What’s the beef with water?

Photo: Jessica Brody, general counsel for Denver Water, has been a vegetarian since childhood. Not only do vegetables contribute to a healthy lifestyle, they have a relatively small water footprint. Photo credit: Denver Water.

Don’t have a cow man. Improve your wellness by reducing your water footprint.

Footprints can be seen in lots of places — in the sand, in the snow, on the moon, even in our water.

Wait, in our water?

That’s right, though it’s not exactly what you think. A water footprint is like an environmental or ecological footprint. A water footprint accounts for the water used in the agricultural, packaging and shipping processes used to produce the food you consume.

And since our employees at Denver Water eat, drink and breathe water (okay, probably just drink, but you get the point) it’s only natural that water footprints would be a focus in our wellness program.

Denver Water’s employee wellness program includes voluntary challenges throughout the year, each one typically lasting three weeks. The challenges have goals such as ditching fast food, drinking more water and getting more exercise.

This month, employees are being challenged to try a plant-based diet. It’s a diet that emphasizes minimally processed foods from plants and includes healthy proteins like nuts, seeds, beans and tofu. It also allows for modest amounts of animal products like fish, lean meat and low-fat dairy.

Limiting the consumption of animal products has many positive health impacts like lowering cholesterol and blood pressure and helping to prevent chronic diseases.

But here’s where the water footprint comes in. Do you know what food has the largest global water footprint? Beef.