Different regional foods, the same underlying whole-food logic.
The Nordic diet is essentially the Mediterranean diet's cold-climate cousin — built around what actually grows and swims in Scandinavia rather than the Mediterranean basin, but resting on similar underlying principles.
| Dimension | Nordic Diet | THE FAD |
|---|---|---|
| Core foods | Rye, oats, berries, root vegetables, rapeseed oil, fatty fish (salmon, herring, mackerel) | No required foods — but these categories score well on THE FAD regardless |
| Origin | Developed by Nordic researchers as a regional alternative to the Mediterranean diet | Not diet-specific — designed to score any regional eating pattern |
| Evidence base | Randomised controlled trials have shown improvements in cholesterol and inflammatory markers | Draws on this and similar whole-food research for its Food signal |
Rye and oats bring fibre, rapeseed (canola) oil brings a favourable fat profile, and oily cold-water fish bring omega-3s — the same categories THE FAD's Food signal already rewards, just sourced regionally.
Nordic and Mediterranean eating look different on a plate but score similarly well for the same underlying reasons: whole grains, fish, plants and minimally processed food, wherever they're grown.
The best way to understand the difference is to see what a real day scores.
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