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I've spent some time living in Sweden and I think there's a number of important details here that are not sufficiently highlighted that can radically change how

I've spent some time living in Sweden and I think there's a number of important details here that are not sufficiently highlighted that can radically change how to interpret the results. Swedes have a tradition of eating candy once a week on Saturdays. It's incredibly common for them to not have candy all week, then go buy an assortment bag on Saturday, eat it all, and then not have any again for a week. We don't know how this affects health outcomes compared to say, having a bit of candy every day, the glycemic load profiles will be widely different and we don't know if that matters or not. Fika, a coffee break with pastries, is a very strong cultural phenomenon. The pastries Swedes have are generally of very high quality and many of them also contain a considerable amount of fat, which as we know, helps buffer glycemic load. While it's mentioned in the study in passing, I think it should instead be one of the core focus points, it's hard to assess the effect of this as opposed to plain added sugar. And lastly, Swedes are very outdoorsy people. On any day of the week, you can see people strolling on nature trails, of which there are plenty, and spending a lot of time active in general. I would not be surprised if a large part of the health outcomes we see in statistics can be attributed to variance in this. So to summarize, while these results are interesting, I think there are too many hidden influences here that are not controlled for to really generalize these results in any way.

ecmascript 2y ago
As a swede myself I agree somewhat but also I don't think what you're saying is the case anymore, even if it used to be. Today I think swedes in general consume a lot more sugar and much more in a super processed way that we used to. The culture of only eating candy on saturdays is probably alive and kicking among many children but I think isn't that strong anymore with grown ups. A lot of swedes, including myself, struggle with overweight and I think it is mostly how the food culture has changed to go from european to american inspired. It's basically impossible to find a restaurant close to a highway that doesn't serve ultra processed food that is cooked in some other kitchen far away or simply fast food where it used to be common place to have basically home cooked meals everywhere you went. Now it's mostly low quality crap food just like the USA. Also the pasteries to the fikas have changed to be more processed. Everything is made with vegetable oil instead of butter etc. Even things that are supposed to be healthy like yoghurt and similar things are filled up with thickener additives or unnecessary added sugars. Unfortunately Sweden goes along to be more and more americanized (especially food-wise) and I think it sucks. I wish Sweden would be more like the rest of europe and keep it's food culture. TL;DR: It used to be like the OP said, but it isn't anymore. It is hard to eat healthy because manufacturer keep pushing so much crap in their products and the availability of crappy food items is just insane.

ecmascript 2y ago

As a swede myself I agree somewhat but also I don't think what you're saying is the case anymore, even if it used to be. Today I think swedes in general consume a lot more sugar and much more in a super processed way that we used to. The culture of only eating candy on saturdays is probably alive and kicking among many children but I think isn't that strong anymore with grown ups. A lot of swedes, including myself, struggle with overweight and I think it is mostly how the food culture has changed to go from european to american inspired. It's basically impossible to find a restaurant close to a highway that doesn't serve ultra processed food that is cooked in some other kitchen far away or simply fast food where it used to be common place to have basically home cooked meals everywhere you went. Now it's mostly low quality crap food just like the USA. Also the pasteries to the fikas have changed to be more processed. Everything is made with vegetable oil instead of butter etc. Even things that are supposed to be healthy like yoghurt and similar things are filled up with thickener additives or unnecessary added sugars. Unfortunately Sweden goes along to be more and more americanized (especially food-wise) and I think it sucks. I wish Sweden would be more like the rest of europe and keep it's food culture. TL;DR: It used to be like the OP said, but it isn't anymore. It is hard to eat healthy because manufacturer keep pushing so much crap in their products and the availability of crappy food items is just insane.