Study finds an ancient diet can boost your heart health

Published 4 hours ago
Source: metro.co.uk
We all know that a Mediterranean diet has a lot of health benefits, but have you considered a Nordic one? New research has suggested that having a Nordic diet full of fish, vegetables, berries and whole grains could not only boost your heart health but also reduce the damaging effects of Type 2 diabetes. Swedish scientists looked at the impact of a Nordic diet on the health of more than 100 people in a study. So, what did they find? (Picture: Getty)
Publishing the results in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers found the diet helped slash the amount of fat in the livers of participants. They said their findings showed the diet could be an effective way to manage type two diabetes and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), which is a liver disease not linked to alcohol but rather to cholesterol levels and obesity. (Picture: Getty)
The team also found that the diet helped more than half of the participants with MASLD go into remission, with some patients also reporting a reversal of pre-diabetes. The Nordic diet differs from the Mediterranean one as it focuses on lean proteins, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats. While the Mediterranean diet is rich in olive oil, the Nordic diet promotes the use of canola and rapeseed oil, both of which are rich in monounsaturated fats that promote heart health. (Picture: Getty)
Professor Ulf Risérus, study co-author, said: ‘The healthy Nordic diet gave the best results in the study participants with diabetes. Just over 20 per cent of their liver fat was reduced and glucose control improved over one year. More than half of the participants also saw a remission of their fatty liver disease. This makes these results equally important for people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease as those with type 2 diabetes.’  (Picture: Getty)
Dr Michael Fridén, also co-author, said: ‘Even though participants were allowed to eat as much as they wanted from the foods recommended, they still lost weight. In many previous studies of different diets, calorie intake has been restricted, which is effective in the storm, but increases in hunger can be difficult to follow in the longer term.’(Picture: Getty)
Previous research has also discovered that eating a traditional Nordic diet may help you lose weight faster than a more processed diet. In a study, the researchers split 150 people into three groups, where the first was asked to follow a low carb plant-based diet, low in animal products such as meat, seafood, eggs and dairy. The second followed a healthy Nordic diet. The third was the control. All participants were also told to limit their consumption of sweetened drinks, sweets, candy and snacks with added sugar. (Picture: Getty)
A year later they found the low carb plant-based diet and Nordic diets were similar in reducing liver fat as well as bad cholesterol. The Scandinavian meal plan was also more effective in reducing blood glucose over the long term, and also had more beneficial effects on body weight. However, the researchers could not prove exactly why the Nordic diet had this effect, but say it could be due to its higher consumption of oats and wholegrain bread and low butter consumption. (Picture: Getty)

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