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The Social Insurance Institution of Finland (fpa) and the Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), warns that since 2010, Finnish people's physical and mental health have deteriorated. It is predicted to continue to deteriorate if the government doesn't start acting now. Fpa/THL mention:
- obesity.
- poor nutrition.
Link to source.
It's important to understand that this is nothing new, but rather something that the people working at government arms like Fpa and THL have ignored.
Paradoxically, Finland has been ranked the world's happiest country by the United Nations for the sixth consecutive year. The claim is based on an inquiry distributed in 150 of the world's 193 countries. But the inquiry does not assess happiness but Life satisfaction. And it's unclear whether the sample (n=1000) represents Finland's two major socio-cultures or not (the main author of the report refuses to answer that question). Based on the contradiction to the facts reported above, it's fair to say that the report is misleading.
Acting prime minister Sanna Marin and her cabinet, Katri Kulmuni (Centre), Maria Ohisalo (Green), Li Andersson (Left Alliance), and Anna-Maja Henriksson (SFP) was some of the leading politicians who opted to ignore facts and figures which were evident during their time as government. Marin herself opted to recite the UN report in an interview.
Link to source.
When star-psychologist Daniel Kahneman (1934 – ) was awarded the Swedish Riksbankens prize in economics in memory of Aldred Nobel for Amos Tversky (1937 – 1996) and his work on natural stupidity (Kahneman and Tversky, 1972 – 1977 (1979)), I was recruited to do my doctorate and to tutor economists about scientific methodology. My thesis has an evolutionary perspective; I constructed and tested statistically, a leadership style that influences social creativity within organizations (Österberg, 2004, 2012). I was also assigned to develop and teach a course for future leaders in the academy about leadership, decision making, organizational learning, and social creativity for problem solving and innovation. Other universities requested my expertise (n>10), which meant that I started touring Sweden.
In 2007, I was recruited as an expert-lecturer to the university of Helsingfors to teach leadership, decision making, organizational learning, and social creativity for problem solving and innovation.
In 2018, I was recruited to a different role at University of Helsingfors – a research leader to investigate the future of Finnish food production from a perspective of entrepreneurial thinking (Österberg, 2021). I also co-published a study on how to facilitate cognitive flexibility (Österberg and Köping Olsson, 2021 b), and a popular science article on how to lead in a crisis situation (Österberg, 2021 c).
On January 23 2020, I was invited to the Department of Food and Nutrition at the University of Helsingfors, to open that year's seminar series for experts on Food and Nutrition: What’s the Prospect of sustainable Food? The Case for mental health.
During my talk at the department of food and nutrition, I challenged the prevailing Finnish view that saturated fats cause cardiovascular events, and I argued that the reason Finnish people have health issues, paradoxically, is The North Karelia Project. My claims caused some academic heat – some colleagues disagreed and some agreed.
In support of my claim, here are some of the references I used: Ede (2019), Howard et al. (2006), Teicholz (2014), and Ramsden et al. (2016). The commonality between these studies is the rejection of the diet heart-hypothesis. These results are acknowledged by international experts, but rejected by Finnish nutrition people.
Finland has issues with physical and mental health, especially among women. This has been reported from Finnish government and organizations:
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In May 2020, media reported that after that acting prime minister Sanna Marin and her cabinet, Katri Kulmuni (Centre), Maria Ohisalo (Green), Li Andersson (Left Alliance), and Anna-Maja Henriksson (SFP) had imposed the Sars-Voc (2) lock-down, suicide rates in Finland increased by 15% (Yle News, 2020
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In November 2020, Eva Roos, at Folkhälsan, claimed that Finland had a child obesity epidemic.
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In August/September 2021, during the communal election in Helsingfors, I got in contact with some politicians. Most of them mentioned people's lack of mental health in their campaign, i.e. depression was souring.
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In April 2022, Helsingfors Police department said that Finnish women's relational aggressiveness (psychological violence) (Crick and Grotpeter, 1995; Hyde, 2005) is the big issue. Note. Relational aggressiveness is part of Domestic violence, which is also dominated by women.
