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 population. To achieve lower diet-related disease burdens and reduced environmental footprints of the food system, greater efficiency of food production and reductions in food waste are likely to be required alongside promotion of healthy diets.
Highlights
Food production contributes globally to 19–29% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, 70% of freshwater withdrawals, and uses one-third of ice-free land (Smith et al, 2014; Whitmee et al, 2015; Vermeulen et al, 2012)
This study estimates changes in environmental footprints that would result from shifting current national diets to scenarios of healthy or affluent diets, in the context of India's dual burden of under-nutrition and overweight/obesity
Modelling the important goal of adoption of healthy diets for all individuals nationally, we show that increases of about 20–40% across agricultural GHG emissions, blue and green water footprints (WFs), and land use (LU) may be required to shift those currently below recommended dietary energy intake to healthy diets
Summary
Food production contributes globally to 19–29% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, 70% of freshwater withdrawals, and uses one-third of ice-free land (Smith et al, 2014; Whitmee et al, 2015; Vermeulen et al, 2012). Current diets in high-income countries (HICs) contain excess dietary energy and high intakes of animal-based foods, resulting in high per capita environmental footprints (Pradhan et al, 2013; Tilman and Clark, 2014). A growing body of evidence has highlighted the mitigation potential of shifting current HIC diets to those which are healthier and reduce environmental impacts (Aleksandrowicz et al, 2016; Springmann et al, 2016; Green et al, 2015). Achieving widespread uptake of these diets may be challenging, though modest environmental benefits could be achieved by shifting to national dietary guidelines, which are currently widely supported, and potentially easier to adopt. Little is known about the impacts of such options in low- and middleincome countries (LMICs) (Aleksandrowicz et al, 2016; Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, 2016a)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
