In January 2025, the Estonian Health Development Institute published new national recommendations for diet, physical activity, and sleep. In this article, I will briefly explain what these recommendations are, provide a historical overview, and share also Estonians' dietary habits based on a 2014 study with the recommended intake. However, the main focus will be on the 2025 national dietary, physical activity, and sleep guidelines, outlining the changes and updates compared to the previous 2017 version.

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What is Healthy and Balanced Nutrition?
Many countries worldwide have developed their own dietary and physical activity guidelines to help people make informed choices about their daily nutrition and movement. The goal of national dietary recommendations is to provide science-based guidelines for maintaining or achieving good health. These recommendations consider the body's physiological needs and are designed for the entire population, including children, adolescents, adults, seniors, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding women. The dietary guidelines allow you to follow a healthy and balanced nutrition.
When following dietary recommendations, individual allergies and intolerances must be taken into account. For people with chronic diseases, it is important to consider whether the illness or medications affect nutrient metabolism, thereby altering normal physiological needs.
In Estonia, dietary and physical activity guidelines are used by various professionals, including nutrition counsellors, dietitians, doctors, family nurses, educators, researchers, and policymakers. The recommendations are publicly accessible to everyone.
History of the Recommendations
Since Estonia's regain of independence in 1991, now four national dietary and physical activity recommendation documents have been published:
Estonian National Dietary Recommendations 2025
The 2025 guidelines align with the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (published 2023) and are based on guidance from the Nordic working group. Additionally, they take into account Estonian eating habits, food availability, and environmental sustainability. The updated national physical activity guidelines follow the World Health Organization (WHO) 2020 recommendations.
The recommendations published this year are currently available only in a table format, but in 2026, the Health Development Institute has plans to release a comprehensive version, including detailed explanations on nutrition, food, physical activity, screen time, and sleep recommendations. New chapters on food safety and food labelling will also be added.
In Estonia, the food pyramid, the plate rule, and the physical activity pyramid are used to communicate these recommendations to the population. The food pyramid below shows the weekly amounts of food in different food groups a person with 2000kcal energy requirement would need to eat, which will help to cover the needs of the body for necessary macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein, fat) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals).