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In parallel to that, the media reported about a mother who murdered her 12-year old son. She had got support from the social service to isolate herself with the boy at a place social workers call 'an institution for women with mental issues' (Björkqvist, 2022).
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In May, 2022, a director at Finland's ministry of education and culture claimed that the PISA-ranking was misleading - Finnish kids fail reading comprehension and numeracy. The latter is crucial for instrumental and epistemic rational thinking.
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In July, 2022, another mother, in Borgå, 50 km east of Helsingfors, tried to kill her 5-year old son. The social service probably knew she had mental issues, because they were the ones who called the police. Despite the police breaking into the home, she continued to beat the little boy (Nyquist, 2022). Ergo. Another case where authorities knew the mother had mental issues, but didn't take measures to protect the child.
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In September, 2022, the minister of education, Li Andersson, warned that Finnish boys are failing school. And speaking to another minister, Ville Skinnari, he said that Finland has lost ~600 000 simple jobs. These kinds of jobs have historically been a starting point for young boys.
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On October 22, 2022, I published an article on my science blog, where I surveyed research on Alzheimer's. It showed that Finland has the highest prevalence of Alzheimer's/dementia in the world (Österberg, 2022).
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On October 25, 2022, Swedish speaking tabloid Hufuvdstadsbladet claimed that for the past 15 years, Sweden has had a financial surplus every year, whereas Finland during the same period has had a deficit every year (Harald, 2022).
- In November 2022, at a conference about children's legal rights, Finland's Child Commissary, Elina Pekkarinen, said that 20 % of Finnish children and adolescents born 1997 or later, have mental health issues (that is a staggering 265 000 young Finnish humans). Pekkarinen pointed out that these mental health issues were more prevalent in areas where they didn't speak Finland's and Sweden's common trade language.
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In March 2023, Finland was still topping the suicide ranking in Fennoscandia and Denmark (the Nordic Countries except Iceland) (Österberg, 2023).
- In April 2023, during a residents discussion organized by the city of Helsingfors in collaboration with an organization called Arbis, which provides education in Swedish, one researcher made the claim that “Swedish speaking Finns are happier and live longer” [sic].
It's a complex question, so the answer will not be finite, but rather a starting point for a discussion. Here are two important premises:
- Language creates and sustains socio-culture (Reich, 2019). Finland has two official languages; since The Vendel period, the trade language around the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic sea. Since 1863, imposed by Russia during the occupation: Uralic-Finnish.
- Animal source food, >30 micronutrients, tryptophan, choline, and Docosahexanoic and Eicosapentanoic fatty acids, consumed from the same plate are crucial to sustain physical and mental Health (Adesogan et al. 2020; Allen, 2003; Balehegn et al. 2019, 2023; Dobersket et al. 2023; Ede, 2019, 2022, 2024; Itkonen et al. 2020; Margara-Escudero et al. 2022; Pan et al. 2024; Tong et al. 2020; Ylilauri et al. 2019).
~When the Weichselian glaciation last ice maximum ended (26 000 – 20 000 years before the present), no one lived in Fennoscandia.
~5000 years before the present, farmers from Sardinia and hunter's and gatherer's from eastern Siberia, lived in what is now sountern Sweden (Reich, 2018; Skoglund et al. 2012).
~4500 years before present saw a massive migration from the Caspian – Pontic steppe/lower Volga to Europe. They brought light skin and hair, ox and carts, and Indo-European languages (Anthony, 2007; Haak et al. 2015; Lamnidis et al. 2018; Lazaridis et al. 2014).
Tacitus (98 AD) writes about the Sveons, a culture in today's Uppland, Sweden, that traded with the romans. A trading culture is based on entrepreneurial thinking, which is about the “knowledge structures” that people use to make judgments and decisions that involve the evaluation, creation and growth of opportunities. That include a way of thinking where networking people outside of your ethnicity is crucial (Cacciolatti och Lee, 2015 ; Mitchell et al. 2002; Österberg, 2012).
