Nordic diet proves to be as healthy as Mediterranean

London: Olive oil, vegetables, citrus fruit and unrefined cereals may be about to be replaced on shopping lists by rapeseed oil, elk, cowberries and cloudberries.

The Mediterranean diet - one of the leading eating plans for the past 20 years - is facing competition from the Nordic diet, which, scientists say, could be significantly healthier.

The findings have generated excitement among nutrition experts as the British climate is more suited to producing the foods found in Scandinavia than those of the Mediterranean.

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen, in Denmark, have set up a £12.2 million (Dh 62.5 million) project aimed at identifying and testing products from the region that can fit into the new Nordic diet.

"The plan is to develop a counterpart to the Mediterranean diet that is superior in terms of health effects and palatability," said Professor Arne Astrup, president of the International Association for the Study of Obesity at Copenhagen University.