Nordic diet a heart-smart alternative
A Nordic diet is just as healthy as a Mediterranean one, a new study shows.
The Nordic diet combines game meat, fish, berries, root vegetables, mushrooms, wholewheat bread and rapeseed oil. And the traditional diet seems to contribute to lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease and obesity, according to a study presented at the European cardiology congress in Barcelona, Swedish Radio reports.
The study followed one group which was eating according to the Nordic diet and another group eating ‘average’ Danish food. The Nordic group lost the most weight and lowered the risk of cardiovascular disease linked to high blood pressure and blood lipids.
“Over the past decades we’ve got used to eating a more Americanized diet. So we’re going back to our roots and see what great-tasting things we can produce in the Nordic countries. And we’ll learn from old recipes that we can update,” Thomas Meinert Larsen, at the University of Copenhagen told Swedish Radio.
The idea is not to compete with the Mediterranean diet, Meinert Larsen says, but rather create an environmentally friendly alternative.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Addressing northern food insecurity, Blog by Heather Exner-Pirot
Greenland: Researchers must be honest with Arctic peoples about food contaminants: doctor, Eye on the Arctic
Sweden: Demand ups Sweden’s reindeer meat prices, Radio Sweden
United States: Traditional foods making their way onto elders’ plates in Northwest Alaska, Alaska Dispatch