Before and during the Vendel period (540 – 750 AD), What is now called Uppland was the sea kingdom of Svitjod, which consisted of four parts: Roden, the trading hub between Gårdarike och Särkland and the Franks, as well three folklands: Attunda, Fjädrundaland, and Tiundaland, where the then capital Uppsala still recides.
Svithjod included Holmgård, also known i Russian as Novgorod.
Eventually, their successful trading attracted their neighbors; e.g. people living in Satakunda, on the other side of the Gulf of Bothnia, applied to be included in the sea kingdom:
“When we combine this strongly marine character of Suethiod with our knowledge that Satakunda and Vakka-Finland – the areas around Uusimaa and Kaland – have had very close connections with the Mälardalen valley from a very long time ago, we should be able to see these areas as parts of the old sea kingdom of Suethiod”.Original text in Swedish:
“Viking-era grave finds that have recently been explored support the view that originated from Agricola (Mikael Olofsson (1507 – 1557) that Satakunda and Vakka-Finland would have been connected to the west. The Satakunda provincial name and the border fortification system towards Tavastland, as well as many other factors, speak in favor of this part of today's Finland belonging to Suethiod” (Klinge, 1984, p. 8).
“Då vi sammanbinder denna Suethiods starkt marina karaktär med vår kunskap om att Satakunda och Vakka-Finland – trakterna kring Nystad och Kaland – mycket långt tillbaka har haft synnerligen nära förbindelser med Mälardalen, så torde man kunna se dessa områden som delar av det gamla sjökungariket Suethiod” (Klinge, s. 8).Regarding finds at Eura å:
“Vikingatida gravfynd som nyligen utforskats stöder den från Agricola (Mikael Olofsson (1507 – 1557) härstammade uppfattning om att Satakunda och Vakka-Finland skulle ha varit knutna västerut. Satakunda landskapsnamn och gränsbefästningssystemet mot Tavastland samt många andra faktorer talat för att denna del av dagens Finland skulle ha hört till Suetjiod” (s 8).
“A particularly strange feature is the remains found from the 7th century on both sides of the Eura River. Burials with valuable military objects indicate that it may be a military bridgehead on the Finnish coast. In the graves, men dressed in Scandinavian clothing have been found buried side by side with women in Baltic-inspired costumes (s. 26, Hårdstedt, 2023).”Original text in Swedish:
“Ett särskilt märkligt inslag är de lämningar som finns från 600 – talet på båda sidor om Eura å. Gravsättningar med värdefulla militära föremål tyder på att det kan handla om ett militärt brohuvud på den finska kusten. I gravarna har man hittat män iklädda skandinaviska kläder begravda sida vid sida med kvinnor i baltiskt inspirerade klädedräkter” (s. 26, Hårdstedt, 2023).Findings in, Haga borg in Janakkala south of Tavastehus, and Salme in Estonia (Mägi, 2018;Watson, 2016; Wikipedia), reveal a trading and exploration culture that had spread around the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic Sea.
In 1229, Åbo, the first official trading place (city) in the eastern part of the Swedish kingdom was founded.
In 1240, Holmgård (Novgorod), declared indepence from Svithjod, due to religious differences.
With the influence of Christianity, renaissance, science revolution, and enlightenment, the Swedish kingdom underwent an extraordinary development (McKneown, 2009; Pinker, 2018; Widmalm, 2012).
But in parallel to this progress, in the inland of the eastern part of the Swedish kingdom, where a minority of the population lived, tribes, or pagans, spoke different Uralic languages. In an effort to baptize these pagans, the Swedish priest Mikael Olofsson (1510 – 1557) made a first attempt by creating a standardized version of these languages; he published three books, one for children, and two translations from the bible, was producers, as well as an list of Gods they worshiped. That's a marker for tribalism. Olofsson also changed his name to Agrikola (Mörne, 1918).
In 1477, Uppsala university was founded in the western part of the kingdom, starting a new era of academic thinking.
In 1581, the eastern part of the Swedish kingdom was crowned a grand duchy.
