London - Never mind splashing on olive oil like the Italians or quaffing red wine like the French. If you want to slim down and improve your health, try going Nordic.
Danish scientists have created a diet that can help weight loss and reduce blood pressure.
But be warned – it’s a far cry from their stereotypical national fare of pastries and bacon. Instead, the new Nordic diet is based on fresh fruit and vegetables, herbs gathered from the wild, and plenty of fish in place of meat.
And the key is eating only foods that are in season. So dinner in spring could be baked cod with celery, while sweet water pike grilled with summer cabbage might be served in summer.
In a study, participants who followed the new Nordic diet lost three times as much weight as those eating a typical Danish diet, which included meatballs, pizza and spaghetti.
Scientists at Copenhagen University sought inspiration for Nordic diet recipes from chefs at Noma, the local restaurant named the best in the world. The study involved 181 overweight adults who were asked to eat one of two different diets for six months.
One group of 68 was randomly assigned to the “average Danish diet”, based on the dishes currently most popular in Denmark, while the remaining 113 were put on the “new Nordic diet”, which featured specially designed recipes made up of local and seasonal whole foods.
All of the participants were encouraged to eat until they were satisfied, paying some attention to portion size but never counting calories.
Those on the Nordic diet received a cookbook of 180 recipes with three menu plans for each season, while those on the Danish diet received a cookbook with 99 recipes but no menu plans, since seasonal variation was not important.
Dr Thomas Meinert Larsen, who led the study, said: “One innovative aspect of the study was that all ingredients were provided free of charge at a special shop.”
The food taken away was registered on computer and if it did not conform to the assigned diet, the customer was asked to change their choices. The actual cost of the Nordic diet was around £4.75 a day, about a quarter more expensive than the Danish diet.
Results showed those in the Nordic diet group lost around 10lb (4.5kg) on average, compared with 3lb (1.3kg) in the Danish diet group. The Nordic diet also produced greater cuts in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure than the Danish diet.
Dr Meinert Larsen said the reductions were important and could make a big difference if repeated across the population, since even small long-term cuts in blood pressure will reduce cardiovascular deaths. Speaking at the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Barcelona, Spain, he added that the concept of a healthy, regional, sustainable, seasonal diet could in principle be applied anywhere in the world. - Daily Mail