Water-Saving Foods: How Your Diet Can Help Conserve Our Most Precious Resource

Sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture practices, including water conservation, are meant to protect our environment with the goal of extending the earth’s natural resources. Future generations are considered through protecting soil health and water accessibility as well as ensuring farmers are financially supported (1). Sustainable water systems are designed to provide enough water for a given need, such as for soil or drinking purposes, without compromising the future ability to do so.

Sustainable water saving-techniques 

These are some of the best water systems developed to help sustain water, which can be used both on a small and large scale. 

Rainwater harvesting

Just like the name describes, this method involves collecting water from the rain and storing it for future use. Rainwater can be collected via rooftops, hills, or man-made surfaces, for example. It’s important to ensure the rainwater is clean and safe, by means of filtering and purification (2). 

Drip irrigation

Drip irrigation happens at the ground level and reduces loss from evaporation or water runoff. It’s a low-pressure system which uses pipes, tubing, and sprinklers. The pipes or tubes are closed off, allowing the water flow and creating pressure that forces the water to drip or spray. It can increase a farmer’s water efficiency by up to 70% (3). 

Cover cropping 

Cover cropping involves using plants to help conserve water. A cover crop is a plant that helps slow erosion, improve soil quality, and increase water availability. There’s evidence suggesting that the foliage can also increase resilience during intense rainfall or drought conditions, helping farmers preserve the crop (4).

Tips to help conserve water  

Some of the above systems can be used on a smaller scale, such as if you have a garden. But even if you don’t, water conservation can be in your control with some simple daily habits:

• Take a shorter shower: cut down on water wastage by turning the running water off when scrubbing with soap. 
• Water outdoor plants or grass at night: this saves water that would otherwise evaporate during the day. 
• Don’t flush every time: if it’s yellow, let it mellow or consider a dual-flush toilet. 
• Try a water-saving tap: this includes things like a flow decrease or flow switch. 

Turn off tap when not using: such as when you’re brushing your teeth or washing dishes (5)

How your diet can help conserve water

The Climatarian diet focuses on helping the climate, including reducing resource consumption with the goal of minimizing carbon footprint. It takes into account the impact of certain foods and how they impact on the environment, including water conservation. 

Go for whole foods 

The Climatarian diet goes beyond focusing on plant-based foods by emphasizing whole foods with minimal processing. When it comes to fruits and vegetables, the source and season matters. Shopping at a local farmers market reduces water usage by means of less packaging and processing. Diets made of highly processed foods, like convenience snacks and meals, use a lot of water. So whenever possible go for the whole versions, such as fresh fruit versus jelly or juice. 

Eat more plant-based 

Plant-based diets are one of the best ways to reduce your water consumption. That’s because modern animal agriculture involves both growing the plants for the animals to eat and providing water for the animals to drink. For example, one pound of beef takes about 1,800 gallons of water to produce, compared to about 300 gallons of water to make one pound of tofu (6). Other foods like certain nuts or palm oil also use higher amounts of water to produce so it’s good to check out more details of the diet.

Pick the right protein and dairy products

The higher water consumers include beef, nuts, pork, chicken, then eggs. Whenever possible, go for pasture raised, versus commercial meats like deli meat or sausage. Lentils, beans, and chickpeas are great choices. When it comes to dairy, milk uses about 122 gallons of water to make one pound while almond milk is about 80, rice milk about 60, oat and soy less than 20 (7). 

To dive deeper and get to know the amount of water you use, check out the Water Footprint Network’s: Personal water footprint calculator and start adapting some of the Climatarian Diet principles into your routine today with the help of Lifesum.