Traditional diets can be defined as the diets historically eaten by a particular group of individuals. Perhaps the most commonly known traditional diet is the Mediterranean diet consumed by the populations that inhabit the regions of Southern Europe and parts of Northern Africa. This diet has been well researched and shown to possess a number of health effects including a consistent pattern of evidence suggesting that it is an effective weight loss diet. Traditional diets tend to be beneficial to weight loss because they contain unrefined whole foods and are absent of metabolic poisons. This makes traditional diets the antithesis to the modern typical Western diet that contains refined and processed food, which are high in salt, sugar, fat, total energy and metabolic poisons. Because of the health effects of the Mediterranean diet, other traditional diets have been investigated for their health effects and been shown to be beneficial. One diet gaining popularity is the Nordic style traditional diet from Scandanadia.
It should not be surprising that the Nordic diet has a number of health benefits. This relates to the fact that the Nordic diet is actually quite similar to the Mediterranean diet. In this regard, the diet emphasises locally grown and foraged foods that include game meats, eggs, dairy, fruits such as berries and vegetables such as potatoes and legumes, fish, nuts and seeds, a small amount of red meat and oil derived from rapeseeds oil. Therefore the nordic diet replaces the traditional extra virgin olive oil from the Mediterranean diet with rapeseed oil. However, in both cases the oil is unrefined and contains much of its original antioxidant and phytonutrient content, making it a healthy addition to the diet if consumed in moderation and in balance with the omega-3 oils derived from fish and seeds. However, there is some discussion about whether all of these foods are traditional foods for Scandinavians and some claim that many of the foods have been introduced recently. That being said, studies do show health effects for the diet including a weight loss effect in those that follow the diet in the long term. In this regard the health effects are very similar to those seen with the Mediterranean diet.
Studies have investigated the health effects of the Nordic diet including its weight loss effects. For example in one study a group of women who has recently given birth were advised on dietary changes to allow their diets to incorporate elements of the Nordic diet. In contrast another group women who had recently given birth were given an advice leaflet on healthy eating. After 12 weeks the weight loss in the Nordic diet group was greater (-6.1 kg) compared to the control group (-1.6 kg), and this increased to 10 kg in the Nordic group and 4.6 kg in the control group at 1 year. These results suggest that dietary improvements cause weight loss, and this was evident in both groups. However, the additional advice and the inclusion of traditional Nordic foods increased the effectiveness of the diet in terms of weight loss. Therefore, the addition of Nordic foods to a diet may cause weight loss effects, and this likely relates to the concomitant removal of obesogenic foods such as sugar, salt, fat and high energy processed and refined foods.
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