Nordic Diet May Reduce Blood Pressure and Weight
The Nordic diet offers the potential to help weight control and reduce blood pressure, according to researchers. The diet was specially created to advance the sometimes-conflicting interests of health, gastronomy, and sustainability.
The Nordic diet was first developed after Danes described difficulties integrating a Mediterranean diet into their regular eating habits. Researchers devised the OPUS project to create a healthier and more sustainable food environment for Denmark, with emphasis on palatability and gastronomic potential. The dietary components of the Nordic diet recipes were developed by chefs from the acclaimed Copenhagen restaurant Noma, who were selected because of their distinct Nordic identity and their consideration for the environment.
The diet comprises 15 food groups, including fruit and vegetables (especially berries, cabbages, root vegetables, and legumes), potatoes, fresh herbs, plants and mushrooms gathered from the wild, nuts, whole grains, meats from livestock and game, fish, shellfish, and seaweed. Typical recipes include baked cod with celery, sweet water pike grilled with summer cabbage, and turbot in breadcrumbs.
“Our view is that eating foods in accordance with the seasons makes us less dependent on transportation,” said Thomas Meinert Larsen, PhD, Associate Professor of Obesity Research at the University of Copenhagen. “There’s particular emphasis on foraged foods because they taste better and usually contain greater amounts of vitamins and minerals than conventionally grown plants.”
In the Shop in OPUS (SHOPUS) study, 181 men and women with central obesity (defined as waist circumferences greater than 94 cm for men and greater than 80 cm for women) were randomized for 26 weeks to the Nordic diet (n = 113) or the average Danish diet (n = 68), whose macronutrient composition was designed to match diets commonly eaten by adult Danish populations, as defined by the latest survey of dietary habits in Denmark.
People randomized to the Nordic diet received a cookbook of 180 recipes with three menu plans for each season, while participants randomized to the Danish diet received a cookbook of 99 recipes but no menu plans, since seasonal variation was not important. “One innovative aspect of the study was that all ingredients were provided free of charge at a special shop,” said Dr. Meinert Larsen.
The investigators found that the mean weight change was a loss of 4.7 (±0.5) kg for the Nordic diet group and a loss of 1.5 (±0.5) kg for the Danish diet group. Furthermore, the Nordic diet produced greater reductions in systolic (–5.1 mm Hg) and diastolic blood pressure (–3.2 mm Hg) than the Danish diet.
At the population level, such reductions are likely to be important, since even small long-term blood pressure reductions will reduce cardiovascular mortality, said Dr. Meinert Larsen. The concept of a healthy, regional, sustainable, seasonal, and highly palatable diet, he added, could in principle be applied anywhere in the world, not just in Nordic countries.