A healthy diet doesn’t just help you live longer—it can also help protect the planet. That’s the message from a new study by researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark. The study looked at the Nordic dietary guidelines and found that following them is linked to a longer life.
The Nordic diet encourages people to eat less red meat and added sugar, and more whole grains, beans, fish, and low-fat dairy products. These guidelines were updated in 2023 to include not only what’s good for human health but also what’s better for the environment.
The new study was led by Associate Professor Christina Dahm and Ph.D. student Anne Bak Mørch. It was published in The Journal of Nutrition. The researchers wanted to see if following the Nordic guidelines actually leads to better health and lower death rates. What they found was encouraging.
They studied the health data of more than 76,000 Swedish men and women. The participants were part of two large health studies that started in 1997: the Swedish Mammography Cohort and the Cohort of Swedish Men.
These people shared information about their eating habits and lifestyles, which gave scientists a lot of detailed information to analyze over time.
The results showed that people who followed the Nordic dietary guidelines most closely had a 23% lower risk of dying early than those who didn’t follow the guidelines well.
This was true even after taking into account their education level, income, and physical activity. The researchers also found that people who stuck to the guidelines were less likely to die from cancer and heart disease.
According to Dahm, these results matter for everyone in the Nordic and Baltic countries because all of these countries use similar nutrition advice based on shared Nordic Nutrition Recommendations. But the findings could also inspire other regions around the world.
One reason this study is important is that it looks at diet from both a health and climate perspective. What we eat has a big impact on the planet. About 30% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions come from the way we grow, produce, and consume food.
By recommending foods that are both healthy and more environmentally friendly, the Nordic diet sets an example of how personal choices can support global sustainability.
This is the first study to look at the full health benefits of the new Nordic dietary guidelines. It shows that it is possible to eat in a way that helps you live longer and protects the Earth at the same time.
Dahm says the research clearly shows the benefits of following a Nordic-style diet to lower the risk of early death. Whether the diet also helps with other health problems like obesity, diabetes, and more will be studied in future research.
In short, this study suggests that eating the Nordic way could be one of the best steps you can take for your health and for the planet.
If you care about nutrition, please read studies about why vitamin K is so important for older people, and this snack food may harm your heart rhythm.
For more health information, please see recent studies about vitamin that may protect you from type 2 diabetes, and results showing this common chemical in food may harm your blood pressure.
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