What To Know About The Nordic Diet

People are always trying to find new ways to lose weight. Moreover, it’s more about looking good and eating healthy than losing weight. If you Google for ways to lose weight, you’ll find various kinds of diet plans all with different requirements and outcomes. In this old race of diet plans, a new method has found its place and is gaining popularity ever since it was created. This diet is called the Nordic diet plan, and it is said to be one of the healthiest diets in the world.

What is the Nordic diet?
The Nordic diet is derived from eating Nordic countries cuisine in a healthier way. These include Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Iceland. This was created by a group of health experts, including chefs, scientists, and nutritionists, as they were looking for a way to improve public health.

Researchers say that the Nordic diet is somewhat similar to the Mediterranean diet. Both of the diets include food rich in Omega-three fatty acids and include a lot of fruits and vegetables. However, there is one significant difference between these diets. While on the one hand, the Mediterranean diet includes all the traditional ways of consuming food, the Nordic diet only includes food that is healthy and sustainable for the environment as well.

Another difference between these two is the oil used in cooking the food. The Mediterranean diet features olive oil while the Nordic diet chooses canola oil as the best option. However, both oils provide equal health benefits by providing health-protective monounsaturated fats. So both are equally healthy, but the Nordic diet overall takes the nutrient intake a step further.

Features of the Nordic diet
Here are some of the salient features of the Nordic diet to give you an idea of what it’s all about.

• Add more fruits and vegetables to your everyday diet
• Add more whole grains to your daily diet plan
• Consume a more considerable amount of food from seas and lakes
• Eat less red meat but whenever do, consume a high-quality one.
• Use as many organic products as possible
• Add more seasonal products to the diet
• Eat more food caught from wild landscapes
• Eat as much hand-cooked meal as possible
• Don’t add sugar or food additives
• Avoid sugar-sweetened beverages
• Avoid processed food or refined fast food

What to eat
As mentioned above, the Nordic diet focuses on consuming traditional food but in a healthier way that benefits the environment too. Here is the list of items that are included in the Nordic diet.

Fruits, vegetables, and berries
Nordic diet includes at least one cup of vegetables and one cup of fruit in the diet plan for each day. The fruits and vegetables are advised to be organic and in season and should be locally grown. The diet includes many berries. At least two cups of mixed berries, including strawberries, raspberries, and lingonberries, should be added to each day meal plan. Berries are one of the most beneficial fruits.

They are rich in vitamins and minerals and also contain phytochemicals that are beneficial for health.

Dairy products
The Nordic diet includes cheese, low-fat milk, and yogurt. The diet strictly avoids sugary yogurt products and sweetened milk drinks as they contain refined sugar. Add at least two servings of low-fat milk in meals per day.

Whole grains
Twenty-five percent of the Nordic diet is all about whole grains. It adds multiple beneficial grains like rye, oats, and barley. The diet also recommends you to eat whole grain pasta, brown rice and eat plenty of whole-grain bread as well. The Nordic diet also allows you to eat cereal as long as you don’t add sugar or honey.

Fats
The Nordic diet allows for some trans-fat free margarine made with soybean oil, and you can also add unsalted nuts and seeds daily to the plan.  The Nordic diet also uses rapeseed oil known as canola oil for cooking purposes.

Meat
Nordic diet is strict on eating meat like beef. However, it does allow you to consume cut pieces of meat of chicken and turkey that are low in fat. You can also eat a lean cut of lamb and venison.

Fish
Fish rich in fatty acids like Omega-three are added in the Nordic diet. The diet includes salmon, mackerel, and herring once in a week. You can add more if you want, depending on your nutritious needs. It also includes one meal per week of a low-fat fish dish like cod and haddock.

Advantages of this diet
The first and foremost advantage of following this diet is that it will keep your body in a healthy state. Also, the Nordic diet is big on eating together with family and friends because it’s more mindful and communal. This can prove to be a good bonding exercise as well.

The diet is straightforward to follow, and it is full of nutrition. Also, the fact that the Nordic diet focuses on environmental sustainability, as well as the health of the people. Moreover, this diet has proven to help many obese people lose weight. The weight loss outcome is more than what a standard diet would result in. So people who want to lose some weight should consider this healthy diet.

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