The Opossum Problem: Implications for Human-Wildlife Competition over Plant Foods

1985 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 287-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas W. Neumann
Keyword(s):  
Prey Selection ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Prey Choice ◽  
Plant Food ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Interspecies Competition ◽  
Plant Foods ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Distributions ◽  
Food Network

The Opossum Problem refers to the infrequent presence of opossum remains, relative to raccoon and squirrel remains, in sites in the eastern United States. The presence or absence of opossum remains is seen to be part of a larger pattern in prey selection in which hunting helped to reduce interspecies competition over plant foods. Spatial and temporal distributions of sites with opossum remains suggest that opossum was not selected as prey prior to ca A.D. 1000 because it did not participate to any significant degree in a plant food network used by people. After ca A.D. 1000 opossum were selected as prey because their activities as a persimmon predator rendered them a competitive threat. Human hunting patterns and prey choice may be better understood by considering how they affect human access to plant food sources.

scholarly journals Contribution of plant food bioactives in promoting health effects of plant foods: why look at interindividual variability?

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (S2) ◽  
pp. 13-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Morand ◽  
Francisco A. Tomás-Barberán
Keyword(s):  
Health Effects ◽  
Interindividual Variability ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Cardiometabolic Health ◽  
Plant Food ◽  
Health It ◽  
Plant Foods ◽  
Nutritional Needs ◽  
Main Determinants ◽  
Actual Contribution

Abstract Purpose Research has identified plant-based diets as the most protective for our health; it is now essential to focus on good food associations and the beneficial constituents in plant foods. From a growing body of evidence, some categories of food phytochemicals are increasingly considered to play a crucial role in the cardiometabolic health effects associated with plant food consumption. However, the heterogeneity in responsiveness to plant food bioactive intake that is frequently observed in clinical trials can hinder the identification of the effects of these compounds in specific subpopulations and likely lead to underestimating their actual contribution to the health effects of their food sources. Results The magnitude and the main factors responsible for this between-subject variation in response to the consumption of the major families of food phytochemicals have been poorly documented so far. Thus, research efforts in this area must be developed. More importantly, capturing the interindividual variability in response to plant food bioactive intake, together with identifying the main determinants involved, is a crucial step that will enable the development and production of plant food products, thereby satisfying the nutritional needs and conferring benefits to different categories of populations. Conclusion The development of a science-based personalised nutrition approach focusing on plant foods rich in specific bioactive compounds could contribute to alleviating the dramatic burden of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases.

Vitamin A Value of Plant Food Provitamin A - Evaluated by the Stable Isotope Technologies

2014 ◽  
Vol 84 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 25-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangwen Tang
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Vitamin A ◽  
Provitamin A ◽  
Animal Origin ◽  
Plant Food ◽  
Plant Foods ◽  
A Value ◽  
Provitamin A Carotenoids ◽  
Β Carotene

Humans need vitamin A and obtain essential vitamin A by conversion of plant foods rich in provitamin A and/or absorption of preformed vitamin A from foods of animal origin. The determination of the vitamin A value of plant foods rich in provitamin A is important but has challenges. The aim of this paper is to review the progress over last 80 years following the discovery on the conversion of β-carotene to vitamin A and the various techniques including stable isotope technologies that have been developed to determine vitamin A values of plant provitamin A (mainly β-carotene). These include applications from using radioactive β-carotene and vitamin A, depletion-repletion with vitamin A and β-carotene, and measuring postprandial chylomicron fractions after feeding a β-carotene rich diet, to using stable isotopes as tracers to follow the absorption and conversion of plant food provitamin A carotenoids (mainly β-carotene) in humans. These approaches have greatly promoted our understanding of the absorption and conversion of β-carotene to vitamin A. Stable isotope labeled plant foods are useful for determining the overall bioavailability of provitamin A carotenoids from specific foods. Locally obtained plant foods can provide vitamin A and prevent deficiency of vitamin A, a remaining worldwide concern.

Ground-Stone Tools and Hunter-Gatherer Subsistence in Southwest Asia: Implications for the Transition to Farming

1994 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 238-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine I. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Food Processing ◽  
Younger Dryas ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Plant Food ◽  
Southwest Asia ◽  
Processing Methods ◽  
Plant Foods ◽  
Ground Stone ◽  
Early Farming ◽  
Wild Cereals

