Environmental impacts of dietary shifts in India: A modelling study using nationally-representative data

Abstract

Food production is a major driver of environmental change, and unhealthy diets are the leading cause of global disease burden. In high-income countries (HICs), modelling studies suggest that adoption of healthy diets could improve population health and reduce environmental footprints associated with food production. We assessed whether such benefits from dietary change could occur in India, where under-nutrition and overweight and obesity are simultaneously prevalent. We calculated the potential changes in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, blue and green water footprints (WFs), and land use (LU), that would result from shifting current national food consumption patterns in India to healthy diets (meeting dietary guidelines) and to “affluent diets” (those consumed by the wealthiest quartile of households, which may represent future purchasing power and nutritional trajectories). Dietary data were derived from the 2011–12 nationally-representative household expenditure survey, and we assessed dietary scenarios nationally and across six Indian sub-regions, by rural or urban location, and for those consuming above or below recommended dietary energy intakes. We modelled the changes in consumption of 34 food groups necessary to meet Indian dietary guidelines, as well as an affluent diet representative of those in the highest wealth quartile. These changes were combined with food-specific data on GHG emissions, calculated using the Cool Farm Tool, and WF and LU adapted from the Water Footprint Network and Food and Agriculture Organization, respectively. Shifting to healthy guidelines nationally required a minor increase in dietary energy (3%), with larger increases in fruit (18%) and vegetable (72%) intake, though baseline proportion of dietary energy from fat and protein was adequate and did not change significantly. Meeting healthy guidelines slightly increased environmental footprints by about 3–5% across GHG emissions, blue and green WFs, and LU. However, these national averages masked substantial variation within sub-populations. For example, shifting to healthy diets among those with dietary energy intake below recommended guidelines would result in increases of 28% in GHG emissions, 18 and 34% in blue and green WFs, respectively, and 41% in LU. Decreased environmental impacts were seen among those who currently consume above recommended dietary energy (−6 to −16% across footprints). Adoption of affluent diets by the whole population would result in increases of 19–36% across the environmental indicators. Specific food groups contributing to these shifts varied by scenario. Environmental impacts also varied markedly between six major Indian sub-regions. In India, where undernutrition is prevalent, widespread adoption of healthy diets may lead to small increases in the environmental footprints of the food system relative to the status quo, although much larger increases would occur if there was widespread adoption of diets currently consumed by the wealthiest quartile of the po...

Characteristics of Distinct Dietary Patterns in Rural Bangladesh: Nutrient Adequacy and Vulnerability to Shocks

“…We obtained proxy-individual level daily intakes of energy and macronutrients by dividing daily household intakes by a weighted sum of the household size, which accounted for age and sex differences in energy intake. We used proxy-individual requirements that are relevant to South Asia and previously used by the Indian National Sample Survey [16] and recently by Aleksandrowicz et al [17] to convert daily household level intakes into approximate individual intakes. This approach has been demonstrated to be a useful measure, which approximates well the individual intakes from household level data [18].…”

A Review of Plant-and Fungi-Based Meat and Cellular Meat: An Indian Perspective

“…Although the per capita meat consumption of Indians is far less than their western counterparts [9], from an environmental, as well as public standpoint, shifting the growing meat demand in the Indian populace from ABM towards a more sustainable and healthier PBM is ideal. For instance, if the whole population adopted a diet, that was more affluent, with high meat content it would lead to a 19-36% rise in Green House Gas emissions, water footprints, and land requirement [33]. Despite being one of the most sustainable on the planet, the dietary guidelines issued by the National Institute for Nutrition (NIN) of India call for a greater consumption of meat and fish, which while advantageous for food security, will have environmental consequences [9].…”

Nutrition under natural resource constraints

“…Transforming India's domestic food production for nutrition is increasingly constrained by the natural resource base. Groundwater availability is coming under increasing pressure in many parts of the country, with agricultural production accounting for 90% of freshwater usage 4 , while much of the available arable land is already under cultivation. Under its Nationally Determined Contribution to the UNFCCC , India's agriculture sector will also have to find ways to limit greenhouse gas emissions.…”