Since I'm trying to evolve healthy habits in order to ward off a genetic disposition to heart disease this story is of interest. Apprently Finland has turned itself from heart attack centre of the world to fittest nation on earth. "'In the 1970s, we held the world record for heart disease, 'says Pekka Puska, director of the National Institute of Public Health in Helsinki. The dubious honour was the inevitable consequence of a Finnish culture that embraced just about every risk factor for heart disease there is. 'The idea then was that a good life was a sedentary life. Everybody was smoking and eating a lot of fat. Finnish men used to say vegetables were for rabbits, not real men, so people simply did not eat vegetables. The staples were butter on bread, full-fat milk and fatty meat, '"
It's intersting also because it's a story of intentional cultural change....
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Fat to fit: how Finland did it:
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