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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Fewer mangoes, more melons -GS Mudur

Fewer mangoes, more melons -GS Mudur

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published Published on Apr 9, 2017   modified Modified on Apr 9, 2017
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: India may need to consume less wheat and more pulses and vegetables, less chicken and more mutton, and fewer mangoes and more papayas to feed its population amid a looming water crisis.

A study released on Tuesday has indicated that modest changes in diets might help address severe water stress India is predicted to face in the decades to come and reduce non-communicable diseases such as coronary heart disease.

The study by scientists in the UK and India has shown that changing the mix of foods by just a few grammes per day could significantly reduce groundwater use and help the country meet the challenge of feeding 1.64 billion people by 2050. The findings were published on Tuesday in The Lancet Planetary Health, a research journal.

The dietary changes would need to include reducing consumption of foods with the highest water footprints such as wheat, poultry, eggs and dairy products, and increasing consumption of vegetables and legumes and switching from fruits such as grapes, guava and mangoes to melon, orange and papaya.

The study predicts that switching from poultry to mutton would reduce water use. "Groundwater use is greatest for poultry as chicken are fed grain that requires lots of irrigation water," James Milner, an environmental health specialist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who led the study, told The Telegraph .

The scientists believe a shift towards greater consumption of vegetables, legumes and certain fruits will likely provide benefits through reductions in coronary heart disease, stroke and cancer, although the switch from chicken to mutton could contribute to some health risks.

The researchers said their study examined the water footprint of wheat, which is a winter crop and requires irrigation, rather than the water footprint of rice, which is a summer crop and is largely grown in rainfed areas.

"The shift towards mutton is a trade-off between conserving fresh water and protecting human health, but the average mutton consumption in India in our sample was very low, allowing for a small increase," said Sutapa Agarwal, a study team member and epidemiologist at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), New Delhi, a research think tank.

The scientists examined typical dietary patterns in India, drawing on the eating habits of samples of people in Lucknow, Nagpur, Hyderabad and Bangalore, and used mathematical tools to determine how certain dietary changes impact water use, human health and greenhouse gas emissions.

They found that modifying the average diet to increase fruit consumption by an average 52 grammes per day and vegetable consumption by 18 grammes per day and reduce chicken by 7 grammes per day could mean a 30 per cent reduction in freshwater demand and a 13 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Several studies in the past based on data from high-income countries have suggested that lowering consumption of meat and milk could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The India-UK study is the first to investigate changing diets as a potential solution to likely water shortages.

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The Telegraph, 9 April, 2017, https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170409/jsp/nation/story_145398.jsp#.WOpAkLideyA


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