Nutritional and Health Aspects of Food in Nordic Countries

Sweden

Introduction

Huub Lelieveld , Global Harmonization Initiative (GHI), Vienna, Austria

Following the publication of the book Regulating Safety of Traditional and Ethnic Foods, published in 2016 (Prakash et al., 2016), the editors were asked why they had not included the nutritional and health aspects of such foods, because little is known about them, despite much interest. Today scientists and many others, in particular those who travel to far-away countries, are interested to know about these aspects.

Nutrition is a globally active and far-reaching area of scientific research. It begins with local geography, history, culture, resources, and genetics and goes all the way through to the development of food and beverage products and their nutritional benefits to individual consumers and communities. With the world having turned into what seems like one big village, interest in traditional and ethnic foods is on the rise, as are the claims about their nutritional values and health-promoting effects. Today, traditional foods often are produced in a way that deviates from methods used long ago, when unknowingly microbes were exploited to make healthy and nutritious food products. In principle, there is much knowledge about traditional and ethnic foods, but it is scattered around the world and in the minds and sometimes just notes of many people. It may have been published in an infinite number of journals, magazines and books. This knowledge often is hard to retrieve if retrievable at all. Much of it may disappear if not captured in time. The editors had the difficult task of identifying authors capable of doing what was needed, collecting and summarizing scattered information.

For a long time, food traditions were seen as based on beliefs without evidence of any of the supposed or believed nutritional and health aspects. It was widely recommended to trust only information that has been carefully checked scientifically by modern methods, preferably in the Western world. The vast experience and knowledge of many populations that for often very good reasons adjusted to certain diets has been largely ignored. Only in the past decade has there been serious research to find out about the claims made. Scientists started to investigate these claims and beliefs based on the composition of the foods used and the way they were traditionally prepared. Responding to the requests, it was decided to try to capture information about traditional and ethnic foods from all countries in the world. The intention was to cover in each country information such as the history and rationale of eating habits. That information is important to understand, for example, why some foods are only suitable for some people but not for others, as is the case with cow’s milk. Large populations lack β-galactosidase and hence cannot digest such milk. Other aspects to be covered are common nutrition and health issues; the abundance or scarcity of certain types of food, which also depend on the season and include preservation strategies; environmental sustainability issues; and regulatory issues and proposals to harmonize regulations.

The initial idea had been to produce a single volume, similar to the book on food safety, and the publisher expected a book of ~ 250 pages. After discussing the coverage and the fact that there would be huge differences between and even within countries and regions, the proposed size of the book grew to 500 pages. Following more discussions, the idea grew to publish a series that would do justice to all cultures in the world. The final plan turned out to require 26 volumes of about 300 pages each. Therefore instead of a single book, the subject became a series of 26 books, of which this is the very first volume.

Reference

Prakash V., Martin-Belloso O., Keener L., Astley S., Braun S., McMahon H., et al. Regulating safety of traditional and ethnic foods. Waltham/Oxford: Academic Press/Elsevier; 2016.978-0-12-800605-4.

Chapter 1

Health and Nutritional Perspectives on Nordic Food Traditions—An Approach Through Food Culture and History

Virginie Amilien⁎; Henry Notaker†    ⁎ Research Professor, Consumption Research Norway (SIFO), Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway

† Food Historian, Independent Researcher, Author of Studies on Food History and Culture, Oslo, Norway

Abstract

This chapter proposes a cultural historical analysis of the nutritional and health aspects of traditional and ethnic foods in Nordic countries. Using a food cultural perspective permits to emphasize the contextual frame and to better understand food uses and identities. After an introductory section about the various elements of Nordic food culture and traditions, we intend to delimit the study by explaining what food culture and traditions mean and by giving a general overview about Nordic dietetic and nutritional policy. A second part will focus on concrete chosen food products, such as dairy products, corn and cereals, fruits and vegetables, or meat and fish, thus systematically presenting a historical view. A third part will eventually consider the roles of situation and context in order to emphasize evolution and changes, while a fourth part concentrates on current Nordic food culture through the New Nordic Food movement and Nordic nutritional policy.

Keywords

Food culture; Nordic food; Food history; Food policy; Food traditions

Acknowledgment

We would like to thank our colleagues Atle Wehn Hegnes and Gun Roos for enriching discussions and providing advice.

