Insight into the Sustainability of the Mediterranean Diet: The Water Footprint of the Recommended Italian Diet

At present, as we face climate change and natural resource scarcity, one of the major challenges linking humans and the environment is to ensure sufficient, nutritious, safe, and affordable food for a rapidly growing world population. In a nutshell, feed the world without destroying it. The water footprint (WF), i.e., the withdrawals of fresh water necessary to produce one kilogram of food product, is one of the key indicators of the environmental impact of diets. In this work, the WF of the food patterns suggested by the Italian Food Based Dietary Guidelines, considered a model of the Mediterranean Diet, was evaluated for the first time. The data reported here clearly demonstrate that the suggested Italian dietary patterns have a low WF, the reduction of which by replacing animal foods with plant foods is limited because the suggested consumption of meat is already low. Consumer choice in the consumption of specific products within a food group could further reduce the WF of the diet, underlining the need to provide correct information not only to consumers but also to farmers and producers to encourage them to make water-saving choices.

Automated summary

As we deal with climate change and scarcity of natural resources, the challenge is to provide sufficient, nutritious, safe, and affordable food for a growing global population without harming the environment. The water footprint (WF) is an important indicator of the environmental impact of diets, and this study evaluates the WF of the food patterns suggested by the Italian Food Based Dietary Guidelines for the first time. The results show that the suggested Italian dietary patterns have a low WF, but consumer choices and providing information to farmers and producers can further reduce water usage.