Ground-stone tools and hunter-gatherer subsistence in late Pleistocene southwest Asia are examined in light of ethnographic and experimental data on processing methods essential for consumption of various plant foods. In general, grinding and pounding appear to be labor-intensive processing methods. In particular, the labor required to make wild cereals edible has been widely underestimated, and wild cereals were unlikely to have been “attractive” to foragers except under stress conditions. Levantine ground-stone tools were probably used for processing diverse plants. The earliest occurrence of deep mortars coincides with the glacial maximum, camp reoccupations, the onset of increasingly territorial foraging, and the earliest presently known significant samples of wild cereals. Two major episodes of intensification in plant-food processing can be identified in the Levant, coinciding respectively with the earliest evidence for sedentism (12,800-11,500 B.P.) and the transition to farming (11,500-9600 B.P.). The latter episode was characterized by rising frequencies of grinding tools relative to pounding tools, and suggests attempts to maximize nutritional returns of plants harvested from the limited territories characteristic of sedentary foraging and early farming. This episode was probably encouraged by the Younger Dryas, when density and storability of foods may have outweighed considerations of processing costs.

scholarly journals Dietary fat intake – food sources and dietary correlates in the Malmö Diet and Cancer cohort

2003 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 559-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Mattisson ◽  
Elisabet Wirfält ◽  
Carin Andrén ◽  
Bo Gullberg ◽  
Göran Berglund
Keyword(s):  
Disease Risk ◽  
Meat Products ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Fat Intake ◽  
Food Groups ◽  
Nutrient Intakes ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Plant Foods ◽  
Fat Consumption ◽  
Diet And Cancer

AbstractObjectives:To identify food sources of fat, to compare food and nutrient intakes at different levels of relative fat intake, and to examine the contribution of different food groups to the variation in relative fat intake. Relative fat intake was expressed as energy contributed by fat in percentage of non-alcohol energy.Design:Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study. An interview-based diet history method, a structured questionnaire and anthropometric measurements were used to obtain data. Analysis of variance compared food and nutrient intakes across quintiles of relative fat intake. Stepwise regression examined the contribution of food groups to the variation in relative fat intake.Setting:Baseline examinations were conducted between 1991 and 1996 in the city of Malmö, southern Sweden.Subjects:A sub-sample of 7055 women and 3240 men of the Malmö Diet and Cancer cohort.Results:The major fat sources were dairy products, margarines, meat & meat products, and cakes & buns. Most plant foods, especially fruit, vegetables and breakfast cereals, were negatively associated with fat intake. Low fat consumers had significantly higher intakes of dietary fibre, vitamin C, β-carotene, folic acid, iron, zinc and calcium. Intakes of all types of fatty acids and fat-soluble vitamins were positively associated with fat consumption.Conclusions:The results suggest that many food groups and nutrients may confound the associations between relative fat intake and disease. Plant foods, especially, are important to consider in studies of fat intake and disease risk.

The nutritive value of some selected Tanzanian plant food sources

1993 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. V. Mnembuka ◽  
B. O. Eggum
Keyword(s):  
Nutritive Value ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Plant Food

scholarly journals Fauna of nocturnal moth species collected in a semi-natural grassland at Kanpu-zan in northern Japan

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masaru Kamikura ◽  
Yuzu Sakata
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Associations ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Plant Food ◽  
Moth Population ◽  
Natural Grasslands ◽  
Moth Species ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Natural Grassland ◽  
Northern Japan

Semi-natural grasslands, which house species-rich ecosystems, have rapidly declined since the twentieth century due to land-use practices, such as agricultural intensification and abandonment. Owing to their diversity and known habitat associations, nocturnal moths are considered as one of the most suitable organisms to be studied for assessing the dynamics of species composition as a result of changes in landscape management of semi-natural grasslands. The present study provides the foremost description of nocturnal moth fauna of the semi-natural grassland at Kanpu-zan, northern Japan. Moth population data from 1987 were compared to the data collected in 2018 to evaluate the impact of decline in grasslands on species-richness. During the field sampling in 2018, a total of 226 nocturnal moth species were detected, which was nearly two-thirds of the number of species recorded in 1987, i.e. 396 species. The values obtained in 2018 were found to be nearly constant for different sites. For both periods, it was evident that moth fauna in Kanpu-zan mainly consisted of species that relied on woody plants. Amongst the species which were only recorded in 1987, 107 species were generalists that fed on plants that are commonly distributed in Kanpu-zan. No moth species were recorded that depended upon endangered or extinct plant food sources. Thus, it is unlikely that the decline in the number of moth species in Kanpu-zan was due to the loss in plant food sources. Our results suggest that environmental factors other than food plants may have caused decline and changes in nocturnal moth fauna. More studies on various organism fauna are needed for understanding the conservation of semi-natural grassland, considering that the loss of semi-natural grasslands is one of the major threats to biodiversity.

