Senior citizens still eat more fish than youngsters

Fish Seafood Salmon nesvikSalmon. Photo: Norway Today Media

Norwegians still eat a lot of fish. It is, perhaps, not surprising that the elderly and residents of the north are Norway’s most avid fish eaters.

 

Norwegian fish, next to oil, is one of the country’s biggest export products. The living conditions survey from Statistics Norway (Statistisk sentralbyrå – SSB) shows that seven out of ten Norwegians eat fish at least twice every week. Included in the survey are both lunch and dinner.
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The Health Directorate’s (CMO) official nutritional advice is to eat fish 2-3 times per week, and according to figures from Statistics Norway, it is the older segment of the population who are best at achieving this result.
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In the over 67 age range, 85% report eating fish more than twice a week.
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For those between 16 and 24 years, the figure is 60%.  The same pattern is shown when looking at occupational status. Senior citizens eat fish ‘much more frequently’ than students, said SSB.
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The survey also reported that those with higher education eat more fish, and those who are in work eat more fish than unemployed people.
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There is no great difference between men and women. It’s also not obvious that those who lead a healthy lifestyle eat more fish than others (for example, smokers eat as much fish as non-smokers), and those who exercise regularly don’t eat more fish than those who don’t exercise.
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The exception to this are those between 16 and 24 years old. Among these, a majority of non-smokers and people who exercise do eat fish more frequently.
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Nordland tops the county statistics. There, 81% of respondents answered that they eat fish twice per week or more.
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In Oslo, 73% answered that they eat fish at least twice a week, while at the bottom of the statistics list was Vest-Agder, at 64%.
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Pundits are scratching their heads and contemplating that southerners may not be as fond of mackerel anyway?
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today