The Finnish Food Authority’s national nutritional guidelines recommend consuming a maximum of around 350 grams of processed meat per person per week – but the agency hopes people will eat much less.

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The Finnish Food Authority released a set of national nutritional guidelines on Wednesday, advising people to eat less meat, more vegetables and reduce their consumption of coffee and alcohol.

The guidelines caused a stir even before their release because some details, including the recommendation to eat less meat and more vegetables, were disclosed in advance and reported by Finnish media.

According to the authority’s new guidelines, Finns should ideally consume around 500 to 800 grams of vegetables, fruits and berries per day, up from the previously recommended 500 grams per day, issued in 2014.

“Ultimately, how one eats is a personal choice, but it’s good to know that a more plant-based diet not only reduces health risks, but also lessens the effects of change climate”, according to Juha-Matti Katajajuurispecialist researcher at the Natural Resources Institute of Finland.

The updated advice also recommends eating no more than 350 grams of processed meat (i.e. beef, pork and lamb) per week. This is a significant drop from the 500 grams previously recommended when the guidelines were last published a decade ago.

“Almost all Finns consume too much salt and their diet contains too many hard fats, which exposes them to heart disease, among other things,” explains the professor. Ursula Schwab »Wrote in a press release.

The statement further states that it would be better, for environmental and health reasons, if people consumed much less than the recommended 350 grams of meat per week.

This is the first national nutrition guideline from the food authority that also takes environmental factors into account when issuing its recommendations on meat consumption.

The National Nutrition Council led a working group comprising ministries, universities, consumer groups, the food industry and NGOs to develop these guidelines.

Authority: Drink as little alcohol as possible

When it comes to alcohol, the authority did not set a minimum figure because it said it was not possible to set a safe amount.

However, recommendations suggest that if a person drinks alcohol, they should consume as little as possible. Previously, the authority has provided guidance on the maximum daily amount of alcohol an adult should consume.

In the 2014 report, the maximum recommended daily alcohol consumption was 10 grams for women and 20 grams for men. In practice, this meant one drink a day for women and two drinks for men – although the authority stressed it did not recommend drinking and driving every day.

Reduce your caffeine intake

With the Finns reputation as a coffee lover Well established, the food authority has included recommendations on caffeine consumption for the first time.

According to the guidelines, people should generally reduce their consumption of unfiltered coffee as well as sugary and energy drinks.

Unfiltered coffees include, for example, Greek and Turkish coffees as well as espresso-based lattes and cappuccinos.

The authority said it was making the recommendation because unfiltered coffee can lead to high blood pressure and increased cholesterol levels.

According to the guidelines, an adult should drink no more than 400 milligrams of caffeine per day, taking into account all possible sources.

This amount, 400 milligrams, is equivalent to about four cups of filtered coffee.

Pregnant and breastfeeding women are recommended to consume half this amount of caffeine, while the safe limit for caffeine consumption for children and adolescents is no more than 3 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day.

The authority’s guidelines also note that reducing coffee consumption is good for the environment, as coffee is one of the products in the Finnish diet that most negatively affects global biodiversity.

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