viernes, 30 de marzo de 2012

Paper Nuevo: Varibilidad Isótopica en la Dieta Europea

En este paper publicado en PLoS ONE describimos como a pesar de las tendencias de globalización a homogeneizar la dieta de los países desarrollados, esta aún se mantiene heterogénea.  En el paper trabajamos bajo el concepto de glocalización (aspectos globales con influencias locales). En este trabajo presentamos datos de isótopos del carbono, nitrógeno y azufre en muestras de pelo humano obtenidas en países del oeste Europeo y demostramos que existe variabilidad isotópica entre países, y que los valores isotópicos siguen tendencias latitudinales y longitudinales esperadas (particularmente para carbono y azufre). Además comparamos estos datos con datos de Estados Unidos para ver la influencia del maíz en la industria alimentaria estadounidense.


Dietary heterogeneity among western industrialized countries reflected in the stable isotope ratios of human hair.
Luciano O. Valenzuela, Lesley A. Chesson, Gabriel J. Bowen, Thure E. Cerling, James R. Ehleringer

Abstract
Although the globalization of food production is often assumed to result in a homogenization of consumption patterns with a convergence towards a Western style diet, the resources used to make global food products may still be locally produced (glocalization). Stable isotope ratios of human hair can quantify the extent to which residents of industrialized nations have converged on a standardized diet or whether there is persistent heterogeneity and glocalization among countries as a result of different dietary patterns and the use of local food products. Here we report isotopic differences among carbon, nitrogen and sulfur isotope ratios of human hair collected in thirteen Western European countries and in the USA. European hair samples had significantly lower δ13C values (-22.7 to -18.3 ‰), and significantly higher δ15N  (7.8 to 10.3 ‰) and δ34S (4.8 to 8.3 ‰) values than samples from the USA (δ13C: -21.9 to -15.0 ‰, δ15N: 6.7 to 9.9 ‰, δ34S: -1.2 to 9.9 ‰). Within Europe, we detected differences in hair δ13C and δ34S values among countries and covariation of isotope ratios with latitude and longitude. This geographic structuring of isotopic data suggests heterogeneity in the food resources used by citizens of industrialized nations and supports the presence of different dietary patterns within Western Europe despite globalization trends. Here we showed the potential of stable isotope analysis as a population-wide tool for dietary screening, particularly as a complement of dietary surveys, that can provide additional information on assimilated macronutrients and independent verification of data obtained by those self-reporting instruments.
Key words: Hair protein, stable isotopes, Western Europe, dietary heterogeneity, glocalization, globalization.



doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0034234

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