Relief food subsistence revealed by microparticle and proteomic analyses of dental calculus from victims of the Great Irish Famine.

Food and diet were class markers in 19th-century Ireland, which became evident as nearly 1 million people, primarily the poor and destitute, died as a consequence of the notorious Great Famine of 1845 to 1852. Famine took hold after a blight (Phytophthora infestans) destroyed virtually the only means of subsistence-the potato crop-for a significant proportion of the population. This study seeks to elucidate the variability of diet in mid-19th-century Ireland through microparticle and proteomic analysis of human dental calculus samples (n = 42) from victims of the famine. The samples derive from remains of people who died between August 1847 and March 1851 while receiving poor relief as inmates in the union workhouse in the city of Kilkenny (52°39' N, -7°15' W). The results corroborate the historical accounts of food provisions before and during the famine, with evidence of corn (maize), potato, and cereal starch granules from the microparticle analysis and milk protein from the proteomic analysis. Unexpectedly, there is also evidence of egg protein-a food source generally reserved only for export and the better-off social classes-which highlights the variability of the prefamine experience for those who died. Through historical contextualization, this study shows how the notoriously monotonous potato diet of the poor was opportunistically supplemented by other foodstuffs. While the Great Irish Famine was one of the worst subsistence crises in history, it was foremost a social disaster induced by the lack of access to food and not the lack of food availability.

A 100-Year Review: Carbohydrates-Characterization, digestion, and utilization.

Our knowledge of the role of carbohydrates in dairy cattle nutrition has advanced substantially in the 100 years of the publication of the Journal of Dairy Science. In this review, we trace the history of scientific investigation and discovery from crude fiber, nitrogen-free extract, and "unidentified factors" to our present analytical schemes and understanding of ruminal and whole-animal utilization and effects of dietary carbohydrates. Historically, advances in research and new feeding standards occurred in parallel with and fostered by new methods of analysis. The 100 years of research reviewed here has bequeathed to us an impressive legacy of information, which we will continue to grow.

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One hundred years of commercial food carbohydrates in the United States.

Initiation and development of the industries producing specialty starches, modified food starches, high-fructose sweeteners, and food gums (hydrocolloids) over the past century provided major ingredients for the rapid and extensive growth of the processed food and beverage industries. Introduction of waxy maize starch and high-amylose corn starch occurred in the 1940s and 1950s, respectively. Development and growth of the modified food starch industry to provide ingredients with the functionalities required for the fast-growing processed food industry were rapid during the 1940s and 1950s. The various reagents used today for making cross-linked and stabilized starch products were introduced between 1942 and 1961. The initial report of enzyme-catalyzed isomerization of glucose to fructose was made in 1957. Explosive growth of high-fructose syrup manufacture and use occurred between 1966 and 1984. Maltodextrins were introduced between 1967 and 1973. Production of methylcelluloses and carboxymethylcelluloses began in the 1940s. The carrageenan industry began in the 1930s and grew rapidly in the 1940s and 1950s; the same is true of the development and production of alginate products. The guar gum industry developed in the 1940s and 1950s. The xanthan industry came into being during the 1950s and 1960s. Microcrystalline cellulose was introduced in the 1960s. Therefore, most carbohydrate food ingredients were introduced in about a 25 year period between 1940 and 1965. Exceptions are the introduction of maltodextrins and major developments in the high-fructose syrup industry, which occurred in the 1970s.

Classification and methodology of food carbohydrates as related to nutritional effects.

Dietary guidelines encourage a considerable increase in carbohydrate intake compared with the present situation in Western countries. Recent developments regarding nutritional effects of various digestible and undigestible carbohydrates call for more detailed recommendations. The "carbohydrates by difference" concept emerged 150 y ago because of the lack of specific analytical techniques and still prevails. The concept of available compared with unavailable carbohydrate was introduced in 1929 to obtain a better measure of glucogenic carbohydrates in diabetes. Dietary fiber was first defined as the "skeletal remnants of plant cell walls," but the definition was later expanded to include all polysaccharides and lignin that are not digested in the small intestine. The gravimetric method of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists for total dietary fiber is based on this undigestibility concept. However, precipitation of soluble fiber components with alcohol, which is used in all current methods, creates an arbitrary delimitation between oligo- and polysaccharides. The complex carbohydrates concept is challenged by recent developments regarding nutritional effects of various food carbohydrates.