A new study confirms how the current consumption patterns in Spain contains three times more meat, dairy products and sugar, and a third less fruits, vegetables and cereals. The Spanish society’s return to the Mediterranean Diet would produce, in addition to nutritional benefits, significant water savings.
In addition, with a view to connecting water, environment, food security, nutrition and health, the authors assessed the water footprint (WF) and nutritional impacts that this shift entails. Water availability problems have been a historical issue in Spain closely linked to growing water demand, particularly of agriculture, in a semi-arid climate setting.
“A change towards a Mediterranean diet would reduce the consumptive WF by 753 liters/person/day, of which 34 are irrigation water”. Besides that, the Mediterranean diet has a greater nutritional-hydric efficiency that the current consumption pattern.
Link to article in English: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969719305935?via%3Dihub
Source: aenverde.es