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Stable Isotopic Biomarkers of Diet
Published in Dale A. Schoeller, Margriet S. Westerterp-Plantenga, Advances in the Assessment of Dietary Intake, 2017
Sarah H. Nash, Diane M. O’Brien
Ultimately, the carbon in our food is derived from atmospheric CO2, which is captured (fixed) in organic molecules by plants through the process of photosynthesis. Differences in plant photosynthetic physiology result in differences in the proportion of the heavy isotope of carbon that plants fix. A full discussion of these processes is given in the recent review by O’Brien (2015). Importantly, most commonly consumed plants fall into one of two categories: C3 plants, which fix less of the heavy isotope and have δ13C values ranging from –22‰ to –31‰, and C4 plants, which fix more of the heavy isotope and are relatively isotopically enriched (–17‰ to –10‰; Figure 14.2) (Farquhar et al. 1989; O’Leary 1988). A third group of plants utilize the crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) photosynthetic pathway; these plants, including pineapple, agave, and prickly pear, have similar δ13C values to C4 plants (Farquhar et al. 1989) but not heavily consumed in the U.S. diet.
Walking backwards into the future: the need for a holistic evolutionary approach in Pacific health research
Published in Annals of Human Biology, 2018
Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith, Anna L. Gosling
Examination of human skeletal remains can also provide insights into past subsistence, particularly via the use of stable isotope analysis and the examination of mineralised dental plaque recovered from ancient individuals. Stable isotope ratios (δ13C, δ15N, δ34S) of human bone collagen have proven to be a useful tool in exploring subsistence patterns and determining what types of animals and plants were making up the majority of the diet of past people. In the Pacific, analysis of δ13C has limited utility in assessing plant consumption because most of the plants belong to the C3 plant family (though sugar cane and seaweeds are exceptions), and the relative amount of plant matter consumed is generally understated in this type of analysis because of the inherent protein paucity of plant material compared to meat. Fortunately, analyses of the mineralised dental plaque (calculus) from archaeological sites provides opportunities for generating higher resolution plant subsistence data (compared to isotopic analysis alone) (Tromp and Dudgeon 2015; Tromp et al. 2017).