Will our health suffer?
The Nordic diet goes more Mediterranean
Whole grain bread is being replaced by pasta, ciabatta and baguettes in the Nordic diet. Will this lead to a higher incidence of cancer?
Anne Tjønneland
A high intake of whole grain foods is perhaps the single most striking characteristic of the Nordic diet. But over the past few years inhabitants in the Nordic countries have grown increasingly enamoured of the Mediterranean diet. They eat more fruit and vegetables, but also more pasta, ciabatta and baguettes made with refined white flour. In several countries these foodstuffs have supplanted the traditional Nordic intake of whole grain foods.
"This is a regrettable development," says Anne Tjønneland, Head of Department at the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology at the Danish Cancer Society and head of the research centre "Nordic Health - Whole grain food" (HELGA). The centre is one of two new Nordic Centres of Excellence (NCoE) established by NordForsk in 2007
More important than fruit and vegetables?
Many people in the Nordic countries eat a lot of whole grain foods. (Photo: Baard Næss/NN/Samfoto)
Research, especially from the USA, indicates that wholemeal breads and other whole-grain products have extremely beneficial effects in preventing life-style illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The significance of eating whole grain foods for various types of cancer is an area about which less is known. The need for more knowledge is great, and the new centre will help to fill in some of the gaps. "We have every reason to presume that whole grain foods have an even greater preventive effect against cancer than fruit and vegetables. But before we can make recommendations we need to understand the mechanisms that make whole grains so healthy," says Ms Tjønneland. She does not discount the possibility of future awareness campaigns to encourage the population to eat more whole grain foods along the lines of current campaigns to promote increased intake of fruit and vegetables.
Nordic edge
The Nordic countries are in a unique position to study this topic. There are large numbers of people who eat a lot of whole grain foods, as well as a large group that eats extremely few such products. This is a good starting point for studying the effects of a diet with and without whole grain.
In addition there is reliable data available, for example in the form of the comprehensive Nordic health registers such as the Cancer Registry of Norway. Part of the research collaboration under the new NCoE will be based on blood tests that have already been collected from 250,000 citizens of the Nordic countries who have taken part in a larger European research project (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition, the EPIC Project). Biomarkers in the blood reveal how much whole grain and rye a person has eaten. This data will be studied in the context of any diseases that the person may have developed.
Cohesive, focused approach
The seven Nordic research groups from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, which are now working together at the HELGA Centre, were already well known to each other. But they only became a permanent and cohesive group with the establishment of the centre.
"The allocations for the centre we receive from NordForsk provide us not only with money for research, but also enable us to travel and meet each other. The result is that the research is much more focused," says Tjønneland, who is convinced that more in-depth research in this field will yield better results for Nordic researchers in the European research arena in the years to come.
Nordic Centre of Excellence (NCoE) schemeThe NCoEs are networks of prominent Nordic research groups created for the purposes of collaboration, researcher education and exchange. These networks focus on areas where collaboration is expected to lead to better results. NordForsk provides one-third of the financing for the networks and the remaining two thirds comes from the participating countries. Five NCoE programmes, with a total of 16 virtual research centres, are currently up and running. |
- Published:
- 22.09.2008
- Last updated:
- 24.09.2008
