As most of our readers probably know we have launched a very exciting and actually a state of the art wellness concept called LivNordic. Part of that concept is Nordic Food which has not been promoted as much as many other foods in different diets around the world. However Nordic Food has some great health benefits which has actually been shown in the recent scientific literature. A scientific study published in the April issue of Journal of Nutrition 2011 called “Healthy aspects of the Nordic diet are related to lower total mortality” found that traditional Nordic foods like fish, cabbages, rye bread, oatmeal, apples and pears, and root vegetables lowered mortality. Even though fish, cabbage, apples, pears and root vegetables are probably great health foods (cannot really say the same about oatmeal and rye bread though) this post will focus more on foods that you will probably taste in a LivNordic Spa & Fitness facility: berries. Another study published in the same journal, by the way, showed that three Nordic berries: blueberries/billberries, lingonberries and cloudberries have anti-cancer properties.

Many trendy first movers in the health community have jumped on the super food band wagon. Actually, the Nordic countries offers some of the most healthy super food berries in the world some of which you will be delighted to find in a LivNordic facility. Among the native Scandinavian berries are blueberries, lingonberries, cloudberries, wild strawberries, elderberries and black currants to name a few. All berries are relatively low in calories but very nutrient dense at the same time. They contain a myriad of vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and other health promoting compounds. As mentioned above, there are even anti-cancer compounds in berries. For instance, researchers from the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, California have shown that phytochemicals from blueberries inhibits the growth and metastasis of breast cancer cells. Apart from protecting from serious disease like cancer, berries also offer great skin rejuvenation due to its high antioxidant content. This will counteract any free radicals in your skin cells so that your skin will be radiant and beautiful.

Why are Nordic berries richer in nutrients than their equivalent in the southern part of Europe? Well, we pay a price for it; in colder and rainier climates the content of some important nutrients for berries are significantly higher than in a warmer and drier climates. This has also been studied by Finnish researchers for instance for cloudberries.

The world’s easiest Nordic Food Snack!
Instead of a sandwich snack or a cookie between lunch and dinner, next time take 50 grams of blueberries, 50 grams of wild raspberries and 50 grams dl of cloudberries and put in bowl. Eat and enjoy, it is so simple and yet so nutritious and very Nordic! For all nutritional folks out there; at Raison d’Etre we know to keep our fructose to no more than 15-25 grams per day but this snack will only give you approximately 6,5 grams of fructose and a little bit more than 9 grams of digestible carbohydrates but 250 mg of potassium, 32 mg of Magnesium, 35 mg of Calcium, almost 80 mg of Vitamin C as well as almost 320 micrograms of carotenoids.

/Patrick

Research references:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21346102

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20388778

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22083544

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17885012