Eating Healthy in Poland

While I know girls in Poland are thinner and probably healthier than in America, how difficult is it to eat healthy in Poland? So many of the dishes are meat and potato dishes. It just seems like there is such a culture (or at least attempt) to try to eat healthy in America, I wonder how that is in Poland.

From my experience it's very easy to eat healthy in Poland. I often go to the simple and inexpensive "milk bars" for a quick lunch, where I eat a salad or "pierogi ruskie" with a good fresh vegetable or fruit juice. As a foreigner I was also surprised to see that there aren't so many fried dishes in Polish cooking. Actually I never saw any. However Polish cooking can be somewhat fat but it is not the general rule.

thanks! its kind of a dumb question because i've been to and lived in poland numerous times, its just that most of the time i had someone else cooking for me! and usually i came home heavier than i left! now that i'm more than likely going back, i was just wondering some of my options. i guess one is just to learn how to cook! :)

another one could be trying some salad bars or vegetarian diners, which offer decent healthy food in reasonable prices. I would recommend Greenway bars, they are a chain with several places in the city center. Although I'm not so sure if it's the best way to keep your weight, considering the awesomeness of the carrot cake there! Sorry for praising them so much but I'm absolutely addicted to their food, plus sitting somewhat hungry at work at the moment ;)

It's a Polish tradition to fill guests with as much food as possible. And if the guests say no, the hosts will most likely feel offended.

But it's easy to eat healthy in all developed countries in the world. Just buy healthy food and cook it.

As you will know already Melissa, eating healthy isnt just about counting carbs.
Poles tend to make fresh food and rely less on pre packed stuff and microwave meals

Oh, please.

The polish diet is basically a meat and potatoes staple. That's why the girls are so skinny when they are young, but just look at the older ones. They are all round and fat. Eventually it catches up to them!!

My gf's mum is still thin, she cooks healthy food, not just meat and potato's. She is a great cook, I can't wait for my next meal :) Roll on Friday.

Oh no, I hope my relatives don't do that to me, when I visit Warswaw during the upcoming summer.

Healthy food is mostly fruit, veg, salads and sprouts:

At the market

Summer daily delivery for 6 person family

Salad ingredients

Final outcome

We have a long tradition of "family dinners" - food made of sometimes simple ingredients, but improved by many members of family, so often they are delicious and taste different at most of polish homes, although they are all termed "bigos" or "schabowy" or "kopytka" or anything else.

My grandmother used to tell me, that eating in restaurants leads to ulcers, so when I was a child my family had never eaten at restaurants.

Food is being processed today and filled with many chemicals, especially so easy available at supermarkets dishes which you can warm up in a microwave very quickly.

But people at the age of our mothers and grandmothers probably most of times will turn their noses at pizza or hamburger and will say that having it for lunch or dinner is unhealthy and completely unnecessary.

You're right, but i really dislike this tradition (esp. the part when they feel offended).

I have several Polish friends here in Chicago...and I don't see Polish food being that unhealthy...alot of soups and vegetables, etc. I don't really see them eating really fattening foods and all of them have been blessed with that European metabolism and don't get fat.

You can eat what you want. If you focus on root vegetable and green vegetable and fruits then you will be healthy, if you eat fat kielbasa ever day you will be fat. This is true of any national diet.

Now there's a funny statement if ever I heard one! :))

What exactly is this European metabolism that prevents us from getting fat (have you ever been to Europe)!?!

And why aren't Americans blessed with this selfsame metabolism given that many of them trace their ethnic roots to there?

Please explain more, this is fascinating!

Hi, I have never been to Europe but lived with a guy from Europe for over 8 years. He was from Ruma, Yugoslavia. But he never ate alot of fattening foods like us Americans...plus, he told me the one thing that was different is that in America there is food everywhere you go...on every corner...even at work there are vending machines everywhere. Also, he stated in Europe people walk alot more than America.

I come from the South and you do drive everywhere you need to go because of the distance, but I don't know why there are any fat people in Chicago....food is expensive and you have to walk quite a bit according to where you go.

As was said before: put it on Polish hospitality. Still, it's good form to give the guest "the best" (which means: heavy) food. Just ask your family to make something different, I'm pretty sure they could find something with cereals instead of potatoes, veal instead of pork and so on. Or you can go to the marketplace, and buy what you need.

BTW, Pawian, is it Plac Imbramowski in Kraków?

Vegetable stalls are the best bet. You can make a couple of good meals for dirt cheap. Also, they have cut pickles which you can throw into the mix. They have soya products too if you want to go one step further.