1.1 Introduction

Considering food culture and traditional products as part of nutritional policy is not only extremely interesting and enriching, but is also pertinent in a period of global renaissance for Nordic food.

On the one hand, there is a lack of cultural perspective and reflections in EU-initiatives carried out within the framework of health promotion and obesity prevention (Hedegaard, 2016, p. 537). Hedegaard claims the necessity of studying food culture and especially the link between place, time, and identity and its impact on obesity rates. On the other hand, discussing food culture and traditions in Nordic countries has become fashionable. This recent interest is well illustrated by a nice book signed by Chef Nilsson promoting traditional products, ancient techniques and local know-how, and Nordic food culture (Nilsson, 2015).

In our cultural historical analysis, we will take a closer look at the nutritional and health aspects of traditional and ethnic foods in Nordic countries from a food cultural perspective; the aim is to better understand the link between food, culture, nutrition policy, health dimension, and identity in Nordic countries. After an introductory section about the various elements of Nordic food culture and traditions, we intend to delimit the study by explaining what food culture means and by giving a general overview about Nordic dietetic and nutritional policy. In the second part, we will then focus on concrete selected food products, such as dairy products, corn and cereals, fruits and vegetables, or meat and fish, thus systematically presenting a historical view to better understand today's cultural significance of these foods. A third part will eventually consider the roles of situation and context in order to emphasize evolution and changes. The final part will concentrate on current Nordic food culture through the New Nordic food movement and Nordic nutritional policy.

1.2 Overview and Definitions

A Nordic approach

Nordic countries are home to more than 25 million inhabitants and cover an area of more than 3.5 million km² (Greenland alone constitutes about half that area). The countries share common values and belongings but have different landscapes, climates, and ways of living.

The political history of the area during the last 500 years has been dominated by two great powers, the kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark. Finland was part of Sweden until 1809 and was part of the Russian empire until it became an independent republic in the early 20th century. Norway lost its independence by the end of the Middle Ages and became part of the Danish kingdom until 1814. This was followed by a union with Sweden until 1905, when it became an independent kingdom. Iceland became an independent republic by the end of World War II after centuries under Danish rule. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have a statute as autonomous regions; all the states are parliamentary democracies. During the Reformation in the 16th century the governments changed the official religion from Catholicism to Lutheranism, which is still the dominant religion in these increasingly secular societies. There are also important religious minorities, some of them as a result of immigration in the last decades.

The natural conditions of the area are very diverse, with mountains, valleys, fjords, and lakes in the North and plains and heaths in the South; forests are primarily found in the Northern parts, except in Iceland. The area has a continental climate with cold winters and warm summers, but the Western coasts have a climate influenced by the relatively warm waters of the Gulf Stream. As a food-exporting country, Denmark has the highest percentage of arable land, while a main food export from Norway is fish.

Even before the Middle ages, cultural and commercial contacts were strong across the Gulf of Bothnia, between Sweden and Finland, across Öresund and the Baltic Sea between the south of Sweden and Denmark, and across the North Sea between Norway and Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Scotland, England, and the Netherlands. However, the Nordic countries had limited contact with the German states even after the Hansa period had lost most of its power. Today the area is economically and commercially linked to the European Union, with Denmark, Sweden, and Finland as member states.

1.2.1 Tradition and traditional food

¹

Traditional food is a quite recent term in Nordic countries, where food ethnologists mostly used concepts like old or ancient in discussing food habits from previous generations up to World War II. As written by Handler and Linnekin (Handler & Linnekin, 1984, p. 273), In its common-sense meaning, tradition refers to an inherited body of custom and beliefs, also described as a social construction of traditions. The concept of tradition is often used in a static way, although tradition is always changing. In other words the bottom line in the tradition is not the reference to the past but rather the expression of its link to the present. Traditional foods are then chosen and defined in relation to what is important for us today. As Pouillon stated, A tradition is defined by looking from now to the future, and not the opposite, (Pouillon, 1975, p. 160). In a previous study based on both a theoretical and an empirical approach of the concept of traditional food in reflexive modernity, we observed that the concept of traditional food, as it is used today in Nordic countries, was based on four main pillars: time, know-how, place, and meaning. The axes of time and know-how are interwoven in a meaning dimension, which links time and culture, as well as a place dimension, which links geographical boundaries and local identity (Amilien & Hegnes, 2013). In other words, traditional food is a term used for both preserving older values and renewing a sense of identity. The interest for traditional foods recently evolved towards localized food and terroir (Amilien, 2011, 2012) or cultural heritage, which basically cover the same understanding of food in the past and present with an even greater focus respectively on place, know-how and on identity.

