Finnish guidelines for nutrition Made by the students of Vesannon yhtenäiskoulun lukio

General information The Finnish guidelines for nutrition follow the Nordic recommendations for nutrition. These guidelines are provided so that people would know how to eat in a healthy and balanced way. They renewed in 2013. The guidelines are usually presented as a pyramid to make it easier to understand.

The healthy eating pyramid Picture: www.ravitsemusneuvottelukunta.fi

How to interpret the pyramid? You can read the pyramid from bottom to the top. The larger part the section takes from the pyramid, the more you can eat it. So, the bottom of the pyramid is what you should eat the most and the top consists of what you should eat the least.

First level – vegetables, berries and fruits Good food is delicious, versatile and colourful. Fruits, berries, vegetables should be eaten at least half a kilo per day, half of them should be root vegetables and vegetables, and the rest berries and fruit.

Vegetables Vegetables contain defensive nutrients, they help controlling weight and prevent diseases, such as cancer and type two diabetes. They contain folic acid and green vegetables contain vitamin K. Pulses such as beans, lentils and peas contain a lot of proteins. Potato doesn’t belong to the group of berries, fruits and vegetables. They should be eaten 2- 5 pieces a day. Potato is the most common root vegetable in Finland, yet they are still farmed in Finland. The Finnish people eat vegetables in a versatile way, but not enough to match dietary recommendation.

Berries Berries contain a lot of vitamins, fibers, antioxidants and a little good fats. They contain a lot of nutrients in relation to their size. Berries are light, low-calorie food. Berries are farmed and a large portion of them grow in the forests of Finland. You must eat more berries: they have more vitamins, minerals, micronutrients and polyphenols compared to fruits brought in from other countries. Healthy berries: lingonberry, blueberry, crowberry, cloudberry, sea-buckthorn, cranberry and raspberry

Fruits There are a lot of vitamins A, B, C and E, carotenes, fibers, enzymes, minerals like iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium and manganese in fruits. Most of the fruits eaten in Finland come from foreign countries. Apple is the only Finnish fruit that is commercially significant. Pear, plum and cherry are farmed in Southern Finland but their commercial significance is small. You can buy fruits from stores all year around. Fruits, berries and vegetables lack cholesterol, and so they prevent cardiovascular diseases.

Second level – wholegrain products and potato Grains Grains that are grown in Finland are wheat, barley, rye and oats. The most healthy ones are rye, barley and oats. You should prefer wholegrain products from all the grain products. You should eat 6-9 portions of grain products per day. One portion means one desilitre of wholegrain pasta or rice, for instance, but one plateful of porridge is two portions.

Grains According to the plate model, a quarter of the plate should be some grain product, rice or wholegrain pasta for example. You get fibre, B-group vitamins and some minerals from grains. You also get good energy, some proteins and plenty of carbohydrates which make you feel full. Grain products should be a part of every meal. The best fibre source is bread. You should eat bread with almost every meal, some low-salt bread like rye bread, for instance. According to Finnish nutrition recommendation you should eat 6-9 slices of bread per day. Fibre helps to keep blood sugar stable. Low-fibre food, too little exercise and stress lead to constipation.

Potato Potato is the most common root vegetable in Finland and it is commonly grown in Finland. Potatoes don't have any significant effects on health – no good nor bad ones. It includes many useful nutrients like minerals, carbs, starch and vitamin C which enhances your immune system so it keeps flu away and also takes care of your teeth, bones and digestion. Current use of potato (from 2 to 5 potatoes per day) is good. According to the plate model, a quarter of the meal should be potato in some form.

Third level – vegetable fats and milk products The third level consists of both vegetable oils in different forms and different kinds of milk products.

Milk products Milk products are good sources of calcium, iodine and many vitamins, especially vitamin D. You can get enough calcium in 5-6 glasses of milk and 2-3 slices daily. However, 2/3 of fat in milk is hard and therefore, you should favor non-fat or low-fat milk products. The cheese should be low-fat (17%), and other milk products low-fat (1%) Liquid milk products can be replaced by vegetal calcium and vitamin D.

Milk products In Finland we drink milk more than average. This is due to the structure of Finnish farming industry, nutrition recommendations and the fact that lactose intolerance is less common in Finland than in the world in general. Milk that Finnish adults favor contains quite a lot of hard fats, and its use is recommended to be reduced.

Fats An adult needs 60-80g fat in one day depending on age and sex. Fat is an important energy source but it needs to be good fat. In Finnish nutrition recommendations the amount of the fats is controlled with low-fat foods. Low-fat milk, cheese, meat and many other foodstuffs have become common. Even if the product is low-fat, it can still contain bad fats. Also margarine which is used with bread is now usually vegetable fat. These don’t contain bad trans-fats.

Fats People get lots of vitamins A, B, E and K from fats and oils. Finnish people need a lot of vitamin D in their diet because the sun's light is low here. Supervising the share of hard and soft fats plays an important role in Finnish health recommendations. Yet, cardiovascular diseases are still national chronic disease. Cardiovascular diseases have been a big and difficult health problem in Finland for a long time. Original Finnish food culture is mixed with convenience food and therefor we eat easily too much fats and salt. People have opened their eyes thanks to organizations and health enlightenment, but still every year thousands die of heart diseases.

Fourth level – Fish and poultry The fourth level consists of fish and poultry.

Fish Eat different fishes 2-3 times in a week. Especially all kinds of salmon, Baltic herrings and vendaces are good fishes to eat because there is lot of good fat within them. 60% of D-vitamin in our food comes from fish. You also get iodine and selenium from fish. Fish contains polyunsaturated fat which prevents the risk to get cardiovascular diseases.

Poultry Poultry contains higher quality fat than red meat. It also has a lower fat content. In addition, poultry meat is cheaper than red meat.

Fifth level – red meat, meat products and eggs Meat products and red meat shouldn't be used more than 500 grams per week. You should eat 2 to 3 eggs per week. Meat and eggs are good sources of protein. Meat contains a lot of easily absorbing iron. If you eat red meat it should have low fat content and meat products should have minimal amount of salts. Usage recommendations of red meat have been reduced because too much red meat adds the risk of getting a cancer.

Sixth level – the things you can eat only a little The top of the pyramid contains for example sweets, sausages and white wheat. They are recommended to be eaten between meals and snacks only a few times a week. Excessive eating of small snacks causes fatness, cavities in teeth and vitamin loss.

Sources of information www.ravitsemusneuvottelukunta.fi www.pronutritionist.net www.hedelmiäovelle.fi www.sydanliitto.fi www.kasvikset.fi www.artic-flavours.fi

Sources of information www.sydanliitto.fi www.terveyskirjasto.fi www.thl.fi/web/kansantaudit/sydan-ja-verisuonitaudit www.thl.fi/web/kansantaudit www.maitojaterveys.fi/www/fi/tiedotteet/index.php?we_objectID=629 The pictures are from Flickr, under the Creative Commons license.