Key Changes and Updates in the 2025 Recommendations
1. Micronutrients (Vitamins and Minerals)
The recommendations for nearly all micronutrients have been updated, with many increased. It is important to note that micronutrient requirements differ based on gender, age, and if in woman's case she is pregnant or breastfeeding.
2. Changes in Food Group Names
The top section of the food pyramid has been renamed:
Previously: Sugar, Sweets, Sweet and Savoury Snacks
Now: Sweets, Snacks, and Other Unnecessary Foods for the Human Body
Vegetables are brought forward in its food group to emphasise their importance in the diet even more.
Nuts have been moved to the front in its food group:
Previously: Added Fats, Nuts, Seeds, and Oilseeds
Now: Nuts, Seeds, and Oilseeds, and Added Fats, highlighting the importance of nut consumption in the diet.
3. Macronutrient Adjustments (Proteins, Fats, Carbohydrates)
The upper limit for fat intake as a percentage of daily energy intake has increased to 40% (previously 35%). Fat consumption can be close to 40% of daily energy only if saturated fat intake stays below 10% from all the fats.
The lower limit for carbohydrate intake has decreased to 45% (previously 50%).
Carbohydrates should ideally be at least 50% to ensure sufficient fibre intake, especially for those with gut microbiome imbalances.
4. New Recommendations for Fruits, Vegetables, and Legumes
Unlike previous guidelines, the new recommendations set minimum intake levels rather than a range.
Legumes should ideally be consumed daily due to their good plant protein and fibre content.
Highly sweet fruits (e.g., bananas, grapes, passion fruit, tamarind) should be limited to one serving per day.
Berries should be prioritised over fruit to increase fibre and antioxidant intake.
Fruit juice (e.g., orange juice) should be limited to once per week (1 glass).
5. Cooking and Processing Recommendations
When frying, roasting, or baking bread products, potatoes, and other starchy vegetables, avoid excessive browning or burning to reduce acrylamide formation (a compound linked to cancer and DNA damage).
6. Meat and Processed Meat Recommendations
Meat consumption guidelines remain unchanged:
Meat products should be consumed as little and as rarely as possible.
When choosing processed meats (sausages, hot dogs, bacon, etc.), prefer higher meat content and with lower saturated fat and salt levels.
Similar recommendations apply to processed fish products.
With natural fish consumption one should consider dioxin risks (updated quantity recommendations forthcoming).
7. Dairy Recommendations
Prefer unsweetened dairy products (e.g., plain yogurt, cottage cheese, quark).
Flavoured dairy products (e.g., sweetened yogurt, quark) should now be counted as both:
A dairy portion and
A "Sweets, Snacks, and Other Unnecessary Foods" portion
Example: 100g of sweetened yoghurt = 1 dairy serving + 1 sweet serving.
Desserts like curd snacks, ice cream, pudding (including protein pudding), condensed milk, fruit-flavoured dairy drinks, and cheese-based snacks are now classified under Sweets, Snacks, and Other Unnecessary Foods.
8. New Guidelines for Plant-Based Alternatives
For the first time, the recommendations provide guidance on incorporating plant-based beverages (e.g., soy, oat, almond drinks) and plant-based meat substitutes (e.g., legume- and grain-based patties, minced alternatives, tofu, tempeh, seitan, nutritional yeast) into one’s diet.
9. Intake of Sweets
The recommended maximum intake of sweet treats has been slightly adjusted. It is advised that children under 2 years old should not consume any added sugars or foods containing them, particularly sugar, candy, sweets, pastries, or sugary drinks. Children aged 3–6 may consume up to two chocolate candies or one curd snack per day, provided they do not eat other sweet or salty snacks or sweetened dairy products. From age 11, the maximum daily intake of sweets could be, for example, four cookies, three chocolate candies, or 400 ml of a sweetened drink.
Learn more about the different added sugars in foods and how consuming too much added sugar could affect health from this article.
10. Artificial Sweeteners
Try to avoid foods and beverages containing artificial sweeteners. If consumed, do so infrequently and in small amounts.
11. Household Measurements Included
The updated guidelines now include food portion sizes not only in grams but also in household measurements (tablespoons, deciliters, cloves, slices, etc.) to make it easier to understand appropriate portion sizes for different food groups.
12. Alcohol Consumption
There is no safe level of alcohol consumption. No one should drink alcohol, but it is especially important for minors, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers to avoid it entirely.
13. Physical Activity
Physical activity recommendations are now given as a range, emphasising the importance of regular movement. Adults should aim for at least 30 minutes of daily physical activity, totalling 150–300 minutes per week of moderate-intensity activity or 75–150 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity, or a combination of both. Strength exercises targeting all major muscle groups should be included at least twice a week, and balance and stretching exercises at least three times a week.
14. Sedentary Time and Screen Time
All adults should reduce sedentary time and screen time. Stretching breaks should be taken at least once per hour. Children under 2 years old should avoid screen time entirely, while children from 2 years old to school age should limit it to a maximum of 60 minutes per day—but less is always better.
15. Sleep
Recommended sleep duration is 6.5–11 hours, with 7–9 hours being optimal for most people. Daytime naps for preschool-aged children (3–5 years old) should be based on individual needs, and for adults over 55, a short nap of up to 30 minutes may be beneficial.
How Do Estonians Actually Eat?
A 2014 Estonian Population Nutrition Study revealed dietary habits based on people consuming 1,800–2,200 kcal daily.

The study highlighted that most people should:
✅ Increase whole grain consumption (bread, porridge)
✅ Eat more vegetables, including legumes
✅ Consume a wider variety of fruits and berries
✅ Replace sweetened dairy products with unsweetened versions
✅ Reduce red meat and processed meat consumption
✅ Eat more fish, prioritising fresh fish over processed fish products
✅ Increase nut and seed consumption
✅ Reduce sweet and salty snacks
✅ Drink more plain water
✅ Move more
➡️ How does your weekly diet compare to the recommended pyramid? What changes could you make to eat more healthily and in a more balanced way?
How to Eat Healthily?
A healthy and balanced diet means eating a variety of foods from all five food groups to obtain the necessary macronutrients and micronutrients. The food pyramid illustrates what to eat more of and what to eat less of, along with weekly food portions in different food groups.
Foods at the top of the pyramid—sweets and salty snacks—are not essential for the body and should be consumed rarely and in small amounts.
Of course there are 'personalised' food pyramids, if you have an allergy, intolerance, specific health condition that requires you to leave out certain foods, but then it's always important to understand how can you fulfil the needs from within other foods in the pyramid to get all the necessary nutrients in your diet.
If you find these guidelines confusing and want a nutrition counsellor to assess your diet—highlighting what's good, bring out potential deficiencies, and provide you with personalised recommendations based on your lifestyle—feel free to contact me for nutrition counselling and health mentoring.
📩 Email me at info@katrinpeo.com to schedule a nutrition counselling session. You can learn more about the services I provide here.
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