Nordic diet cuts heart disease risk: study
A healthy Nordic diet helps to reduce cardiovascular disease and the risk of type 2 diabetes, according to a study initiated by the Nordic Council of Ministers in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.
The study, in which 200 people participated, showed that the diet as a whole is the important factor, rather than individual foods.
The healthy Nordic diet is, according to the study, characterized as high in local foods and with animal fats replaced with rape-seed oil and vegetable oil-based margarine.
In order to feel the benefits a diet should include the consumption of a lot of domestic seasonal products every day: apples, pears, plums, berries, vegetables, root vegetables and cabbage as well as whole grains of rye, barley and oats.
Many of which are considered to be typical of the traditional Nordic diet, the study claims.
These foods have been shown to reduce factors associated with cardiovascular disease. Levels of harmful cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, decreases, while levels of good cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, rises so that the proportions improve.
At the same time the amount of harmful fat particles in the blood vessels declined.
Researchers in the Sysdiet project concluded that with these changes in mind, the risk of coronary heart disease decreases by 10-15 percent over a 5-10-year period.
Furthermore thanks to the diet the absorption of essential vitamins and minerals was 1.5-2 times higher than normal.
The Sysdiet research project was launched in 2007.
TT/The Local/pvs
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The study, in which 200 people participated, showed that the diet as a whole is the important factor, rather than individual foods.
The healthy Nordic diet is, according to the study, characterized as high in local foods and with animal fats replaced with rape-seed oil and vegetable oil-based margarine.
In order to feel the benefits a diet should include the consumption of a lot of domestic seasonal products every day: apples, pears, plums, berries, vegetables, root vegetables and cabbage as well as whole grains of rye, barley and oats.
Many of which are considered to be typical of the traditional Nordic diet, the study claims.
These foods have been shown to reduce factors associated with cardiovascular disease. Levels of harmful cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, decreases, while levels of good cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, rises so that the proportions improve.
At the same time the amount of harmful fat particles in the blood vessels declined.
Researchers in the Sysdiet project concluded that with these changes in mind, the risk of coronary heart disease decreases by 10-15 percent over a 5-10-year period.
Furthermore thanks to the diet the absorption of essential vitamins and minerals was 1.5-2 times higher than normal.
The Sysdiet research project was launched in 2007.
TT/The Local/pvs
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