Adopting universal, sustainable diet could cut down cultivated area, water used in irrigation: Study

New Delhi, Jan 17 (PTI) Globally adopting the 'EAT-Lancet' diet -- devised as a reference to promote equity and sustainability in health and food production -- could cut down cultivated area by up to 40 per cent and almost 80 per cent of water consumed for irrigation, with a 4.5 per cent increase in food costs, a study has found.

In January, 2019, scientists forming the 'EAT-Lancet Commission' described a largely plant-based diet -- a "universal, healthy reference" based on scientific evidence -- to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals and objectives of the Paris Agreement.

The diet consists of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, nuts and legumes, low to moderate amounts of seafood and poultry, with little red and processed meat, added sugar, refined grains, and starchy vegetables.

This study, by researchers at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy, and published in the journal Nature Sustainability, proposed a global model through which adopting the EAT-Lancet diet around the world can be a sustainable possibility.

The model showed that a global adoption of the diet would require an increase in international food trade, raising the amount of production set aside for export from 25 per cent to 36 per cent.

The researchers estimated that adopting the diet could lead to a 4.5 per cent increase in food costs, but bring significant environmental and nutritional benefits.

"Our results suggest that an optimised global cropland allocation, and an adjustment in trade flows, would allow the global population to be fed with the EAT-Lancet diet, with a global reduction of the cultivated area of 37-40 per cent, irrigation-water consumption of 78 per cent and unsustainably irrigated areas of 22 per cent," the authors wrote.

"There was a 4.5 per cent increase in the global median (typical) diet cost between the baseline diet and the sustainable diet," they wrote.

A May 2020 analysis by researchers at International Food Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, showed that except for the richest five per cent of the Indian population, the average calories consumed everyday is below 2,503 kilocalories per capita per day, as recommended by the EAT-Lancet diet.

Comparing Indian diets with the proposed reference, intake of whole grain was found to be significantly higher than that recommended in the EAT-Lancet, while intake of fruits, vegetables, legumes, meat, fish and eggs were significantly lower.

However, protein intake in Indian diets was found to be only 6-8 per cent, compared to 29 per cent in the reference diet. The analysis is published in the journal BMC Public Health. PTI KRS SKY SKY