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Analysis of institutional authors

Blas, AlejandroAuthorGarrido, AlbertoAuthor

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June 9, 2019
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A comparison of the Mediterranean diet and current food consumption patterns in Spain from a nutritional and water perspective

Publicated to: SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT. 664 1020-1029 - 2019-05-10 664(), DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.111

Authors:

Blas, A; Garrido, A; Unver, O; Willaarts, B
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Affiliations

Food & Agr Org United Nations - Author
Int Inst Appl Syst Anal IIASA - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid, Res Ctr Management Agr & Environm Risks CEIGRAM - Author
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Abstract

The promotion of responsible consumption is a key strategy to achieve environmental benefits, sustainable food security, and enhance public health. Countries like Spain are making efforts to reverse growing obesity and promote healthy diets, such as the recommended and traditional Mediterranean, recognized as a key strategy to improve the population's health with locally grown, traditional, and seasonal products like fruits, vegetables, olive oil, and fish. With a view to connecting water, agriculture, food security, nutrition and health, this research aims to investigate and compare the nutritional and water implications of the current food consumption of Spanish households with the recommended Mediterranean diet. Besides, we calculate their nutritional composition, compare their water footprints, and develop a new methodological approach to assess nutritional water productivity (i.e. the nutritional value per unit of embedded water). Results show that the current Spanish diet is shifting away from the recommended Mediterranean towards an alternative one containing three times more meat, dairy and sugar products, and a third fewer fruits, vegetables, and cereals. The Mediterranean diet is also less caloric, as it contains smaller amounts of proteins and fats and is richer in fiber and micronutrients. Due to the high embedded water content in animal products, a shift towards a Mediterranean diet would reduce the consumptive WF about 750 1/capita day. Additionally, the Mediterranean diet has better water-nutritional efficiency than the current one: it provides more energy, fiber, and nutrients per liter of consumptive water. The study confirms the Mediterranean diet is a healthier and more sustainable diet with strong cultural heritage. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Keywords

dietary shiftsnutritional water productivitywater footprintwater savingsAdherenceBlueDietDiet, mediterraneanDietary shiftsEdible grainEnvironmental impactsFeeding behaviorFood supplyFootprintHumansNutritional statusNutritional vvater productivityNutritional water productivityNutritive valueSpainVegetablesWater footprintWater savingsWater supplyWater-use efficiency

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2019, it was in position 22/265, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Environmental Sciences. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 2.96. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 13, 2025)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 2.25 (source consulted: FECYT Mar 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2026-04-25, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 88
  • Scopus: 93
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-25:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 278.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 274 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 158.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 151 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions in news outlets: 4 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: https://oa.upm.es/87547/

As a result of the publication of the work in the institutional repository, statistical usage data has been obtained that reflects its impact. In terms of dissemination, we can state that, as of

  • Views: 145
  • Downloads: 303
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Austria; Italy.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (BLAS MORENTE, ALEJANDRO) .

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Awards linked to the item

This research was funded by the Water Observatory of the Botin Foundation and is the result of a FAO research collaboration and internship. We would like to thank J. Lundqvist for his content review and help. We are also grateful to the SpanishMinistry of Agriculture for providing the data for conducting this research.
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