In 1640, A branch of Uppsala university was founded in the eastern half of the kingdom: Royal Academy in Åbo (later the University of Helsingfors).
In the 1699, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688 – 1772), one of Sweden's most prominent scientists, enrolled to Uppsala University. In 1734, Swedenborg publishes his treatise Opera philosophica et mineralis, which included the section Principia Rerum Naturalium (Principles of Natural Things), in which Swedenborg attempts to explain the origin of matter and the nature of motion.
In 1758, Swedenborg published Heaven and Hell. The text, unlike his earlier scientific works, is of a mythical nature. This likely influenced academic thinking in the Swedish Empire. He also founded the New Church, and followed the trend by claiming he also had experienced revelations – a deeper understanding of things. He also gave some of the first dietary guidelines:
“Drawing on the passage in Genesis (1:29-31) in which God Institute a vegan diet, Swedenborg said that meat-eating corresponds to the fall from grace in the Garden of Eden and was, therefore, the point of entry of sin and suffering into the world” (Phelps, p. 149).1754, at the age of 15, Henrik Porthan's (1737 – 1804), enrolled as a student at the Royal Academy of Åbo. In 1760, he defended his master’s thesis in philosophy. In 1777, he was promoted to professor, a title he retained for the rest of his life. He also became rector. Porthan wrote mainly in Latin and Swedish.
It is reasonable to assume that what happened at Uppsala University influenced the zeitgest at the Royal Academy in Åbo. This implies that Porthan was influenced by Swedenborg, who when Porthan enrolled had shifted his focus to mysticism. But where Swedenborg looked upwards, Porthan looked eastwards, probably inspired by Olofsson/Agricola's attempts to Christianize the tribes in the interior of the eastern part of the Swedish kingdom. This may have led to the idea that the original Finn came from his own homeland – Karelia – and that Uralic was a general language.
Portham became a fennophile. But his work was not founded in science, but in myths and folk songs, a marker for romantic nationalism.
In 1808, Russias tsar Alexander I (1777 – 1825) decided to invade the Swedish kingom, including the Swedish fortress Sveaborg (1748 – ). Two years later, the Fennoman movement started, likely an extension of Olofssons/Agrikola and Dr Porthan's efforts. The implication: the influence of entrepreneurial thinking, renaissance, science revolution, and enlightenment, that had become prevalent in the eastern part of the Swedish kingdom, now started to decline.
In 1863, many sources claim that Alexander I's sucessor, Alexander II (1818 – 1881), imposed another official language to suppress the trade language around the Gulf of Bothnia and the Balitic sea. But, tsar Alexander II didn't choose Russian but the uralic-language spoken in various ways by tribes in the inland.
1910 – 1940, uralic-finnish reach break even. That coincided with Finlands independence from Russia (1917), and the langauge strife; testimonies say that uralic-speaking kids attacked kids who was taught to continue to use the trade language around the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic sea.
In his Gifford talk (2019), Mark Pagel talks about tribalism. His second example: Finland.
Today, 47% of the Finns still speak the trade language that brought afluence to the eastern part of the kingdom as a funcktion of entrepreneurial thinking and enlightenment thinking.
87% of the Finns speak the language which was imposed by Kreml and which brought about romantic nationalism and tribalism.
And remember, staff at Helsingfors city claimed that Finns who speak Swedish have better health and live longer.
Another part of the explanation is nutrition. During the 1940s, the Swedish biochemist Haqvin Malmros (1895 – 1995), conducted a study on health. He took data from the Nordic countries as well from a northern state in the US. Dr Malmros conclusion: saturated fat and cholesterol causes Atherosclerosis. (Malmros, 1950). The diet-heart hypothesis was born.
In 1958, a large epidemiological research project was launched to further test the diet-heart hypothesis. Rumors say that the project initially included 22 countries.But when the effects failed to show, the researchers began to remove countries from the dataset. The Seven countries study (SCS) was born. Finland, but not Sweden, was part of SCS.
