Why study whole grains in Nordic countries?

The most striking characteristic of the Nordic diet is the fundamental position of whole grain products. Rye, oat and wheat are ingested in unrefined or partly refined form more than anywhere else in the Western World. This provides the perfect basis for investigating the health aspects of whole grains in populations with considerable variation in amount and type of whole grains ingested. Furthermore, the high-quality, population-based clinical registries in the Nordic countries provide a complete and reliable basis for registering disease occurrence and coupling with self-reported and biological data. The involved Nordic research environments already possess expertise in areas of food science, biomarker research, intervention studies, epidemiology and anthropology. The combined cohort includes a wide range of dietary and lifestyle information as well as biological material from more than 245,000 persons. HELGA will exploit these Nordic advantages to clarify and emphasize the health aspects of the whole grains.