Effects of a healthy Nordic diet on weight maintenance and cardiometabolic risk in subjects with obesity

There is a need to identify evidenced-based obesity treatments that are effective in maintaining lost weight. The Nordic nutrition recommendations aim a healthier life with a reduced risk of metabolic diseases. Moreover, the need to prevent the metabolic syndrome is very high since its prevalence is increasing in an alarming way. Body weight loss together with increased physical activity is the primary treatment. Many regimens for weight loss have been proposed and several of them have focussed on unusual food habits and short-term treatment. An important issue of major public health significance is to establish diets that could effectively prevent weight regain in the long-term after a weight reduction.
This project examines whether long-term consumption of healthy Nordic foods can maintain a healthy weight also after weight loss, and thereby decrease abdominal fat accumulation and cardiometabolic risk. This randomised controlled study aims to achieve a substantial body weight loss in the first 2 months by a standardized low caloric dietary formula. The following 2 years will be a body weight-maintenance period and subjects will be randomised to a healthy Nordic diet group and a control diet group.
Primary endpoints will be changes in sagittal abdominal diameter and body weight. Secondary endpoints will include insulin sensitivity, blood lipids, blood pressure, markers of kidney, liver and endothelial function, and inflammation markers. Future metabolomic analyses will be made according to established techniques.
The project will provide new knowledge about the importance of a change in diet on abdominal obesity and cardiometabolic risk factors. If the achieved clinical effects are successful, this will provide important health economic incentives and lead to greater public attention on the preventive effects of diet and physical activity.