1961. The newly founded American Heart Association (AHA) gave the first dietary advice, warning people that saturated fats will raise serum cholesterol, leading to cardiovascular disease, including Atherosclerosis (Teicholz, 2023).
1972. The North Karelia Project was founded in Finland. In Finland they sampled data from the Swedish-Finnish population in the south-west (Åbo), and the uracil-Finnish population in the north-east Karelia.
In the 1980s, governments around the world introduced dietary guidelines, where they warned people that meat and saturated fats are bad for health.
In parallel to that, data from statistics Finland showed a rise in Alzheimer's in Finland:
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| Diagram from Statistics Finland. |
(link to source).
Finland is now topping the global ranking for Alzheimer's. Sweden is No 10 (Österberg, 2022).
Women are more than twice as likely to contract the disease.
2006. The largest and most expensive study on women's health tested the diet-heart hypothesis. The result rejected the diet-heart hypothesis but showed that women with a history of health issues who decreased their intake of saturated fats, had a 28% increased risk of contracting CVD (Howard et al. (2006).
When the Seven Countries Study was scrutinized, data revealed that 300/10 000 in Åbo and 995/10 000 in North Karelia died died of CVD (Teicholz, 2014).
In 2016, researchers found data from the Seven countries study in a basement. And it wasn't epidemiological data, it was data that could be used for something called randomized control trials (RCTs), which makes possible conclusions about cause – effect. The result rejected the diet-heart hypothesis (Ramsden et al. 2016).
Welfare diseases, like Type 2-diabetes, high blood pressure, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and cancer are typically explained by consumption of sugar and ultra-processed products (Hall et al. 2019; Lustig, 2017; Yudkin, 1972). Some say obesity is the cause, others say it's a marker (see presentation by Dr Robert Lustig). Mental health issues are also food-related, especially lack of animal source food (Balehegn et al. 2019, 2023; Dobersket et al. 2023; Ede, 2019; Ylilauri, 2019).
This has an Influence on another factor – the home environment. During the först four years of living, emotional adjustment and cognitive development is intense, and dependent on parent relations, including the way parents communicate with their children (Baumrind, 1966; Gopnik, 2016; Hart and Risley, 1995). Early childhood is typically ruled by mothers, and if these mothers don't eat nutritious food, they will be unable to apply reciprocal authorization.
Women's inability to cope with the family situation is marked by high degree of neuroticism and Borderline Personality Disorder, caused by Complex childhood trauma, and manifested through aggressiveness and jealousy (Jiang, Dong och Wang, 2022; Ode et al. 2009; Weisberg et al. 2011). This in turn is associated with women's relational conflict, manifested by a contradiction: fear of abandonment, yet paradoxically acting in ways that ensure they'll be abandoned (Ruffalo, 2024; Zalewski et al. 2014).
An excellennt case which describes not only women's relational aggression, but also why it occurs, is Amber Heard. See Dr. Shannon Curry's testimony/diagnosis of Amber Heard (Forensic Psychologist Dr. Shannon Curry Testifies (Trial Day 9)).
There's also a father effect. Children who grow up with both parents or with the father have better emotional and social adjustment as well as cognitive development, e.g. epistemic and instrumental rational thinking and visuospatial perception, compared to children who grow up with a single mother (Baker et al. 2020; Farran och Formby, 2011; LaFlamme et al. 2012; Olsson, 2022; Rolle et al. 2019; Sethna, 2017; Vieno et al. 2009, 2014; Österberg, 2004).
Conclusion. Fpa and THL claim that Finnish health has deteriorate in 2010, but a more accurate year would be between 1808 – 1940 when the Swedish language, which brought enlightenment thinking to the Eastern part of the Swedish kingdom, was suppressed in favor of a language that brought about tribalism and romantic nationalism. A facilitator to this was the North Karelia Project, which encouraged people to abandon the food the human's brain needs to sustain physical and mental Health.
Also read: Finland retains Life-satisfaction title, suicide remain highest among the Nordic countries, and children have mental issues due to [women's] home conflicts.
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