Now it’s about climate change too – and second order constraints having little to do with nutrition.
The very first paragraph of this guideline reads:
This new edition of the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations makes a powerful link between healthy people and a healthy planet. We must work to promote and protect both. Focusing only on one could result in nutritionally inadequate diets or large environmental impacts.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization
And
The NNR impacts our food choices in very concrete ways by guiding the composition of school meals and other public meals, as well as the Swedish citizens to make healthy and sustainable food choices.
A problem with population wide recommendations is they fail to take in to account the needs of individuals, as I personally learned the hard way with vitamin B-12 deficiency.
These guidelines, like many similar guidelines, mistakenly imply that B-12 deficiency is uncommon and due to veganism or medication usage – thus, most people can ignore this, they imply:
Extensive dietary restrictions for health or ideological reasons, e.g., veganism, or use of certain medications often lead to the need for dietary supplements. For example, vitamin B12 supplementation is necessary when foods of animal origin are excluded from the diet, and folic acid supplementation is necessary with medication with properties of folate antagonism.
Their food tables have this to say about red meat:
High environmental impact. The high consumption of red meat is the most important contributor to GHG emissions from the diet in the Nordic and Baltic countries. Negative environmental impact is related to methane emissions from ruminants, and feed which contribute through fertilizer, pesticide, water and land use and thereby reduced biodiversity. Positive environmental impact may be related to grazing and biodiversity. GHG emission from pigs is lower than ruminants but there are environmental issues related to the feed production and manure management.
Ruminants produce methane merely by existing – it comes from their digestive system. To reduce methane from ruminants, we need to kill off most of the ruminant populations.
Their goal is to largely ban “red meat” products:
For health reasons, it is recommended that consumption of red meat from cattle, sheep, goats and pigs (including red meat in products and processed foods) should be low and not exceed 350 grams/week ready-to-eat (cooked) weight. Processed red meat should be as low as possible. For environmental reasons the consumption of red meat should be considerably lower than 350 grams/week (ready-to-eat weight). The choice of meat should comply with the recommendations for fatty acids. The reduction of red meat consumption should not result in an increase in white meat consumption. To minimize environmental impact, meat consumption should be replaced by increased consumption of plant foods, such as legumes and fish from sustainably managed stocks.
Their goal is to Make Vitamin B-12 Deficiency Great Again. Note the second part on red meat, above is “for environmental reasons” not your health.
Pet dogs and cats consume 20 to 30% of most country’s meat supply. Thus, it is necessary to eventually ban pet dogs and cats, as several academic groups have recommended.
Their goal is to end all meat consumption:
It is recommended that consumption of processed white meat should be as low as possible. To minimize environmental impact, consumption of white meat should not be increased from current levels, and may be lower. Instead, meat consumption should be replaced by increased consumption of plant foods, such as legumes and fish from sustainably managed stocks.
Yet they also note that meat is the source of B-12:
Dietary sources and intake. Vitamin B12 is a water-soluble vitamin that is naturally present in animal-based foods. Main sources in Nordic and Baltic diets are meat, liver, dairy products, fish, and shellfish. The average vitamin B12 intake ranges from 2.9 to 8.9 µg/d (Lemming & Pitsi, 2022).
It’s not just meat either, the goal is to prohibit all dairy products including milk, cheese and ice cream:
In general, dairy, especially concentrated products such as hard cheese, is associated with high environmental impact. The high consumption of milk and dairy is an important contributor to GHG emissions from the diet in the Nordic and Baltic countries. Negative environmental impact is related to methane emissions from the enteric fermentation of ruminants. Feed contributes through fertilizer, pesticide, water and land use, and thereby reduced biodiversity. Positive environmental impact is related to grazing and biodiversity.
Their goal is to Make Vitamin B-12 Deficiency Great Again – they assume everyone can meet necessary B-12 requirements as follows, providing you track your daily food intake with a spreadsheet:
Intake of between 350 ml to 500 ml low fat milk and dairy products per day is sufficient to meet dietary requirements of calcium, iodine and vitamin B12 if combined with adequate intake of legumes, dark green vegetables and fish (varies among different species). The range depends on national fortifications programs and diets across the Nordic and Baltic countries. If consumption of milk and dairy is lower than 350 gram/day, products may be replaced with fortified plant-based alternatives or other foods.
Note – I have a genetic marker for low B-12 levels. I have a family history of low B-12 deficiency. I did not know this until recently.
I was diagnosed with B-12 deficiency in January/February 2024 – after suffering years of health problems including irregular heartbeat (missing beats), frequent migraines, scotomas and visual auras up to 10x/day, trigeminal nerve pain, “pins and needles” on upper back and neck, severe dizziness, fatigue, outbreaks of warts, non-viral hepatitis, inflammation of the gall bladder and pancreas and more. None of these food guidelines take the individual into consideration – and in fact, I became B-12 deficient because I followed their recommended dietary guidelines to become “plant-based”. I had 4 books on plant-based eating; only 1 mentioned B-12, and that in just 2 sentences on page 276 and 277 in the context of “vegan” not “plant-based” eating.
B-12 and other B vitamin deficiencies are now a known, documented cause of arterial inflammation and in the absence of other risk factors, this is considered a significant risk factor for coronary artery disease. In early 2025, I had a heart attack that nearly killed me. The only explanation is I had suffered inflammation, possibly due to the B deficiency problem and possibly associated with other injuries including 2 untreated broken feet and 3 torn tendon episodes in recent years.
The NNR, above, hides this association: “Deficiency and risk groups. The main clinical symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency is macrocytic, megaloblastic anaemia or neurologic dysfunction. Deficiency also causes increased plasma tHcy.“
tHcy refers to raised levels of homocysteine – which is a documented cause of arterial inflammation and heart attacks. That vague reference is translated by AI as follows:
Elevated levels of tHcy can be a marker for:
- Vitamin B deficiencies
- Cardiovascular risk (e.g., heart disease, stroke)
Public health’s nutrition guidelines nearly killed me because they failed to take into account the needs of individuals and failed to explain the risks of following their guidelines. B-12 deficiency is not rare – an estimated 1 in 4 people age 65 and up are B-12 deficient. Now, cut out meat from their diets – the primary source of B-12 (it comes from animals, not plants) without warning of the consequences.
Public health and nutrition science have extraordinarily poor public communication practices such that they mislead and confuse the public about important topics.
UPDATE: The media is now pushing for everyone to adopt a “Planetary Diet” – which means to primarily reduce meat consumption. A peer reviewed study found that after just 12 weeks, participants eating the Planetary Diet had significant drops in many essential nutrients – B-12 levels declined by one third. That is the realiy of merging nutrition science (which is already flakey) with climate science (which also surprisingly flaky). The experts are pushing – and in some countries in Europe, mandating – meat reduction – which will lead to eventual health problems.
