Dedicated Healthful Lifestyles : The Nordic Diet

"The Nordic diet, much like the Mediterranean diet, promotes lifestyle habits that focus on choosing fresh and local ingredients that are sustainably sourced."
"Staple foods that are traditionally sourced in the colder-climate Nordic countries surrounding the Baltic Sea include fatty fish like herring, salmon and mackerel; berries and other fruits; legumes, root vegetables and cabbage; and whole-grain cereals like barley, oats and rye."
"While some of these foods may be accessible, they may be heavy for those who reside in warmer climates or during hot summer months when we crave lighter salads, local corn and seasonal melons."
Layne Lieberman, author: Beyond the Mediterranean Diet

"The Nordic diet focuses on what people in Nordic countries have access to today, instead of looking back at historical diets and food availability."
Jennifer Bruning, registered dietitian, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

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Based on whole foods and minimally processed foods, the Nordic diet includes high-fibre vegetables, whole grains, fruit, dense breads, fish, low-fat dairy foods, lean meat, beans and lentils, tofu and poultry. In short, all the ingredients of a varied, healthy, whole-food diet. It is the Nordic twin so to speak, of the more frequently referenced Mediterranean diet. Also included are fermented fish, vegetables and dairy. Herbs and spices come into frequent use. Passed over are highly processed foods and sugar; wherever possible kept to a minimum.

Scientists, nutritionists and chefs collaborated in the design of this diet for the Nordic countries, emphasizing seasonal Nordic ingredients reflecting the kinds of food common to Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. It is designed to provide a daily diet where fifty percent of calories is derived from carbohydrates, twenty-five percent from protein and the last quarter from fat intake. It is, in fact, a combination that is fairly universally prescribed for healthy eating. The emphasis on foods available in Nordic countries in the diet qualifying it as a Nordic specialty.

Because the Mediterranean diet has been around for so much longer, it has received more recognition as a healthy diet, backed up by research attesting to its health benefits. The Nordic diet has not yet gone under the nutritional-health microscope through focused research as has its sister-diet. Both tout a strong seafood focus. Food writer Layne Lieberman cautions that it is wise to keep cured fish -- a staple in the Nordic diet -- to a minimum, given its  high salt, sugar and nitrate content.

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She also recommends the substitution of extra virgin olive oil rather than the canola oil popularly used in Nordic cuisine since canola though high in heart-healthy monounsaturated fats is missing the polyphenols with their antioxidant benefits that characterize olive oil. What is emphasized is that the Nordic diet is readily translated anywhere in the world with the use of similar alternatives.

What should also be obvious as a beneficial counterpart to any of these well-balanced diets focusing on whole foods, is the need to be physically active throughout the course of a day. Healthy eating is one very important part of lifestyle and awareness, but the need for exercise of all types can never be overlooked. The two together in unison are what produces a healthy lifestyle.

Although the diet itself is due some focused research, there have been some studies that focus on the diet that have reached interesting conclusions such as the 6-month study in obese people, where it was found that the Nordic diet reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 5.1 and 3.2 mmHg, respectively — compared to a control diet. As well, another 12-week study found a significant reduction in diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number of a reading) in participants with metabolic syndrome.