Published on September 16, 2026 in The American Journal of Clinical Nutritionthis work followed over 24 years invites us to distinguish the possible benefits of a balanced diet from the sometimes excessive promises of protection against liver diseases.
A simple plate that could promote longevity
A bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, seasonal vegetables for lunch, lentils for dinner: the Nordic diet requires neither rare ingredients nor a radical change in habits.
Inspired by Scandinavian food traditions, it favors plants, fruits and berries, legumes, whole grains, nuts and fish. He recommends limiting red meat, processed meats, alcohol and highly processed foods.
But can this diet really help us live longer? To find out, researchers analyzed the health data of more than 64,000 Swedish adults over a period of 24 years.
More than 64,000 adults followed for 24 years: encouraging results
Led by Michael Fridén of Aarhus University, Denmark, the team leveraged two Swedish cohorts. The participants had provided information on their eating habits three times, notably in 1997, in 2008-2009 and in 2019. This information was cross-referenced with medical registers and mortality data.
The researchers used a method called target test emulation : they modeled what could have happened if participants had followed different diets. It was therefore not a clinical trial with random distribution, but an observational analysis which does not, on its own, make it possible to prove a cause and effect link.
The most encouraging result concerns general mortality. Over 24 years, the healthy Nordic diet was associated with an estimated reduction of 2.67 percentage points in the absolute risk of death, compared to modeled usual dietary habits.
A positive signal, therefore, but not a promise of individual longevity: this figure does not mean that everyone will live longer nor that a precise number of years of life can be gained thanks to this diet.
To protect the liver, evidence remains insufficient
This is where the results become more nuanced. The study does not demonstrate a statistically significant reduction in the risk of serious liver complications, such as cirrhosis or liver cancer.
Over the period studied, the modeled risk was 0.53% with the healthy Nordic dietcompared to 0.70% with regional dietary recommendations and 0.64% without changing usual habits. Despite these numerical differences, researchers cannot conclude that there is an established protective benefit.
In their publication, they write: “The results of our primary analysis do not provide strong support for the use of Nordic diets to prevent advanced liver disease.”.
This distinction is essential: a diet can improve certain health markers without necessarily reducing, in the long term, the risk of serious illness. The results therefore do not allow the Nordic diet to be presented as a solution for “detoxifying” the liver.
Adopt the Nordic diet, yes, but without believing in miracles
Add vegetables and legumes to your meals, favor whole grains, eat nuts and eat fish according to your habits: these simple changes allow you to get closer to the Nordic model without disrupting your daily life.
The study reinforces the interest of this approach for overall health, but its results still need to be confirmed in other populations. And for people with liver disease, a balanced diet does not replace either medical monitoring or appropriate treatment.
The real lesson lies elsewhere: eating better can be a beneficial choice, without constituting a guarantee against illness. For longevity, the results are encouraging. For the protection of the liver, science has not yet decided.