Avisa Nordland – New report on Norwegians' diet: we eat too many things



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Norwegian food continues to face four challenges. In some areas, we are far from the target.

"Norwegian food has changed a lot, but we also see some challenges.

That's what says Linda Granlund, division director of the health department, at Nettavisen. Granlund presented Tuesday the figures of the report on nutrition in Norway, the annual report of the Norwegian management on the consumption of food and the evolution of food over time.

The Norwegian regime has four main challenges. Despite the fact that in some of the four zones, improvements have been observed from year to year, there is still a little before the goal is reached and that it can be concluded that the Most Norwegians follow the recommendations of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate's recommendations on food.

1. We eat too much saturated fat

Today, 14.2% of the energy of the diet comes from saturated fatty acids. This is a slight decrease from last year when we were 14.5%.

Yet it is too high. The Norwegian Directorate of Health recommends that a maximum of 10% of the energy content of the diet be derived from saturated fatty acids and that the trans fatty acid content be limited to less than 1%. In total, the energy we receive from fat should represent between 24 and 40% of our total food consumption, but it is advisable to eat mainly unsaturated fats.

The goal is to reduce saturated fat content to 12 percent energy by 2021. Foods containing saturated fats are fatty meat products, fat dairy products (milk, cream, cheese). , butter), butter, margarine and oil.

2. We consume too much sugar

The spit goes pretty well, but the sugar consumption is still too high, says Granlund.

Between 2000 and 2017, we went from 43 to 26 kilograms of sugar per person per year. Sugar consumption has decreased by 22% in the last ten years and from 2016 to 2017 only by 4%.

The Norwegian Directorate of Health recommends limiting the intake of added sugar to less than 10% of your total energy intake. More than half of us consume more sugar than expected.

3. We eat too much salt

Today, the average salt intake is 10 grams per day for men and slightly lower for women.


The Norwegian Health Authority recommends a reduction to five grams of salt per day in the long term and six grams in the short term. For children aged 2 to 10, salt intake should be limited to 3 to 4 grams per day. However, the Ungkost 2015-16 report shows that children of all ages consume too much salt today.

70% to 80% of salt intake comes from processed foods. It is therefore possible to limit the consumption of "pure food", that is to say meals based on meat, fish, vegetables and natural carbohydrates, without sauces, powders and pre-cooked spices.

4. We eat too much meat and too little fish

"I think I stayed here to say that we should be eating more fish for many years," Granlund said, citing disturbing numbers of fish consumption among Norwegians today.

We eat even less fish. From 2016 to 2017, we reduced fish consumption by 10%. The contribution is particularly low in the youngest groups.

The Norwegian Directorate of Health recommends eating fish for dinner two to three times a week, as well as taking fish as an order. This equates to 300 to 450 grams of pure fish per week. Today, only 24% eat fish for dinner at least three times a week.

At the same time, we eat a lot of meat. Meat consumption has also been reduced by 1% compared to last year, but the arrow has been pointing upwards for a long time. While we ate 76 kilos of meat per person in 1989, we now consume 76 kilograms per year.

The consumption of red meat increased from 43 to 51 kilos from 1989 to 2016, but decreased to 50 kilos per person in 2017.

The Health Directorate recommends choosing white, clean, lean meats with little salt. In the case of red meat, it is recommended to limit consumption to a maximum of 500 grams per week. With the current consumption of 50 kilograms of red meat per person, almost half of the intake is required to follow the recommendations of the Branch.

the solutions

In order to meet the challenges of the Norwegian diet, the Norwegian Health Directorate has taken a number of steps.

"We are already working closely with the food industry and we will continue along this path, to ensure a good price and the availability of healthy food in the shops," says Granlund at Nettavisen.

It refers to the agreement of intention for a healthier diet, which is an agreement between the health authorities and the food industry. It was signed in December 2016 and expires in 2021.

– Here are different groups. One works with salt, the other with sugar and the other with saturated fats. In addition, a group is working on what we should eat more and eat less.

In addition, the Health Directorate is constantly striving to improve its communication so that Norwegians get reliable and quality information on what to include in a diet healthy.

– Playing Jøran Hjelmesæth at the Center for Disease Overweight means living in a "fat-eating society" where unhealthy food is too cheap and available, while healthy food is more expensive and less accessible. Do you agree with him about this?

– Yes I am. However, it is the political responsibility to set guidelines for unhealthy foods to become more expensive and healthy foods to become cheaper. For example, it is problematic that the consumer price index for fish has risen much more than that for meat, "says Granlund:

"At the Health Directorate, we particularly want to reach the low-education group and earn a low income because we see information that they are making more unhealthy dietary choices." So it's important to think about price and availability in the desired way having to eat

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