Dining in Denmark

I just returned from speaking at the Danish Contact Lens Conference in Aarhus, Denmark, last week. Despite the long flight, it was an exhilarating experience, and I met with dozens of colleagues who expressed a great interest in what we’ve got going on “over here.”

It was fascinating seeing the familiar logos (Johnson & Johnson, Alcon, Bausch + Lomb, Optovue, etc.) surrounded with a language that seemed like I should be able to understand but had the letters in the wrong order! Did you realize that the letter “c” doesn’t exist in Danish? (yes, it was a “kontaklinse” conference). Luckily, about 85% of the country speaks English, so I was comfortable with my talk.

One of the more interesting facts surrounding my area of nutrition was the regulations that are allowed in the various countries. While we suggest 40 mg of zinc as a maximum recommended allowance by our Institute of Medicine, the maximum allowed in Denmark is 20 mg (of “zink,” of course). And the AREDS formula was promoted there as well, but the amounts were significantly different. Our formula contains 10 mg of lutein and 2 mg of zeaxanthin; theirs has 2.5 mg of lutein and 0.5 mg of zeaxanthin …. interesting.

Aarhus was a quaint city, and the weather was typically fall (overcast and cool). However, I did manage to spend a few extra days in Copenhagen, and it was fantastic! As you might expect, salmon was served with almost every meal, and the classic “Danish” pastry was abundant.

The fascinating part was the bicycles. There were more bicycles per capita than anywhere I’ve ever seen in the world. (Word was that Amsterdam has more, but that’s hard to imagine.) My hotel was near the train station, and there were at least 10,000 bicycles stacked up in every conceivable corner of the nearby parking areas. Almost every street downtown had rows and rows of bikes lining the edges of the buildings. Guess these folks are in good shape, getting that much exercise (especially in 50-degree weather).

The highlight of my trip was the 3-hour walking tour of the city. It was given by a young Canadian man who had moved there 6 years ago and just worked for tips. His knowledge of the history of the city was amazing, and the insights he offered were informative. Of course, we saw a few of the dwellings where Hans Christian Andersen lived and wrote his tomes of fairy tales. We even made it to the changing of the guard at the presidential palaces. It was quite the history lesson and highly recommended for the classic European experience.