Abstract
It is evident that the modification of dietary patterns is a necessary precondition of disease prevention and health improvement. Changing nutritional habits also has deep-rooted consequences on the environmental burden. The majority of similar previous studies have analyzed the change in greenhouse gas emissions against theoretical modifications in current food consumption. The analysis on the effect of diet on the water footprint is also gaining in importance, since water supply is a critical global issue. Based on current nutritional patterns of a Central European country—Hungary—as well as dietary recommendations and scientific literature, we generated six dietary scenarios and determined the consequences of these on green (originally from precipitation) and blue (sourced from surface or groundwater) water consumption and dietary quality. Compared to the baseline scenario (current local nutritional pattern) of both genders, based on the integrated aspect of water footprint and dietary quality, the most disadvantageous scenario was the ketogenic (ca. −2% in dietary quality, +18% in blue water footprint, and +16% in green water footprint) and the most advantageous was the sustainable scenario (ca. +9% in dietary quality, −42% in green water footprint, and −29% in blue water footprint). As a summary it can be stated, that (1) there is no clear linear relationship between the “healthiness” and water footprint of different diets, but (2) a more balanced diet, which integrates nutritional and environmental considerations could decrease the environmental burden in an efficient way.
Highlights
The food industry is an important and dynamically evolving sector of the EU economy and every member country
The water footprint is measured in L/capita/day and dietary is represented bydetailed the integrated value of the dietary quality score and the dietary quality score (IDQV)
There are four different analyses classified by gender and of water footprint: (1) Blue(3) green water footprint (GWF) in female scenarios, (2) blue water footprinttype (BWF)
Summary
The food industry is an important and dynamically evolving sector of the EU economy and every member country. It participates in the fulfilment process of basic human needs [1,2,3]. It is well documented that food quality considerably influences the health condition of a given population [4]. It has become increasingly evident that the environmental consequences of changes in nutritional habits must be taken into consideration, too. One of the most challenging and urgent issues for humanity is to ensure a sustainable future, including a sustainable food system. The food system is at a risk due to the rapidly growing world population, climate change
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