Do Poles Lead a Healthy Lifestyle?

It's high time we, Polish people, took care of our physical condition! According to the report “Bridging East – West health Gap” Poles are among the least physically active societies in Europe. Only 3 to 10 % of Poles (depending on age group) show sufficient physical activity.

We need more active lifestyle and sport! Not only does stationary and lazy lifestyle mean poor physical condition but it also is the cause of many medical problems: respiratory and cardiovascular systems diseases, obesity, diabetes and low natural resistance – the physicians say.

The data of the Polish Ministry of Health is also not very optimistic. It shows that the proper level of physical activity is present only at 70 % of children from 6-7 years of age, 20 – 30 % of youth between 11 and 15 years of age and only 10 % of adults. In his/her free time, the average Pole usually watches TV (e.g. around 40% of 11- 15 year olds spend more then 4 hours a day in front of TV). As a result of the above, 70% of Poles between 45 and 64 years of age suffers from obesity and being overweight and hypertension is a problem of around 12 million people.

We are at the same time a very peculiar nation. We do not have any awareness whatsoever of our laziness and the obvious fact that more physical activity is very much needed. The report of Ipsos entitled: “Facts and myths. Nutrition and health of Poles in international context” states that, among all nations researched, Poles are the most satisfied with their weight and fitness and their children. As many as 44 % of Poles see their fitness level as satisfying. The same report shows that the average Pole spends his/her free time in front of the TV (66%) and just 20 % of people rides a bike and 7% goes to the gym, do the jogging or other sports. In comparison, Swedes, considered to be a healthy and fit nation, are much less satisfied with their fitness (only 28% declared to be happy about it). Among other nations the Poles are the one that is the least interested in knowledge on healthy living and diets, they also present the lowest trust in their physicians. Just 2 % of Poles sees themselves as obese, while the BMI (Body Mass Index) shows that in reality as many as 14 % of Poles suffers from obesity. The situation is slowly but gradually changing, however. Especially in towns and cities people become more aware of healthy life style.

They take care of their diets, practice sports, keep fit and quit bad habits such as smoking for example. We become more conscious of the fact that the way we eat and spend our free time is directly related with the quality of our living. Some of us already know that the old Polish proverbial saying “in the healthy body, the healthy soul” does need to be taken literally. We learn how to avoid stress, how to be kind and demanding at the same time to our bodies. We learn about healthy, ecological food, about superiority of riding a bike over spending timeless periods in traffic jams, about spending our holidays close to nature, about techniques that help relieving stress such as yoga or tai-chi for example, about the importance of the ingredients of our daily diet, avoiding bubbled drinks, fast-foods and snacks, about harmfulness of smoking and alcohol abuse etc. etc. However that is still to become the focus of awareness of a bigger number of Poles if we are to consider ourselves to be a really healthy nation.

Yet we are all skinnier somehow.....hmm.... (i'd put a pondering smiley here but admin got rid of em)

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here you go ---> :)

Artur..that's what I was going to say.
Maybe Polish people don't have the HEALTHIEST lifestyle....(last time I checked, beer wasn't doctor-recommended or anything) but 14% obese??? I don't think so!

And I don't know about the whole physical exercise component..but when I was visiting there, EVERYBODY walked everywhere. If you're walking all the time, you don't need to be pounding it out on a treadmill back home.

Coming from America, I find this article pretty funny actually... but still interesting....

::visualizes Artur's pondering smiley face::

I know.....we've got all the fatties in the States.......let's mail order :]

Ahaha...finally...a national export to be proud of :)

The Polish diet leaves a bit to be desired but more and more Poles are taking an active interest in exercising. Gyms are usually quite busy and football playing is on the up. The level of jogging could be higher though. The drinking levels are quite high which doesn't help the gut and complaining leads to cancer (said tongue in cheek, Scots complain too)

hey, do you know what "na zdrowie" means? :D :D we're the healthiest peeps on the planet. :D :D

The Germans also say zum wohl (prost alos) and look at their intake of fleisch (meat). I was surprised at the availability of meat in Berlin when I was there. Italians are quite healthy. Kebab shops are everywhere here in Gliwice, I don't know how it is elsewhere. Poles usually say "na zdrowie" before necking shots of vodka, do dna. Not so healthy really when drunk quickly, one after the other. I know ur posting was tongue in cheek. The food in Zakopane is pretty unhealthy

Many of us smoke (blah!), 99,9% drink too much (blah!) and about 60% belongs to christian-fanatics. we do not have swimming pools even in cities with 200k citizens, i've never seen a jogging person before and when we go to gym we usually take russian/bulgarian steroids.

yeah our lifestyle is so fkc healthy.

i never thought I would see the day when I could say we either have a Polish troll
or a very depressed obscessive bipolar person on our site tonight..

Well, he did say in his profile:
interests - wkurzanie ludzi = pissing people off

that figures.

Maybe the rat race is leading people to believe that they should have their noses to the grindstone the whole time and not exercise.

I do see quite a few cyclists when I'm out on my bike. Braving the potholes, LOL. The gym was usually quite busy when I went.

Well, the kids in my classes seem generally fit and slim. I think there's more walking, volleyball, skiing etc and ther's a damn sight more fresh salads and home-cooked food in the diet than the average British lifestyle. The posture is generally better, I'd say, too.

I think Polish TV is generally so bad that people just flock to th gym/sports clubs.

Couldn't agree more, Trevek.