There is an urgent need to understand how water use in agriculture can be managed to ensure that a rapidly growing population can be fed healthily.
- Moderate shifts in typical Indian diets could reduce groundwater use and benefit population health.
- Reductions in the consumption of wheat and a switch to consumption of fruit with lower water demands.
- Shifting to diets with a lower groundwater requirement would also be broadly beneficial for health.
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‘The diet changes involve consuming less wheat and dairy, and replacing it with more fruits, vegetables and pulses which require less water to grow and also poses health benefits to the body.’
Data from wells monitored by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) in central India has shown that water level has declined in 66 percent of wells. The pre-monsoon water level data for 1,487 wells selected from across the state, when compared with the decadal mean between 2006-2015, indicated a decline in ground water level in 70 percent of the wells. Food production in India is heavily reliant on farming that requires a large amount of irrigation with groundwater. In some regions, groundwater is being depleted faster than it can be replenished.
As the population grows, the amount of groundwater available per person is predicted to decline by as much as 30% by 2050. There is an urgent need to understand how water use in agriculture can be managed to ensure that a rapidly growing population can be fed healthily with dwindling groundwater resources.
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Top reasons why you should eat fruits to lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease. Antioxidants in fruits keep your blood pressure under control.
A recent modelling study is the first of its kind to investigate the potential role of dietary changes as a solution to decreasing groundwater availability.
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Some fruits that are less known to the common man today have hundred times more vitamin C, carotenoids, and antioxidants as compared with those in the well known fruits. These underutilized fruits are highly inexpensive too.
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- The research identifies possible changes to typical diets that could reduce the amount of groundwater required in their production.
- Reductions in the consumption of wheat and a switch to consumption of fruit with lower water demands.
The results suggest that these moderate changes in diets, combined with improvements in agricultural technology, could increase the resilience of the food system as the Indian population grows.
Importantly, the models suggest that shifting to diets with a lower groundwater requirement would also be broadly beneficial for health. The health modelling shows that reductions in the risks of various non-communicable diseases, especially coronary heart disease, could be expected from the proposed changes in diets. These outcomes are largely due to the increase in fruit and vegetable consumption. Furthermore, the dietary changes are also accompanied by a reduction in diet-related greenhouse gas emissions.
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Trying to eat healthy, we unwittingly discard most of the nutrients by peeling fruits and veggies. Peels are actually richer in antioxidants and vitamin C as compared to the fruit pulp.
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Researchers studied five distinct Indian dietary patterns derived from the Indian Migration Study, which surveyed over 7,000 people in both urban and rural settings from 2005-2007. The researchers changed the makeup of these diet patterns to meet the predicted reductions in groundwater availability per person in 2025 (18%) and 2050 (30%).
The optimised diets suggested by the researchers meet WHO nutritional guidelines and are designed to minimise changes from current eating patterns. Generally, the diet changes suggested involved consuming less wheat and dairy, and more fruits, vegetables and pulses.
The models also suggested switching the types of fruit consumed, for example, fruits like oranges and apples have a much lower water footprint involved in their production than mangoes.
Prof K Srinath Reddy, President of Public Health Foundation of India said: "The food system in India will be under increasing pressure as the population increases and global environments change. We are already seeing increased risk of drought in parts of the country and this will have an impact on the ability of India to produce healthy and nutritious diets for all. This new analysis highlights the importance of groundwater for Indian agriculture and shows that, in the future, dietary choices will have an important role to play in the resilience of the Indian food system."
While fairly modest changes were needed to meet an 18% reduction in freshwater use by 2025, the researchers stressed that meeting the 30% reduction target by 2050 would require more drastic changes.
The research demonstrated that many of the optimised diets would also lead to overall improved population health outcomes. Where the suggested dietary changes most strongly improved the nutritional profile of the diets, the health benefits were shown to be larger.
For example, increasing the diversity of diets consumed largely by poorer, more rural communities resulted in more than 13,500 additional life years per 100,000 people, largely due to a reduce risk of heart disease and cancer.
Prof Alan Dangour from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine who led the study said: "With water resources predicted to decline dramatically in the future, we need to identify potential solutions that future proof the Indian food system and ensure that it can deliver healthy and nutritious diets for all.”
Saskia Heijnen, Portfolio Lead for Our Planet, Our Health at Wellcome said: "Over the last century water usage has increased at twice the rate of population growth. We're faced with the big problem of trying to produce more high quality food but with less resource. This research shows that a sustainable diet could be created with a few relatively simple changes to current trends and how this would help not only the planet, but the health of people as well."
Reference
- Author name, Projected health effects of realistic dietary changes to address freshwater constraints in India: a modelling study, Lancet Planetary Health (2017), http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(17)30001-3/fulltext.
Source-Medindia
