Compliance with EAT-Lancet dietary guidelines would reduce global water footprint but increase it for 40% of the world population

The EAT-Lancet Commission has proposed a global benchmark diet to guide the shift towards healthy and sustainable dietary patterns. Yet, it is unclear whether consumers’ choices are convergent with those guidelines. Applying an advanced statistical analysis, we mapped the diet gap of 15 essential foods in 174 countries over 1961-2018. We found that countries at the highest level of development have an above-optimal consumption of animal products, fats, and sugars, but a sub-optimal consumption of legumes, nuts, and fruits. Countries suffering from limited socioeconomic progress primarily rely on carbohydrates and starchy roots. A gradual change towards healthy and sustainable dietary targets can be observed for seafood, milk products, poultry, and vegetable oils. We show that if all countries adopted the EAT-Lancet diet, water footprint would fall by 12% at the global level but increase for nearly 40% of the global population.