Consumption of predefined `Nordic' dietary items in ten European
countries - an investigation in the European Prospective Investigation
into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort
Objective: Health-beneficial effects of adhering to a healthy Nordic
diet index have been suggested. However, it has not been examined to
what extent the included dietary components are exclusively related to
the Nordic countries or if they are part of other European diets as
well, suggesting a broader preventive potential. The present study
describes the intake of seven a priori defined healthy food items
(apples/pears, berries, cabbages, dark bread, shellfish, fish and root
vegetables) across ten countries participating in the European
Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) and examines
their consumption across Europe.
Design: Cross-sectional study. A 24 h dietary recall was administered
through a software program containing country-specific recipes.
Sex-specific mean food intake was calculated for each centre/country, as
well as percentage of overall food groups consumed as healthy Nordic
food items. All analyses were weighted by day and season of data
collection.
Setting: Multi-centre, European study.
Subjects: Persons (n 36 970) aged 35-74 years, constituting a random
sample of 519 978 EPIC participants.
Results: The highest intakes of the included diet components were:
cabbages and berries in Central Europe; apples/pears in Southern Europe;
dark bread in Norway, Denmark and Greece; fish in Southern and Northern
countries; shellfish in Spain; and root vegetables in Northern and
Central Europe. Large inter-centre variation, however, existed in some
countries.
Conclusions: Dark bread, root vegetables and fish are strongly related
to a Nordic dietary tradition. Apples/pears, berries, cabbages, fish,
shellfish and root vegetables are broadly consumed in Europe, and may
thus be included in regional public health campaigns
