Anjas
28 Dec 2007 / #1
Most Poles consider themselves to be healthy eaters, but few take up special diets and fried meat is still the main dish on many Polish tables, show the results of CEBOS report. Despite warnings of physicians and media campaign, Polish eating habits have not undergone considerable changes during last fifteen years.
The consumption of vegetables and poultry increased considerably, consumption of fruits and dairy, such as yoghurts or cheese and rice has also slightly increased, but still the majority of Poles (61% of the people researched) think that the dishes they eat very much resemble the dishes of their parents’ cuisine. The opinion that Poles eat healthy food is very popular (65%) and some even think that the food they eat is very healthy (8%). “Subjective evaluation of own eating habits does not have to be justified by facts”, the report says. And so only 32% of the responders declared they eat fruit between the meals, similar number (38%) avoids unhealthy snacks e.g. chips and sweets. 78% of the persons researched eat regular meals but only 15% takes up any special diets for health improvement, and 11% for their good looking.
Poles are traditional in their attitude towards eating habits and cuisine. For the majority, an ideal dinner consist of a meat dish (82%) (pork chop is definitely the most popular, it was mentioned by every fourth of the responders), potatoes (58%), and soup (54%). But a significant number of the researched Poles have also mentioned vegetables (65%). The most popular meat in Poland is still pork; frying is still the most “valuable” method of meat preparation. Fish is definitely underestimated – fish meal would be chosen only by 7% of responders.
Very few Poles carefully read labels on food packaging. Almost half of them (44%) never check the ingredients of the products they buy: e.g. fat, sugar, and artificial preservatives content, and 29% does it on a rarely basis.
Very few buy so called “healthy food” as CBOS research shows, the tendency has not been changing for the past eight years. In comparison with the previous researches, only a percentage of people who check the expiry date of food has increased (from 31 to 40%). On the whole, the majority of Polish people still have tendency to eat fat and unhealthy food. In result, most of them have “discovered” doubtful advantages of fast – food restaurants and snacks, which slowly become the reason of obesity for more and more Polish people. Generally Poles eat at home, the habit of dining out is not very much popular, but the popularity of catering and take-away places slowly increases, especially in big cities.
A regular daily diet of an average Polish person consists of three main meals: breakfast, dinner, and supper. Breakfast is eaten early in the morning and consists mainly of sandwiches, scrambled eggs, some dairy products, and tea or coffee to drink. Dinner consists of two dishes: soup and the main dish; dinner is mainly eaten between 3 and 5 o’clock. Supper is eaten late, usually around 8 or 9 o’clock, and is similar to breakfast: many people “run” on sandwiches or some sort of a warm snacks.
Bad habit of nibbling on a snack is very popular among Poles and unfortunately the snacks are not too healthy. Poles would rather eat some chocolate or a packet of chips instead of an apple or some other digestive food. They also have a tendency to drinking a lot of bubbly soft drinks such as a coke and lemonades, instead of juices or plain mineral water. It also appears that Poles drink too much of heavy alcohol which definitely does not add to healthy eating habits.
The consumption of vegetables and poultry increased considerably, consumption of fruits and dairy, such as yoghurts or cheese and rice has also slightly increased, but still the majority of Poles (61% of the people researched) think that the dishes they eat very much resemble the dishes of their parents’ cuisine. The opinion that Poles eat healthy food is very popular (65%) and some even think that the food they eat is very healthy (8%). “Subjective evaluation of own eating habits does not have to be justified by facts”, the report says. And so only 32% of the responders declared they eat fruit between the meals, similar number (38%) avoids unhealthy snacks e.g. chips and sweets. 78% of the persons researched eat regular meals but only 15% takes up any special diets for health improvement, and 11% for their good looking.
Poles are traditional in their attitude towards eating habits and cuisine. For the majority, an ideal dinner consist of a meat dish (82%) (pork chop is definitely the most popular, it was mentioned by every fourth of the responders), potatoes (58%), and soup (54%). But a significant number of the researched Poles have also mentioned vegetables (65%). The most popular meat in Poland is still pork; frying is still the most “valuable” method of meat preparation. Fish is definitely underestimated – fish meal would be chosen only by 7% of responders.
Very few Poles carefully read labels on food packaging. Almost half of them (44%) never check the ingredients of the products they buy: e.g. fat, sugar, and artificial preservatives content, and 29% does it on a rarely basis.
Very few buy so called “healthy food” as CBOS research shows, the tendency has not been changing for the past eight years. In comparison with the previous researches, only a percentage of people who check the expiry date of food has increased (from 31 to 40%). On the whole, the majority of Polish people still have tendency to eat fat and unhealthy food. In result, most of them have “discovered” doubtful advantages of fast – food restaurants and snacks, which slowly become the reason of obesity for more and more Polish people. Generally Poles eat at home, the habit of dining out is not very much popular, but the popularity of catering and take-away places slowly increases, especially in big cities.
A regular daily diet of an average Polish person consists of three main meals: breakfast, dinner, and supper. Breakfast is eaten early in the morning and consists mainly of sandwiches, scrambled eggs, some dairy products, and tea or coffee to drink. Dinner consists of two dishes: soup and the main dish; dinner is mainly eaten between 3 and 5 o’clock. Supper is eaten late, usually around 8 or 9 o’clock, and is similar to breakfast: many people “run” on sandwiches or some sort of a warm snacks.
Bad habit of nibbling on a snack is very popular among Poles and unfortunately the snacks are not too healthy. Poles would rather eat some chocolate or a packet of chips instead of an apple or some other digestive food. They also have a tendency to drinking a lot of bubbly soft drinks such as a coke and lemonades, instead of juices or plain mineral water. It also appears that Poles drink too much of heavy alcohol which definitely does not add to healthy eating habits.