Traditional and traditional food are currently concepts used in everyday life for political or scientific purposes. Traditional food is often defined either through a product approach, where foodstuff or conservation methods are at stake, or through a constructionist approach including sociocultural and political perspective of food culture. It has been an important part of the European agricultural policy since the beginning of our century as underlined in an overview article about traditional food (Guerrero et al., 2009), which provides a useful example of the complex mixture created by collective effort and product positioning. The challenge is to have an active relationship with tradition. According to the Italian historian Massimo Montanari, food culture takes place where tradition and innovation intersect. Tradition, as well as innovation, builds on know-how, techniques, and values, which are handed down through the generations. Hence tradition for Montanari is a very successful innovation, and culture is the interface between these two perspectives (Montanari, 2006, p. 6). Although this duality or embeddedness between tradition and innovation is a major pillar, it seems that the Nordic perspective of food culture gives a larger understanding of food that spans practices, structure, norms, consumption, and situations, all while taking into account the context in which this culture evolves and is transformed, including change, tradition, and innovation.

1.2.2 A food culture approach

Food culture is a significant concept in Nordic countries, where the first professorial chair in food culture was created in Finland in 2012.² The concept of food culture is still not currently used in food studies,³ although it has been used in Nordic food studies since the mid-1980s.⁴

Basically, the notion builds on the words food and culture, where food not only refers to the tangible product people use (e.g., gathered, picked, collected, made, produced, transported, processed, given, exchanged, sold, cooked, eaten, spoiled, and thrown away) but also to the social context and situation. Culture mainly brings up the two complementary dimensions of individual and collective ethical and aesthetic knowledge, bearing or constructing social values and references for a group of people. Food culture therefore offers a comprehensive conception including the uses, traditions, practices, artifacts, structure, norms, situations, and symbols, as well as the context and the environment in which food is formed, evolving, becoming and being.

The Norwegian anthropologist Marianne Lien stated, The culture of food refers to the sum of the knowledge and the experiences of a given group…and takes into account at the same time standards, values and representations of the food, as well as foods and real dishes (Lien, 1995, p. 74). The American ethnologist Lucy Long defines food culture as the practices, attitudes, and beliefs as well as the networks and institutions surrounding the production, distribution, and consumption of food (Long, 2015). According to Hegnes, the diet culture allows us to understand continually changing processes in a global way with an emphasis on adapting to meaning and sociability, including the materiality of the act of eating (Hegnes, 2013, pp. 16–17).

This holistic approach was further developed in a collective book (Amilien & Krogh, 2007), especially underlining the entirety of the scientific vision proposed by the culture of food. Food culture rests on a tripartite structure based on complementary and nondissociable perspectives. The first aspect covers traditional recipes and know-how, passed from generation to generation, which form the core of a collective identity based on a historical and often nostalgic vision of food. The second perspective concerns the practices and consumption habits based on identity, protocol, and appropriation including both material and immaterial elements. The third vision conceives the culture of food as an integral part of culture. As the ethnologists Anne Eriksen and Tone Selberg put it: Knowledge of which cultural forms can be used in which social situations constitutes a part of our food culture competency (Eriksen & Selberg, 2006, p. 18). The perspective emphasizes a combination of values that are synchronic and diachronic, static by their structures and dynamic by their changes, whose eating habits constitute a central reference point. These three perceptions of the culture of food have meaning only in relation to one another. Each one is fundamental and all are complementary, thus providing a total vision of eating habits.

To sum up, food culture is here understood as a set of values with three complementary dimensions: (1) they are continually evolving, (2) members of a society are particularly aware of them, and (3) they function as a platform for building their identities.

1.3 Elements of Nordic Food Culture and Nordic Culinary Traditions

People consumed what they had available, the Norwegian ethnologist Hilmas Stigum stated in a study of national food traditions, and he pointed out that the old diet was based on the harvest of the year (Ambjørnrud, Børke, Jansen, & Moe, 1965, p. 9). In the culinary field, we have a tendency to believe that special local and regional traditions develop as a result of local accessible resources, which is only one possible translation of you use what you have (referring here to an old Nordic quote often associated to the famous Swedish cookbook author Casja Warg (1703–1769)). On the one hand, natural environment definitively shapes a frame around what we eat, and this explains the differences between coastal or mountain diets in the same region, for example. Some of these Nordic traditions lived on in a more or less modified form until the 19th century.

