Water is exhaustible, but fundamental in a perspective for the global health. Food choices seem to play a relevant impact on human water consumption. We assessed the water footprint of widespread dietary patterns and we used a mix-method approach. We administered an adapted version of a 17-item questionnaire to a sample of young subjects, aimed to assess the level of acceptability of the diet that showed the lowest water consumption. The 100% plant-based was the winner diet, but its acceptability was weak. Our findings support current evidences promoting the adherence to a low-or-non-animal-based diet which favors human and environmental health.
An increasing number of people are interested in following a dietary pattern that is environmentally sustainable and water saving. However, consumers are mostly unable to recognize evidence-based information on food and nutrition and efficiently manage their diet. We conducted a narrative review aiming to support professionals to guide their assisted people that decide to follow a dietary pattern chosen for environmental or ethical reasons. We reviewed three scientific databases and Google Scholar, searching for papers that deal with the water consumption of widespread and well known dietary patterns (Healthy and Balanced Diet, Western Diet, and Vegan and Vegetarian diets). Our results suggest that moving toward a low-animal-based diet favors a reduction in water consumption, but current evidence is not sufficient to establish which is the winner in terms of water saving by comparing Vegetarian and Vegan diets.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.