The Nordic diet recently ranked as a top choice for 2021, and its emphasis on sustainability means it could have staying power.
The Nordic Diet, Explained: Charting the Rise of Eating Scandinavian-Style
The U.S. News and World Report ranks many things each year, including diets. They evaluate each entry for short-term weight loss, long term weight-loss, general health benefits, and follow-ability. In 2021, many familiar favorites made the list: Mediterranean, Flexitarian, Weight Watchers. But coming in at number nine was one with less American household recognition: Nordic.
What is the Nordic diet, exactly? “It’s a healthy, whole-food, plant-centric diet that focuses on consuming more vegetables and fruit, whole grains instead of refined grains, and organic, local, and wild as often as possible,” holistic nutritionist Maria Marlowe tells Vogue. “The Nordic diet is similar to paleo in its focus on whole, real foods and high-quality animal products, but places a larger emphasis on plant-foods and wild seafood than meat.”
Think river-caught salmon instead of farmed; foraged berries instead of cultivated; and pasture-raised eggs (in moderation). Why? Wild foods are higher in nutrients—and, well, are more delicious. “Taste-wise, choosing wild and local foods will typically be more flavorful as they are presumably fresher or picked at the peak of ripeness when both nutrition and flavor of produce is at its highest. What's more, wild berries—a staple in the Nordic diet—are often smaller and more concentrated in both flavor and nutrition than the large, water-dense berries you find at the grocer,” says Marlowe. (A 2010 Department of Agriculture analysis found that wild blueberries had double the antioxidants of farm-raised blueberries.) Other staples of the Nordic Diet include oats, root vegetables, legumes, skyr yogurt, and rapeseed oil, as well as fatty fish like salmon and mackerel.
The health benefits are plentiful: several studies suggest that it lowers blood pressure, and improves heart health. And while it never needs to be the goal, the Nordic Diet supports long-term rather than short-term weight loss. Simply put: it’s a lifestyle, rather than a temporary endeavor.
The Nordic diet isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. People in Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden have explored eating this way for, well, centuries. But the concept has recently been both publicized and formalized. In the 2010s, Noma in Copenhagen won the title of World’s Best Restaurant four times (and when they didn’t win, they came in second). It caused Nordic food to find a foothold worldwide—not just in the form of five-star restaurants, but in healthy fast-casual spots too: Danish chain Joe and the Juice, for example, began to rapidly expand in the United States in 2016. That same year, Noma co-founder Claus Meyer opened the Great Northern Food Hall in New York’s Grand Central Station, where pavilions served up herring-dressed Caesar salads and open-faced shrimp sandwiches on rye. Then came the buzzy books that made the Nordic diet available to home cooks: In 2015, Phaidon published The Nordic Cookbook by Magnus Nilsson, which was rumored to be on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s secret wedding registry. Then, in 2017, came the popular The Nordic Way.
This story originally appeared on: Vogue - Author:Elise Taylor