On the other hand, beliefs and symbolic boundaries reveal taboos and forbidden food,⁵ which emphasize the fact that culinary traditions are not built exclusively on the local natural environment; influences can also come from other countries or cultures. In Nordic countries, it is easy to detect inspirations as well as influence from the British Isles and the Continent, even if this was limited to the elites (e.g., aristocracy, higher civil servants, landowners and wealthy merchants) and certain members of society in towns and ports in direct commercial contact with foreigners. One example was the import of luxury goods, Mediterranean fruit, Far Eastern spices, German beer, French and Spanish wines, and finally coffee, tea, and chocolate. The influence from abroad was also visible in literature. The first printed cookbooks from 1616 (Denmark) and 1650 (Sweden) were based on translated German recipes, and they were followed by books translated from French and English (Notaker, 2010). Another example is the culinary terminology, which is based on French, a phenomenon found in most European countries. French terms, such as ragoût, fricassée, bouillon, hachis, sauce, soupe, compôte, côtelette, and gratin and verbs such as blanchir, mariner, paner, sauter, braiser, and pocher were adapted to foreign languages with small orthographic changes (Notaker, 2017, pp. 74, 125). By the end of the 19th century cookbooks published for the elite in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway presented the dishes with both the French and the national names (Hagdahl, 1879; Nimb, 1888; Schulze, 1895). Several authors explicitly praised the French cuisine as something lighter and healthier than their own (Hagdahl, 1879, preface; Blom, 1888, preface).

Many of the foreign food traditions adopted by the elite were spread to the greater part of the population during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when fundamental changes in demography, industry, commerce, education, and politics transformed the Scandinavian societies. One technological innovation led to great changes in food preparation: the cast-iron stove (Blæsild, 2009). Another change relevant to this study was a greater consciousness of nutrition in a national health perspective. Since the late 18th century, discussions and research by chemical scientists have led to a better understanding of food substances and how they were absorbed and digested in the human body (Kildebæk Nielsen, 2010). Information about nutrition entered the curricula in institutions for household education; for example, culinary teaching for girls in elementary schools, culinary courses for women (Household Schools), and colleges of domestic economy and culinary science. This was introduced in cookbooks through special prefaces written by doctors and chemistry professors.

A selection of relevant details about the development of various groups of food products until the early/mid-20th century is presented in the following paragraphs (For details, see Notaker, 2009).

Nevertheless, food culture and gastronomic traditions have not been a central part of the Nordic countries’ identity until the last 20 years, when interest increased in the Nordic cultures of food in culinary circles and public discourses and, consequently, in scientific studies. The turn of the 20th century marked a significant change in how Nordic food cultures have been represented globally, especially due to the New Nordic Food program reconstructing the idea of a Nordic uniformity. But before taking a closer look at this political perspective, let us have an overview of nutrition policy in Nordic countries.

1.4 Dietetic and Nutritional Policy

Dietetics and health are central issues in Nordic food cultures. In some countries like Norway, health may be considered the most fundamental dimension of food culture; that is to mean a perception of food in which both normative discourses and everyday life practices are constantly interwoven. State regulations and public discourses from media and stakeholders on nutrition and health are the pillars of a strong nutrition policy.

Inspired by the Esping-Andersen’s model, Borch and Roos affirmed that in social-democratic regimes, such as the Nordic countries, responsibility tends to be placed on governments.⁶ They note that the key features for socioeconomic integration in Nordic countries are based on social rights, equality, and universal social benefits (see Figure 1.1, emphasizing the Nordic specificity compared to other EU countries).

Figure 1.1 Overview of Five Socioeconomic Models in Europe. Borrowed from Borch & Roos (2012), with author and editor authorization.

Even if there are differences among the Nordic countries, contemporary policies are often developed in collaboration with stakeholders and relevant institutions in such a way that make it possible to speak of an overall Nordic nutrition policy, even if specific governmental measures and guidelines may vary. The Nordic countries have for several decades collaborated in setting guidelines for dietary composition and recommended intakes of nutrients.⁷

In an excellent overview of nutrition policy in Nordic countries, Kjærnes and Roos identify three phases mixing nutrition and welfare in a diachronic perspective. The authors state that Nordic nutrition policies evolved from a food supply approach to a public health view, arriving at a policy where individual responsibility is central. They note that A key issue with regard to nutrition is the social division of responsibility, not only in the relationship between states and markets, but also between states and individuals, in our case people as buyers and eaters of food (Kjærnes & Roos, 2012, p. 47).

