eg rice and bread/flour Middle Caicos had substantially fewer island core foods ([n = 16] from four food groups) than did Grand Turk (n = 29) and Providenciales (n = 30), which represented the 7-food groups and included 15 (94%) of Middle Caicos' island core foods. Providenciales and Grand Turk had more varied and complex diets. Understanding how various islands supplement the indigenous/traditional diet is imperative to develop and evaluate (a) island-specific nutrition intervention eg culturally appropriate nutrition education messages (eg to increase iron consumption); and (b) future research protocols.

Isolation of various forms of sterol beta-D-glucoside from the seed of Cycas circinalis: neurotoxicity and implications for ALS-parkinsonism dementia complex.

The factors responsible for ALS-parkinsonism dementia complex (ALS-PDC), the unique neurological disorder of Guam, remain unresolved, but identification of causal factors could lead to clues for related neurodegenerative disorders elsewhere. Earlier studies focused on the consumption and toxicity of the seed of Cycas circinalis, a traditional staple of the indigenous diet, but found no convincing evidence for toxin-linked neurodegeneration. We have reassessed the issue in a series of in vitro bioassays designed to isolate non-water soluble compounds from washed cycad flour and have identified three sterol beta-d-glucosides as potential neurotoxins. These compounds give depolarizing field potentials in cortical slices, induce alterations in the activity of specific protein kinases, and cause release of glutamate. They are also highly toxic, leading to release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Theaglycone form, however, is non-toxic. NMDA receptor antagonists block the actions of the sterol glucosides, but do not compete for binding to the NMDA receptor. The most probable mechanism leading to cell death may involve glutamate neuro/excitotoxicity. Mice fed cycad seed flour containing the isolated sterol glucosides show behavioral and neuropathological outcomes, including increased TdT-mediated biotin-dUTP nick-end labelling (TUNEL) positivity in various CNS regions. Astrocytes in culture showed increased caspase-3 labeling after exposure to sterol glucosides. The present results support the hypothesis that cycad consumption may be an important factor in the etiology of ALS-PDC and further suggest that some sterol glucosides may be involved in other neurodegenerative disorders.

Plants in Indigenous Medicine and Diet. Biobehavioral Approaches.

Plants in Indigenous Medicine and Diet. Biobehavioral Approaches.

Crete: A study in the metabolic epidemiology of coronary heart disease

In addition to standard survey technics, a new procedure for aspiration of depot fat, the determination of urinary vanil mandelic acid, and radioelectrocardiography were utilized for the first time, to our knowledge, under field conditions to study the “metabolic epidemiology” of coronary heart disease. The study sample consisted of 280 men, aged 45 and over (mean, 62), most of whom were randomly selected from five geographic areas in which indigenous diet patterns of the populace could be distinguished. A 12-lead electrocardiographic survey of all subjects revealed 2 cases of residual myocardial infarction. The use of exercise radioelectrocardiography detected 2 cases of definite myocardial ischemia in which the standard electrocardiograms were normal. Thirty-one cases of cardiac arrhythmias were found, the vast majority considered to be due to arteriosclerotic heart disease. The nutritional status of the male Cretan was assessed by interview technics, 24 hour diet recall, clinical examination, hemoglobin, hematocrit and the determination of serum vitamin A and E. The mean level of hemoglobin was 14.1 gm.%; of hematocrit, 43.1%; serum vitamins E and A, 0.97 mg.% (range 0.32–1.8) and 92 μg.% (range 43–168), respectively. Two instances of petechial hemorrhages believed to be due to deficiency of ascorbic acid were found. Two other subjects had serum vitamin E levels below 0.5 mg.%; 8 cases of anemia were detected. With the exception of the cases cited, the mean serum vitamin and hemoglobin determinations were within normal limits; mean hematocrit levels were slightly below normal. Analysis of 200 depot fat samples revealed significant differences which could be associated with specific local dietary patterns. Oleic acid comprised 65 per cent of total depot fatty acids in subjects consuming the greatest quantity of olive oil. The Iracleion subjects ate the most meat and cheese, exhibited the highest mean weight, and showed the highest depot total saturated fatty acid content. When the depot fat composition pattern of all the Cretan subjects was compared to that of American men of the same age, a highly significant difference in depot saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids was revealed. The monounsaturated depot fatty acid content was 69 compared to 59 per cent in the American. Depot saturated fat was 19 per cent in the Cretan, 30 in the American. It was suggested that the populations having low incidence of coronary heart disease may be associated with relatively low depot saturated fat content and a proportionate increase in either depot monoenes or polyenes. In the subsample of 12 subjects a mean level of 24 hour urinary vanil mandelic acid was found to be 6.3 mg.%, an amount found in American subjects with evidence of coronary heart disease. It was postulated that though the urinary vanil mandelic acid excretion of Cretan men is high, reaction to stress is decisive and disassociated with anxiety-provoking behavioral patterns which characterize the coronary-prone subject. In determining the status of our study subjects relative to the risk factors defined by the Framingham study, the rural Cretan man can be said to be hypo- or normocholesteremic, normotensive and normal in weight. He eats little saturated fat, smokes moderately if at all, exercises considerably and tends to react to stress decisively. Thus, all factors of risk studied were found to be of low order, and this combination of findings appears to best explain the low incidence of coronary heart disease observed in the Cretan men.