The macroevolution of our ancient lineage: what we know (or think we know) about early hominin diversity, Ackermann & Smith, 2007

Ackermann and Smith highlight issues within paleoanthropology related to hominin diversity, such as the lack of information related to interspecific and intraspecific variation of the hominins. They comment frequently about the problematic use of the word 'mosaic' to describe morphological traits.
Specific important questions brought up in the article:

What constitutes the primitive condition?

• Is thick or thin enamel primitive? Does it matter/is this a meaningful question given the information we have? 
• Reduced canines = similar argument

Why have questions of variation been avoided despite hominins being so speciose?

• Small sample size
• Mosaic, resulting in adaptive radiations

Early hominin environment

• broad differences in environment don't provide a lot of information toward the adaptive underpinnings of hominin diversity
• ex: Papio hamadryas  lives in many diverse habitats (only a single species)
• Paranthropus = best info for analyzing adaptive change
• Large teeth suggest diet change, what type of change? People intitially though hard-objects, but isotopes reveal grass? Was it fallback foods that promoted evolutionary change and the need to access a WIDER range of resources (due to seasonality) that promoted phenotypic change? 

Mosaic morphology

• Primates, specifically new world primate share an overall pattern of trait integration and covariation
• vast bulk of cranial diversification is related to size
• Hominins seems to be having very different adaptation patterns, so what is going on? not related to size but shape

Most probably explanation for diversification is that they were occupying distinct niches driven by resource exploitation

Wild surmises on savage thoughs, Schrire, 1984

Schrire, C. (1984)
Schrire seeks to understand the way hunter-gatherers have been incorporated into archaeological and historical perspectives. She emphasizes the small-minded perspectives used when analyzing hunter-gatherer societies (except for Buch's multidisciplinary exploration of the Caribou Eskimoes, which weds archaeology, history, and linguistics with meteorological info) Often researchers treat hunter-gatherers as if they haven't had a history of their own. In the future, she suggests a broader perspective to be implemented which frees hunter-gatherers from being frozen in time.

Disparities and access to healthy food in the United States: A review of food deserts literature, Walker et al., 2010

Walker, R.E., Keane, C.R., Burke, J.G. (2010). Disparities and access to healthy food in the United States: A review of food deserts literature. Healthy & Place, 16, 876-884.

This article reviews 31 papers that reference 'food deserts.' It's been a helpful source in identifying literature pertinent to my own study. Papers of interest are Cummins & Macintyre, 2002; Hendrickson et al., 2006; Zenk et al., 2006; The Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, Section 7527 of the bill; Glanz et al., 2007; Chung & Myers, 1999; Freedman, 1991)

Effect of cooking on vegetable fiber, Matthee and Appledorf, 1978

Matthee, V., & Appledorf, H. (1978). Effect of cooking on vegetable fiber. Journal of Food Science, 43(4), 1344-1345.

Investigate the effect of cooking on dietary fiber and moisture content of vegetables. There are 3 periods looked at: raw, short cooked (15-20 min) and long cooked (45-50 min). Vegetables studied were broccoli, carrot, cabbage, and okra. Moisture content increased across all vegetables except broccoli which decreased. Weight loss has previously been attributed to the collapse lignocellulose walls with subsequent extrusions of cellular fluids. Broccoli seemed to have the most variation in dietary fiber during cooking periods due to the formation of indigestible residues during cooking which are isolated together with lignin. The authors suggest that because all NDF values were higher than CF values that CF is not a good indicator of overall fiber present that NDF values should replace the existing CF values found in food tables. NDF = cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. ADF= cellulose and lignin. Changes between NDF and ADF reflect changes in cellulose alone because hemicellulose and lignin were generally unaffected by cooking. Overall ADF and for the most part CF and cellulose seemed to increase after cooking. Cellulose may increase because it might either have been liberated from the surrounding material or hydrolyzed during cooking process. 

My thoughts in relation to our study: How do our NDF and ADF analyses affect the amount of fiber available for analysis? If cellulose can be made more available after heating/ cooking, are we overestimating the amount of fiber available for human consumption?

                        Broccoli         Carrots        Cabbage     Okra

NDF           incr same amt incr only long     na             incr only long

ADF           incr all            incr all              not disc        incr all

Cellulose  incr same amt incr only long    incr all         incr only long

Hemicellulose   na            na                      na              na

CF              incr all            incr all               incr all        incr only long

lignin          incr only long na                       na              na

Dietary Fiber: analysis and food sources, Southgate 1978

Southgate, D. A. T. (1978). Dietary fiber: analysis and food sources. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 31: S107-S110.

Dietary fiber is derived from two sources: plant cell walls and nonstructural polysaccharides (gums and mucilages) that occur naturally in food or as food additives (gums, algal polysaccharides and modified celluloses). It is a mixture of components dependent on types of food in diet. Composition of cell wall is dependent on stage of maturity of plant and the cultural conditions with which the plant was grown. Author suggests that crude fiber isn’t a good indicator for effects on physiology and the identifying the individual components of fiber is necessary. He analyzes foodstuffs down to polysaccharide species. Discusses extraction rates of cereals and how they are positively affiliated with amount of dietary fiber, thus inversely related to digestibility. This is interesting as the lower the extraction rate, the more digestible a product; however, the fibrous aspect of the foodstuff may be the person’s end goal to promote colon health.