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I'm a research psychologist, specializing in executive functions, prospective thinking, and nutrition psychology.
In 2018, I was recruited to #Finland as a research leader at @helsinkiuni to:
1. explore the future for Finland's food production from a perspective of entrepreneurial thinking.
2. teach prospective thinking, e.g. leadership - social creativity for problem-solving and innovation.
Finland is the home of the North Karelia project (NKP), which was part of the Seven countries study, which tested the Diet-heart hypothesis. That's the idea that saturated fats increase serum cholesterol which in turn will increase the risk of contracting cardiovascular disease. NKP put @helsinkiuni on the global academic map. This was the early 1970s.
But 19 years ago, the diet-heart hypothesis was tested, and rejected (Howard et al. 2006).
Nine years ago, the diet-heart hypothesis was rejected again (Ramsden et al. 2016).
And studies which used scientific methods point to the fact that:
1. millions of years before the present, our species adapted to an animal source diet (bone marrow and later red meat) (Aiello and Dunbar, 1993; Aiello and Wheeler, 1995; McPherron et al. 2010; Pobiner, 2013, 2016; Thompson et al. 2018),
2. in order to develop and sustain physical and mental health, our species needs to consume animal source food (Adesogan et al. 2020; Balehegn et al. 2019; Ede, 2019; Itkonen et al. 2021; Tong et al. 2020; Ylilaruri et al. 2019).
Did that mean that the case was closed in Finland?
Not really. In March 2022, Finland's Institute for welfare and health (@THLorg ), prided themselves of having convinced the Finns to lower their consumption of #butter and #salt.
And on numerous occasions, nutritionist @MikaelFogelholm has reiterated warnings against saturated fats. Fogelholm also claims that red meat is bad for health.
How have THL's and Fogelholm's actions affected Finland?
Here's a list of things which has been reported by Finnish authorities and organizations:
1. Childhood obesity is widespread (Eva Roos, Folkhälsan, autumn 2020).
2. Mental health challenges are widespread, especially Finnish women's relational aggression (psychological violence, in and outside the home) (@PoliisiHelsinki , April, 2022). (Of course, there are also angry Finnish men, but the incidence is significantly lower.)
3. Too many Finnish children are unable to cope with reading comprehension and numeracy. The latter is the basis for instrumental and epistemic thinking (Ministry of Education and Culture, May 14, 2022).
4. Too many Finns cannot work (@KelaFpa /@THLorg; 2023). 100,000 are outside the labor market due to mental illness.
5. Finland has the highest incidence of Alzheimer's/dementia in the world – twice as high as in neighboring Sweden (EU/OECD, 2023). The marker for Alzheimer's/dementia: aggression.🤔
6. Research at the @helsinkiuni has collapsed (see dark blue line in attachment) (Bäckgren, @hsfi, August, 2023).
7. Child poverty is significant (n>130,000; Swedish-Finnish days for children's rights, November, 2023).
8. #Entrepreneurship and #innovativethinking are at rock bottom (Jääskeläinen, @SitraFund, December 10, 2024).
9. Too many Finnish children fail to master reading comprehension and numeracy (Ministry of Education and Culture, April 2025). Ergo. The same as in 2022.
10. An estimated 77% of women and 70% of men will be diagnosed with a mental, behavioral, or neurological developmental disorder during their lifetime (@helsinkiuni, July 7, 2025).
Finland's economy, which has not generated a surplus in ~20 years (Harald, HBL; 2022), has fallen to 1996 levels (@PetteriOrpo , July 26, 2025).
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On May 7, 2019, I published this article my university blog: Nutrition psychology. What is the future for sustainable food? The case for prospective thinking (UH) peterosterbergphd.blogspot.com/2019/05/percep…
On January 23, 2020, I was invited to the department of Food and nutrition to open the seminar series in food and nutrition. Here's the abstract to my talk: What’s the Prospect of sustainable Food? The Case for mental health researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/activities/…
On October 10, 2023 I published Hur ska man välja mat i butiken? Medicinsk access peterosterbergphd.blogspot.com/2023/10/hur-sk…
@Stubb @FinGovernment @valtioneuvosto
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