Eat Well to Fight Obesity… and Save Water: The Water Footprint of Different Diets and Caloric Intake and Its Relationship With Adiposity

Abstract

Water scarcity and excess adiposity are two of the main problems worldwide and in Mexico, which is the most obese country in the world and suffers from water scarcity. Food production represents 90% of a person's water footprint (WF), and healthy diets can lead to less WF than do unhealthy diets related to obesity. We calculated the WF of the diet and caloric intake of adults in Mexico and analyzed its relationship with adiposity. Also, the risk of water expenditure due to adiposity and adherence to dietary recommendations regarding WF of international healthy diets were examined. A Food Consumption Frequency Questionnaire (FCFQ) was applied to 395 adults. Body mass index (BMI), associated with adiposity indicators, was used as a reference for grouping a sample into adiposity levels. The WF was calculated according to the WF Assessment Method, considering correction factors and accounting for water involved in cooking and food washing. Our results showed that the Mexican diet spends 6,056 liters per person per day (L p−1d−1) and is 55% higher than international healthy diets WF. Consumption of beef, milk, fruits, chicken, and fatty cereals represented 56% of total WF. Strong relations appeared between hypercaloric diets and high WF. Diets of people with excess adiposity generated statistically higher WF with extra expenses of 729 L p−1d−1 compared with the normal adiposity population. Following nutritional recommendations offers a protective factor in water care, whereas not adhering to these represents a risk up to 93 times greater of water expenditure regarding international healthy diets. Therefore, both for the general population and to regulate obesity, adequate diets can help mitigate the problem of water scarcity.

Sustainable-psycho-nutritional intervention programme for a sustainable diet (the ‘NutriSOS’ study) and its effects on eating behaviour, diet quality, nutritional status, physical activity, metabolic biomarkers, gut microbiota and water and carbon footprints in Mexican population: study protocol of an mHealth randomised controlled trial

“…Values under those specified will be considered controls (110) . A waist circumference above 80 cm in women and 90 cm in men will be used to determine cases when these figures are equal or over, and controls when subjects have a waist circumference less than those indicated above (4,111) . Cases and controls regarding visceral fat will be determined with the manuals of the bioimpedance scale TANITA BC-601 FITSCAN® (112) , considering levels above or below 12, respectively.…”

“…The process of design of the NutriSOS study is shown in Table 1. The process of understanding the behavior, including the problem definition (2)(3)(4)6,47) , the selected target behaviors, and what needs to be modified from them (13,17,32,(48)(49)(50) , are described. Also, the chosen intervention functions (51) and the selected policy categories from the behavior change wheel model are presented.…”

“…Other RCTs based on plantbased diets (56,57) or meat intake reduction (54) were consulted to verify the minimal clinically important difference and standard deviations, which were among the selected ranges. Studies regarding carbon footprint (58) , water footprint (4) , and gut microbiota (59,60) were also consulted. Finally, the following formula for calculating sample size was used, considering a dropout rate of 10% (55) : Once evaluated, participants will be randomly divided into the experimental and control group.…”

“…The change from the traditional Mexican diet to a Western diet (i.e., increases in animal and ultra-processed foods intake and decreases in the consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts), generated by the nutritional transition, has not only propitiated a prevalence of more than 75% of metabolic alterations (obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, dyslipidemia) (2)(3)(4) and in the gut microbiota of the Mexican population (5) , but it has also generated the water and carbon footprints of their diet to be among the highest's in the world with more than 8,000 Liters per person per day (L p -1 d -1 ) (6) and 3.9 Kg CO 2 eq p -1 d -1 (7) , respectively. This is linked to the aggravation of climate change, with increases of more than 1.0 ºC in the average atmospheric temperatures since the industrial revolution in the year 1760 (8) and the current water crisis that Mexico is going through, which affects 85% of the territory and has been referred to as the worst water drought in history, affecting the water supply of millions of Mexicans (2,9) .…”

Towards the characterisation of sustainable diet’s gut microbiota composition and functions: A narrative review

“…Healthy diets are generally assumed as sustainable, and although in some cases it is true, this cannot be generalised (Lares-Michel et al, 2021). Indeed, some studies have found that shifting current dietary patterns to dietary guideline recommendations would increase dietary environmental impact in several ways; for example, an increase of 15% in blue water footprint, 34% in energy use, 7% in dietary greenhouse gas emissions, and 34% in fertiliser use (Birney et al, 2017).…”