Eating well doesn’t just benefit your health—it may also help the planet.
That’s the message from new research by Aarhus University in Denmark, which found that people who follow the latest Nordic dietary guidelines live longer than those who don’t.
The guidelines, published in 2023, focus on eating in ways that are both healthy and sustainable.
They recommend eating less red meat and added sugar, while including more whole grains, legumes, fish, and low-fat dairy.
These choices are not only good for the body but also better for the environment, since food production is a major driver of climate change.
The study, led by Associate Professor Christina Dahm and Ph.D. student Anne Bak Mørch, analyzed dietary and lifestyle data from more than 76,000 Swedish men and women.
The participants had been reporting their food habits since 1997 as part of two large population studies.
This long-term data allowed researchers to see how closely people’s diets matched the Nordic recommendations and how this affected their health.
The results were clear. People who followed the guidelines most closely had a 23% lower risk of dying during the study period compared with those who didn’t.
This lower risk held true even when taking into account other lifestyle factors such as education, income, and physical activity. The researchers also found that sticking to the diet reduced deaths from cancer and cardiovascular disease.
“Our study shows that following the guidelines can prevent premature death,” said Dahm. “The recommendations were designed to consider both nutrition and climate, so the findings highlight a double benefit: we can protect our health and the planet at the same time.”
Diet plays a huge role in climate change. About 30% of greenhouse gas emissions created by humans come from the way food is produced and consumed.
The Nordic guidelines are among the first to directly combine health and sustainability, making them a potential model for other countries developing climate-friendly diets.
The researchers hope to study whether the Nordic diet also lowers the risk of specific diseases, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer.
For now, the evidence strongly suggests that what’s good for the planet can also help us live longer, healthier lives.
Source: Aarhus University.
