TABLE 4.

Summary of evidence in relation to dietary patterns and water-scarcity impacts

Study, year (ref)1	Study context	Comparison	Key finding
Hess et al., 2016 (95)	United Kingdom	Typical portion of fresh potatoes, Italian-produced dried pasta, and Indian-produced basmati rice	The water scarcity footprint of a serving of basmati rice was 2 orders of magnitude greater than a serving of potatoes or pasta
Hess et al., 2015 (94)	United Kingdom	Average UK diet and 5 healthier diets based on the Eatwell Plate	In all cases, fruit and vegetables made the highest contribution to the water-scarcity footprint; healthier diets led to modest changes in the water-scarcity footprint (−3% to +2%); the potential for large shifts in the geographic location of the water scarcity impacts was noted
Notarnicola et al., 2017 (79)	European Union	Basket of 17 foods representative of European Union consumption—scenario 1: 25% reduction in beef, dairy, pork, poultry, and eggs substituted with a 25% increase in bread; scenario 2: as above but with 50% reductions or increases	Scenarios 1 and 2 reduced the water-scarcity footprint by 11% and 22%, respectively
Goldstein et al., 2016 (124)	Denmark	Average Danish adult diet, lacto-ovovegetarian diet, and vegan diet, all normalized to 2000 kcal/d	Compared with the average Danish diet, the vegetarian and vegan diets had 26% and 31% higher water-scarcity footprints, respectively

¹ref, reference.