In the mid-18th century, several Danish publications were focusing on healthy food (e.g., see Mellemgaard about J.C. Tode in Copenhagen). Part of the movement could almost be considered as early nutrition policy, as shown by Kildebeak Nielsen's study of medical discourses on nutrition in Denmark in the 1800s. As emphasized by Kjærnes and Roos, we can say that during World War II the development of the science of nutrition was an important part of public policies aiming at helping poor people improve their diets (e.g., by focusing on vitamins and healthy foods) and personal hygiene. Educational campaigns and propaganda were introduced, and the authors note, Towards the end of the 1930s nutrition policies and institutions were established in all the Nordic countries, mainly in the form of advisory and planning bodies (Kjærnes & Roos, 2012, p. 49). In a doctoral thesis about vitamins, Lyngø describes the implementation of the Oslo breakfast (free school meal) or milk propaganda (supported by the dairy industry) aiming to support and educate poor families and undernourished children (Lyngø, 2003). Kjærnes and Roos conclude that during this first step, governmental agencies supported by markets or food producers developed a nutrition policy based on national food supply and welfare.

The second step/period was stimulated by an increase of coronary heart disease that Nordic researchers associated with fat intake. Policy recommendations were then evolving from a focus on undernourishment to a focus on unhealthy nutrition, especially because of too high quantities of fat in everyday diets (Meltzer & Nordhagen, 2007). National nutrition policies were developed, from simple information campaigns during the 1970s to dietary guidelines in the 1980s, often including governmental interventions in markets (Meltzer & Nordhagen, 2007, p. 54). The third step/period that emerged during the 1980s focused on individual choices and responsibilities and was strongly marked by such problems as overweightness and obesity. Although the rise of obesity is not a specific Nordic problem but a global one (Oddy, Atkins, & Amilien, 2009), Nordic countries were very active early on in recommending and encouraging exercise and healthy diets. Much of the dietary policy included communication to the consumer, through either leaflets or labels providing the consumer with better food choices, but often without recognizing social inequalities and cultural attitudes as causes to overweightness and obesity. The contemporary Nordic nutrition policy, where the state progressively imposes dietary and health responsibilities on the individual level, is taking a more European approach than during the two previous steps. This is actually quite problematic, as several studies underline the sociocultural inequalities in nutritional aspects of food habits (Roos, Prättälä, Lahelma, Kleemola, & Pietinen, 1996), particularly with regard to overweightness and obesity.

Nordic nutrition policy, born in a period of extreme poverty, was originally based on price and market regulation, as well as on education and control. Health policy regulation structures had a strong and direct impact on food culture; for example, in reducing excess fat consumption. In their article on Public Private Partnerships fighting obesity Borch and Roos conclude that Policy of obesity and policy of food culture seem to make up two distinct discursive spheres by belonging to the health and cultural sectors, respectively, although there is obviously a close relationship between obesity and (food) culture. (Borch & Roos, 2012, par. 36).

1.5 About Foodstuffs: A Nordic Overview of Traditional Food

1.5.1 Dairy products

Milk consumption in Nordic countries today is very high, with Sweden and Finland highest among the world's nations. This is nothing new. Milk has been important since the Middle Ages onward in the whole region, but particularly in the Northern region (Iceland, Norway, and the north of Sweden). The difference between milk- and butter-based cultures in the North and oil cultures in the Southern part of Europe was a common stereotype already during the Middle Ages (Flandrin & Montanari, 1996). The natural condition for growing cereals was less friendly in Northern Scandinavia than on the plains of Denmark and Southern Sweden, but cattle, sheep, and goats were kept on most farms. The great problem, however, was that the summers and grazing periods were rather short, which made it necessary to preserve food during the winter. These areas were consequently more dependent on a storage culture than most other mountainous parts of Europe.

Milk was difficult to preserve fresh, so it was mostly consumed as sour. Sour milk, skýr, is known from medieval literature and is still known under this name in Iceland, even if it is now made differently (Gísladóttir, 1999, pp. 67 f; Olsson, 1958, pp. 146