The Dangerous Information Retains Coming

Despite giant quantities of clear-eyed knowledge, no systemic options

In December 2025, we printed a information piece with the headline “Icelanders Are The Heaviest Of The Nordic Nations.” The physique of the article didn’t get any higher. Icelanders are getting fatter, consuming stunning quantities of vitality drinks, sleeping much less, and creating life-style illnesses together with hypertension and diabetes. 

If you’re a longtime reader of the Grapevine, you may see a theme. We’ve talked about Iceland’s battle with life-style illnesses, particularly weight problems, repeatedly since September 2009, when a report from sociology professor Stefán Hrafn Jónsson documented that Icelanders had gone from 10 p.c chubby to twenty p.c chubby in 2009, a degree which appears quaint given latest stats. At that point, Minister of Health Ögmundur Jónasson introduced that educating youngsters to eat higher and be extra bodily energetic, together with preventive drugs, could be utilized to assist deal with the issue.  

Ten years later, the issue was supersized. The Grapevine, citing an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development survey, famous that Iceland had the very best weight problems fee in Europe, with 27 p.c, above Malta at 26, and the UK at 21 p.c.  

The reality within the Skaupið joke  

A neighborhood saying is that there are few jokes in Iceland, simply onerous truths with a smile. This 12 months’s Áramótaskaupið, the nationwide comedy present, devoted a major spot to mocking how incessantly individuals right here use Ozempic. While the usage of the medicine shouldn’t be in any other case a frequent a part of nationwide dialogue, it in all probability ought to have been.  

According to the latest alarming survey from Norden, 27.5 p.c of Icelanders are overweight, with a physique mass index (BMI) over 30. In 2024 there have been 298,939 Icelanders 18 years outdated or above, that means that 82,208 Icelanders had been overweight. The numbers right here matter as a result of in keeping with Sjúkratryggingar Íslands 20,398 Icelanders had been on both Ozempic, Saxenda, or Wegovy in 2024. That is, 24.8 p.c of all overweight Icelanders require a prescription to regulate medical issues.  

One flaw of the Skaupið joke — the inhabitants right here is now utilizing one thing cheaper than Ozempic. For 2025, the Icelandic state paid simply over 1 billion ISK for GLP-1 drugs. Most individuals take Wegovy (14,827 in 2025). Of the individuals who don’t have their state medical care pay, most go for the much less dear Ozempic competitor. In 2023 the Icelandic state paid 3 billion for comparable medicine, with the lower in worth solely attributable to the launch of Ozempic opponents.  

Familiar options 

So what’s to be achieved? When requested, Minister of Health Alma Möller advised RÚV on the day the joint Nordic survey was printed: “This isn’t new information; we’ve known for a long time that the population is overweight, both children and adults.”  

The minister shouldn’t be unsuitable, Icelanders have been probably the most overweight of the Nordics for years now, however now new proposals are anticipated this January to deal with the issue. The minister went on to say: “I have a group working specifically on analysing these new challenges related to children’s public health, such as the use of screens and social media. This contributes to obesity, as does, for example, the marketing of unhealthy products — we don’t eat healthy enough food. […] Then there is also the consumption of energy drinks, which leads to children not getting enough sleep, and lack of sleep contributes to unhealthy eating habits, so there are many factors at play here.” 

“24.8 percent of all obese Icelanders require a prescription to control medical complications.”

What precisely shall be proposed stays to be seen, however a few of what that shall be could maybe be gleaned in a March 2024 report written for the Ministry of Health. There it was instructed that the federal government’s response ought to be targeted on a few of the following: introducing free and nutritious meals in major colleges throughout the nation, enhance oversight of the advertising of unhealthy meals focused at youngsters, elevate taxes on unhealthy meals merchandise, particularly tender drinks and vitality drinks, decrease taxes on more healthy merchandise and strengthen preventive work and well being promotion for youngsters of all ages.  

The final suggestion of those relies on work already underway within the South of Iceland, run by paediatrician Vignir Sigurðsson. According to Vignir, “The project has been successful, generated great satisfaction, and met expectations among both the participants and their parents. My sense is that the results and benefits are tangible. Both the children and their parents are extremely interested in the changes they can make to improve health. It is, of course, risky to assess success solely on the basis of weight measurements and body mass index over a six-month period. What matters most is succeeding in bringing about lasting changes in the children’s lifestyle, habits, sleep, nutritional intake, and well-being.”   

The hope is that Vignir’s regional challenge will then be utilized to the remainder of the nation in an try to battle the weight problems drawback on the root.  

This shouldn’t be a straightforward subject. Reading the yearly information tales as a collective, it quantities to nearly physique shaming. This 12 months’s distinguished mockery of the medicine used to deal with the epidemic additionally initially left us appalled. But the numbers are regarding. While it’s straightforward to be a doomsayer, It is a minimum of clear that there’s an effort underway to deal with the issue.