The not-so-new Nordic Diet

What everyone is now calling the New Nordic Diet is in fact the same regime as the one designed as part of a Danish research project called OPUS. Its aim was to observe the effects of Scandinavian eating on the health, development and wellbeing of Danish school children.

This diet is not so new as it is based on the traditional diet of Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland) which principally consists of food stuffs originating in Scandinavia.

This cuisine is known for being healthy, as well as being good for general wellbeing, environmentally sound and in line with the principles of sustainable agriculture.The Nordic Diet is not a diet regime in the sense of a slimming plan. It is more a different way of eating, a lifestyle choice.

The ten commandments of the New Nordic Diet

To live better and longer, and rediscover or maintain your figure, follow these ten rules which form the basis of the Scandinavian diet:

More fruit, vegetables and berries

More wholegrain (especially flour, rye and barley)

More seafood (fish, shellfish and seaweed)

Less meat and better quality

More foods produced in the wild

Organic produce as often as possible

Avoid additives

Eat seasonal produce

Try and cook most meals at home

Limit waste

Key foods in the Nordic Diet

The Viking Diet is mostly made up of Scandinavian produce. But it isn’t that hard to find these items in your supermarket and adapt your recipes to suit.

Seasonal fruits and berries (prunes, rose hips, pears, blueberries, blackberries and blackcurrants)

Vegetables, including root vegetables (radishes, beetroot)

Pulses (peas)

Herbs (parsley, cress, dill)

Mushrooms

Wholegrain

Nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts)

Fish and shellfish (herring, mussels, shrimp and flounder)

Seaweed

Game

Meat (preferably free range)

Fish dishes

Fish (herring, shrimp...) is at the heart of Nordic cuisine, and yet, the way fish is cultivated for commercial purposes is responsible for certain levels of pollution (notably mercury). The question of toxicity is therefore an issue.

What should you do to make sure your diet doesn’t become a danger to your health? By consuming 300g of fish a week and paying attention to where your fish comes from and how it was cultivated. “Mercury becomes a particular problem when you eat big, old or carnivorous fish” explains Claude Mona, from the University of Copenhagen.

In fact, you should be varying the types of fish you eat (oily fish, white fish or between the two), since the supply of vitamins, minerals and fatty acids varies between species.

An environmentally responsible cuisine

The Nordic Diet encourages us to eat in a more responsible way. In fact, its precepts are based on the idea of local produce, food that is in season and maximum use of organic products. This way of living and eating should encourage producers to use more considered methods of cultivation.

Homemade Food

With the Nordic Diet, the oven takes centre stage. Far from boycotting commercial food products, this style of eating just encourages you to cook more and limit the number of pre-prepared dishes you buy.

The best way of being sure of what is going on your plate, is to cook it yourself! This is where it becomes important to cook and prepare fresh, local produce.

Live better and longer with the Nordic Diet

A study was carried out over twelve months on 57,053 Danish volunteers aged from 50 to 64. The objective was to establish a nutritional index for the health benefits of the Scandinavian diet. The conclusions confirmed the initial hypothesis, and the study proved that a diet modelled on the Nordic style of eating was linked to a decrease in mortality rate for average-aged Danes, especially for men. The basic diet observed during the course of this study was composed of fish, cabbage, rye bread, flour, apples and pears, and root vegetables (beetroot).

Extract from the study “Healthy Aspects of the Nordic Diet Are Related to Lower Total Mortality”, available online here.

Slimming down with the Nordic Diet

You shouldn’t pin all your hopes on the Nordic Diet for a spectacular weight loss in just a few days. It is not about a miracle diet, but a balanced and varied way of eating which you can adopt in your daily life. Your figure will feel the effects of this improved diet, but over the long term.

Claude Mona, from Arne Astrup’s office in Copenhagen where he is working on the project OPUS, explains that “the first provisional results suggest that the New Nordic Diet will help with weight loss. These initial findings indicate more considerable weight loss among volunteers who followed the New Nordic Diet when compared to those continuing with their normal diet.” The results on the effects of the New Nordic Diet on obesity will not be revealed officially until the end of the study in 2013.

http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/8-key-aspects-viking-diet-114050946.html