The Mediterranean diet has become the holy grail of healthy eating. Research shows that it can improve cognitive health and memory, reduce prostate cancer risk, lower the risk of heart attack and stroke, help with weight loss, prevent macular degeneration, and so much more. But recent interest in the Nordic diet could knock the Mediterranean diet off its pedestal.
Trista Best, RD, registered dietitian at Balance One Supplements, tells Best Life that this eating plan is based on the cultures of those in the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. It’s very similar to the Mediterranean diet, but promotes a few key differences. And it’s been shown to be a game-changer for weight loss and heart health.
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What is the Nordic diet?
Also known as the Scandinavian diet, the Nordic diet focuses on seasonal, non-processed foods. It first came on the scene as an official eating plan in 2012 when Cambridge University Press published study results that outlined guidelines for a New Nordic Diet. It included the following three tenets:
- More calories from plant foods and fewer from meat
- More foods from the sea and lakes
- More foods from the wild countryside
More specifically, registered dietitian Dawn Menning, RD, a certified diabetes care and education specialist with Nutu, lists the following foods as major components of the Nordic diet:
- Vegetables (dark-green leafy vegetables, fresh peas and greens, cabbage, onions, or root vegetables)
- Legumes (beans, lentils, or dry beans)
- Fruits and berries (blueberry, lingonberry, apple, pear, prune)
- Nuts and seeds (sunflower seeds, walnuts, sesame seeds, or chestnuts)
- Whole grains (oat bran, muesli, barley meal, rye bread, or whole grain pasta)
- Fish and seafood (salmon, herring, haddock, pike, mackerel, halibut, catfish, or tuna)
- Low-fat dairy products (cheese, butter, fermented milk, or yogurt)
- Vegetable oil and vegetable oil-based fat spreads (rapeseed)
“The Nordic diet is a plant-forward, high fiber, and seafood-friendly diet that may seem similar to the Mediterranean diet and has often been compared to it,” Menning explains. “The main differences are the type of oil; instead of olive oil, rapeseed (canola) oil is emphasized, and the Nordic diet includes more low-fat dairy while the Mediterranean diet is more full-fat.”
Like the Mediterranean diet, the Nordic diet includes very little in the way of eggs and poultry, and it advises against eating red meat or processed meat.
RELATED: Gastroenterologist Reveals 3 Vegetables He Eats for Liver Health.
What are the health benefits of the Nordic diet?
“The benefits from the Nordic diet come primarily from the high fiber and antioxidant content of these foods,” explains Best. “It is also significantly lower in foods like dairy, added sugar, and saturated fats. This pattern of eating is one contribution to the Nordic people’s longer life expectancy.”
However, she does note that “universal healthcare, strong social safety nets,” and an emphasis on outdoor activity are contributing factors.
Weight loss and anti-inflammatory properties
By avoiding processed foods, saturated fats, high-cholesterol meats, and added sugars, following the Nordic diet can naturally help you lose weight.
But it can also reduce inflammation, which has been shown to contribute to weight gain and many chronic diseases. In fact, a 2015 study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that a healthy Nordic diet reduced inflammatory gene expression in abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue.
Lower cholesterol and blood sugar
Independent of weight loss, the Nordic diet can help lower cholesterol and blood sugar, according to a 2022 study published in the journal Clinical Nutrition.
“The group that had been on the Nordic diet for six months became significantly healthier, with lower cholesterol levels, lower overall levels of both saturated and unsaturated fat in the blood, and better regulation of glucose, compared to the control group,” explained study author Lars Ove Dragsted, a researcher and head of section at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports.
He and his team hypothesized that the health benefits are due to the unsaturated fatty acids from oils in the Nordic diet, explains a press release.
To this point, Annemarie Braun, Dr. med, a gynecologist and lead physician at Praevivo Med in Germany, tells Best Life that the Nordic diet is exceptionally high in omega-3, 6, and 9 fats from fatty fish. These are also found in flaxseeds, as well as sunflower and rapeseed oils.
Improved gut health
“Fermented dairy products, like skyr and kefir, deliver beneficial probiotics for gut health, which in turn supports hormonal balance,” explains Braun.
Kefir has even been called a superfood for its varied concentration of healthy gut bacteria, which is more abundant than in regular yogurt.
“For example, studies have shown that drinking kefir can alleviate symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, ulcers caused by H. pylori infection, and other chronic gastrointestinal problems,” Best Life previously reported.
Lower blood pressure
Yet another study, this one published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, found evidence that following a Nordic diet improves cardiovascular health because it “improves blood lipid profile and insulin sensitivity and lowers blood pressure at clinically relevant levels.”
For all these reasons, a 2023 scientific review concluded that the “Nordic diet appears beneficial for cardiovascular health.”
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