Finnish Adults Fall Short on Plant Foods, Exceed Meat and Dairy Targets

A study of 1,655 Finnish adults has exposed a significant gap between what people actually eat and what nutrition scientists say they should. Researchers analyzing dietary data from 2017 found that most Finns fall well short on plant-based foods while consuming far too much red meat, processed meat, and dairy products. The findings, published in Food & Nutrition Research, used the quantitative targets from the 2023 Nordic Nutrition Recommendations—guidelines that for the first time explicitly factored in environmental sustainability alongside human health.

The study drew on detailed dietary records collected through the FinDiet 2017 survey, where trained interviewers conducted two separate 24-hour dietary recalls with each participant. Researchers then sorted the foods into groups and measured them against the new Nordic targets. The picture that emerged was stark: between 66 and 96 percent of participants fell below recommendations for plant-based foods, depending on the category. For whole grains alone, 96 percent of women and a substantial majority of men came up short. Vegetables, fruits, and berries showed similar shortfalls, particularly among men. Nuts and seeds were consumed so rarely that researchers couldn't even model reliable estimates for them.

The animal-based foods told the opposite story. Men consumed nearly twice as much red and processed meat as women, and both sexes exceeded the recommended limits. Dairy intake also ran high, especially among men. Fish and seafood—the one animal protein the guidelines encourage—fell below targets for most participants. The only exception was among physically active men, who were more likely than sedentary men to reach the fish recommendation.

Who ate better and who ate worse depended heavily on education, physical activity, income level, and how much food they consumed overall. Higher-educated adults were more likely to meet plant-based targets. People who exercised regularly showed better adherence across multiple food groups. Those with the highest energy intake—meaning they ate more overall—were more likely to hit whole grain and vegetable oil targets, but paradoxically also more likely to exceed meat and dairy limits. The lowest-energy groups stayed within dairy and meat recommendations more often, simply because they ate less of everything.

Age and sex created their own patterns. Women consistently ate more vegetables, fruits, and berries than men and were more likely to fall within the recommended dairy range, despite consuming more dairy overall in absolute terms. Among men, older age correlated with better adherence to dairy targets. The researchers analyzed men and women separately throughout because their eating patterns differed substantially.

The researchers acknowledged important limitations. The study used data from 2017, seven years before the 2023 guidelines were published, so it represents a snapshot of past behavior against future standards rather than current compliance. Recall bias—people's imperfect memory of what they ate—could have skewed results. The guidelines themselves lack energy-standardized targets, meaning a person eating 1,500 calories faces the same absolute recommendations as someone eating 2,500 calories. And the study could not assess whether people met all the guidelines simultaneously, only individual food groups.

What emerges is a portrait of a population whose diet tilts heavily toward animal products and away from plant foods, with significant variation by education and activity level. The 2023 Nordic guidelines represent an attempt to align nutrition advice with both human health and environmental limits. This study suggests that achieving that alignment in Finland will require targeted interventions, particularly among people with lower education levels and less physical activity—the groups showing the poorest adherence to plant-based recommendations and the highest consumption of meat and dairy.