A new analysis based on health data from more than 64,000 middle-aged and older adults in Sweden estimates that strict adherence to the “Nordic diet” is associated with a lower risk of death from any cause over 24 years. The study was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and provides a statistical “shortcut” for investigating the long-term effect without researchers having to wait two decades for a clinical trial.
The Nordic diet is described as the “cold-weather version” of the Mediterranean diet. It is based on traditional foods from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, emphasizing mostly plant-based meals, oily fish and root vegetables. In practice, it favors rapeseed oil over olive oil, oats and rye over wheat and rice, and pears and apples over oranges and bananas.
The findings reinforce earlier evidence. A 2025 systematic review found that people who followed the Nordic diet more closely had lower risks of death from any cause, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
They also partly align with a randomized clinical trial involving Swedes with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, in which participants replaced white bread and pasta with porridge and rye bread, used rapeseed oil instead of butter, and ate local produce such as apples, berries and cabbage, as well as oily fish such as salmon. In that trial, participants who stuck to the Nordic diet achieved better results than those following the 2012 Nordic dietary recommendations in reducing liver fat, liver enzymes, body weight, glucose and lipids. Trial leader Ulf Risérus of Uppsala University said in 2025 that the healthy Nordic diet produced the best results for participants with diabetes: liver fat fell by just over 20% and blood sugar control improved within a year. More than half experienced remission of fatty liver disease.
The new study from Denmark is not a clinical trial, but a statistical simulation of a long-term randomized trial. Compared with general health recommendations, the healthy Nordic diet was associated with a 4% lower risk of death from any cause over the next 24 years, while compared with no dietary intervention, the reduction reached 6%. However, the researchers found no clear reduction in serious liver outcomes compared with the 2023 Nordic health recommendations.
The subgroup analysis suggested that some people may benefit more. The group with better estimated mortality outcomes included a slightly higher proportion of women and adults over 65 with hypertension and diabetes. By contrast, people who exercised at least two hours a week and consumed less alcohol were less represented in this group. The researchers note that these details need to be confirmed in future trials, since the study is based on hypothetical interventions that keep someone strictly on one diet for decades.
There is much less research on the Nordic diet than on the Mediterranean diet, but the two have more similarities than differences; the Mediterranean diet is also associated with a significantly lower risk of disease and death.
Michael Fridén of Aarhus University, who led the recent study, believes there are strong reasons to assume that traditional Nordic diets, rich in berries, unsaturated fats and fiber, are good for health. Together with Christina C. Dahm and Daniel Borch Ibsen, he wrote in The Conversation that for people in northern Europe, including the United Kingdom, this way of eating may be easier than the Mediterranean diet because many ingredients are already produced locally and are familiar. In addition, because it relies on foods grown and caught nearby, it tends to support local production and may therefore be better for the climate.
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