The Nordic Diet1

Peer-reviewed | Manuscript received: June 10, 2016 | Revision accepted: September 7, 2016

Towards the North by inspiration from the South

There is a strong on-going interest regarding a “new” diet, which is sometimes called Nordic Diet, Healthy Nordic Diet, New Nordic Diet or Baltic Sea Diet. This interest is evoked by emerging evidence of potential health benefits with Nordic- based foods and related dietary patterns. With this short review, the composition of such a “Nordic Diet” is shown and the currently available evidence of health effects associated with a Nordic Diet is presented.

Concept and composition of the Nordic Diet

Some decades ago, the Nordic diet, especially the Finnish version of it, was associated with high chronic disease morbidity. The Seven Countries Study [1] (-> www.sevencountriesstudy.com) showed striking differences in the intake of saturated fat across Europe, and alongside that the direct relation between saturated fat intake and the incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD). Eastern Finland had the highest intakes of saturated fat and coronary heart incidence among the countries that were compared in the study [1]. After that the North Karelia intervention in Eastern Finland showed marked decrease in the incidence of and mortality due to CHD by a healthy lifestyle intervention. The decrease has been 82% in men and 84% in women over the 40-year period [2], and dietary changes had great impact on the improvement of risk factors, such as serum cholesterol [3].

¹ This article is a short review based on the presentation given at VFED Conference in Aachen/Germany in September 2015.

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