scholarly journals The relation between dietary phytochemical index and metabolic syndrome and its components in a large sample of Iranian adults: A population-based study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aazam ahmadi Vasmehjani ◽  
Zahra Darabi ◽  
azadeh Nadjarzadeh ◽  
masoud Mirzaei ◽  
Mahdieh Hosseinzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Syndrome ◽  
Energy Intake ◽  
Lower Risk ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Protective Role ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Health Study ◽  
Plant Foods ◽  
Logistic Regression Models

Abstract Background: Phytochemicals are natural non-nutritive bioactive compounds in plant foods. There is growing agreement that plant foods-based phytochemicals have a protective role against chronic diseases. The purpose of current study was to appraise Dietary Phytochemical Index (DPI) with the risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components.Methods: This study was conducted on 2326 participants (1097 men and 1220 women), aged 20-70 years of the recruitment phase of Yazd Health Study (YaHS), a population-based cohort study on Iranian adults. Dietary intake was prepared using a validated and reliable food frequency questionnaire. DPI is calculated based on dietary energy derived from phytochemical-rich food sources (kcal)/ total daily energy intake (kcal). The odds ratio of MetS and its components were assessed across DPI quartiles by binary logistic regression models.Results: After adjustment for all potential confounders, the risk of MetS (OR=0.63, 95% CI=0.41-0.96, P=0.03) and elevated blood pressure (OR=0.62, 95% CI=0.40-0.96, P=0.03) in second category of DPI compared to the first significantly decreased. After full adjustment for confounders, women in the highest quartile of DPI compared with the lowest, had 59% lower risk of MetS (OR=0.41, 95% CI=0.22-0.76, P=0.005). In second quartiles of DPI, the risk of MetS decreased by 62% (OR=0.38, 95% CI=0.16-0.90, P=0.02) in participants with normal BMI and 29% in subjects with high BMI (OR=0.71, 95% CI=0.52-0.99, P=0.04), and also 57% in men (OR=0.43, 95%CI=0.23-0.83, P=0.01). Independent of variables including age, sex and total energy intake, subjects in second and fourth quartiles of DPI had 30% and 25% lower risk of abdominal obesity, respectively.Conclusions: Greater adherence to phytochemical-rich diet could reduce odds of MetS and some components especially in women. Further studies with intervention approaches are required to discover causal relations and relevant underlying mechanisms.

scholarly journals Suboptimal nutrition and feeding behavior of hemipterans on less preferred plant food sources

2000 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antônio R. Panizzi
Keyword(s):  
Feeding Behavior ◽  
Food Plants ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Cultivated Plants ◽  
Stink Bug ◽  
Plant Food ◽  
Feeding Guild ◽  
Adult Performance ◽  
Southern Green Stink Bug ◽  
Green Stink Bug

Phytophagous hemipterans (heteropterans) are, in general, polyphagous, feeding on a wide array of plants. Among these, less preferred plant food sources are also explored as food and/or shelter. To illustrate this, I will discuss the feeding behavior of the southern green stink bug, Nezara viridula (L.) (Pentatomidae) on less preferred plants in Northern Paraná state. This bug feeds on several uncultivated-wild, and on cultivated plants, which are less preferred, changing its feeding behavior, from a typical seed/fruit sucking habit, to leaf/stem feeding, with consequences for its nymphal and adult performance. Other seed suckers, such as Euschistus heros (F.) and Dichelops melacanthus (Dallas) (Pentatomidae) and Neomegalotomus parvus Westwood (Alydidae), also change their feeding behavior from seeds to vegetative tissues (leaf, stems) when feeding on less preferred food plants. These and other mentioned examples demonstrate that for this feeding guild in particular, the less preferred food plant sources play an important role in the life history of these bugs, and that this fact is, in general, underestimated.

scholarly journals Selenium in soil–plant–food systems

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Garousi
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Review Paper ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Plant Food ◽  
Human Diet ◽  
Nutrient Sources ◽  
Plant Foods ◽  
Growth Development

AbstractHumans and animals require a multitude of nutrients in order to have a properly functioning body for purposes of growth, development and metabolism. Plant-based foods have represented one of the most important nutrient sources in human diet since the beginning of mankind. But nowadays the amount of arable land is being reduced and much of the natural resources already in use show signs of degradation. Also, staple crops (i.e. plants that constitute the main food in the diets of people in developing countries, e.g. wheat, rice, maize, and cassava) regrettably contain low amounts of micronutrients, making them insufficient to meet the minimum daily requirements. Shortages in mineral micronutrients, including iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), selenium (Se), and iodine (I), are affecting more than half of the world’s population. In this case, it is fundamental to improve strategies that let us make plant foods more efficient and with higher micronutrient amounts and bioavailability concerning their edible textures. In this regard, in this review paper, we tried to summarize selenium availability and its application in the soil, plant and food systems to understand the place of selenium in plant-based foods.

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