Nordic Eating Habits May Hold the Secret to Longer, Healthier Lives

A large Swedish study shows that closely following the new Nordic dietary guidelines may reduce premature death while also supporting environmental sustainability. Using data from over 76,000 Swedish adults, the researchers found lower overall mortality, as well as reduced deaths from cancer and cardiovascular disease, among those who adhered most closely to the recommendations. Credit: Shutterstock

A new study from Aarhus University shows that the updated Nordic dietary guidelines, designed to support both human and planetary health, are linked to increased longevity.

A new study from Aarhus University reports that the new Nordic dietary guidelines, which aim to support both human health and environmental well-being, are linked to a longer lifespan.

The guidelines advise reducing meat and added sugar while increasing the intake of whole grains, legumes, fish, and low-fat dairy products. These recommendations, released in 2023, were developed with attention to both nutritional needs and climate impact.

According to the Aarhus University research team, people who follow the guidelines tend to have lower mortality rates. The work was conducted by Associate Professor Christina Dahm together with PhD-Student Anne Bak Mørch.

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Not From Viking Civilization

The two Viksø helmets were found in pieces a bog in eastern Denmark in 1942. Archaeologists think they were deliberately deposited there as religious offerings. (Image credit: National Museum of Denmark)

Two spectacular bronze helmets decorated with bull-like, curved horns may have inspired the idea that more than 1,500 years later, Vikings wore bulls' horns on their helmets, although there is no evidence they ever did.

Rather, the two helmets were likely emblems of the growing power of leaders in Bronze Age Scandinavia.

In 1942, a worker cutting peat for fuel discovered the helmets — which sport "eyes" and "beaks" — in a bog near the town of Viksø (also spelled Veksø) in eastern Denmark, a few miles northwest of Copenhagen. The helmets' design suggested to some archaeologists that the artifacts originated in the Nordic Bronze Age (roughly from 1750 B.C. to 500 B.C.), but until now no firm date had been determined. The researchers of the new study used radiocarbon methods to date a plug of birch tar on one of the horn

"For many years in popular culture, people associate the Viksø helmets with the Vikings," said Helle Vandkilde, an archaeologist at Aarhus University in Denmark. "But actually, it's nonsense. The horned theme is from the Bronze Age and is traceable back to the ancient Near East."

The new research by Vandkilde and her colleagues confirms that the helmets were deposited in the bog in about 900 B.C. — almost 3,000 years ago and many centuries before the Vikings or Norse dominated the region.

That dates the helmets to the late Nordic Bronze Age, a time when archaeologists think the regular trade of metals and other items had become common throughout Europe and foreign ideas were influencing Indigenous cultures, the researchers wrote in the journal Praehistorische Zeitschrift.                  TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS, CLICK HERE...