Healthy polish food?

I think you move more than average american. Many americans have big backs and crooked legs, I think that's because they start driving a lot too early while their bones are not thoroughly formed. Secondly I would prefer a lard or some other food (maybe not so healthy but still natural) to american artificial burgers.

You are all generalizing.
There are many, many, many fat people in Poland.
Open your eyes. They're eating pierogi with boczek and wash it down with żywiec.
Talk to any Polak and first thing they say is how their wątroba hurts (from eating too much fat) then they complain: "to boli, tam boli".

Many Poles eat very fattening foods with high cholesterol, and they don't go for checkups. Some are skinny, some are fat. The skinny ones are always crabby, nervous and complaining about everything, that's how they use up their calories.

Look who's generalizing! I'm slim, and I'm not crabby/nervous, and I eat what I like, which includes fruit, vegetables, meat, some bacon as well, I occasionally drink beer, and I'm Polish, and I know lots of Polish people just like me; incidentally, I'm 40 and I weigh only 10 kgs more than I did in secondary school! Most of my school friends haven't put on loads of weight either. So there. BTW - my liver is in really good shape. ;-p

The Polish food of the 19th-century peasants who went to America was quite healthy:
-- whole-grain bread, high-fibre groats, root vegetables (beetroot, rutabaga, carrots, celeriac, etc.)
-- high-cholsterol foods such as meat, eggs, cream, cheese, butter, lard, etc. were consumed in moderation and people aet theri fill only on special occasions, and their negatvie effects were more than offset by hard physical labour

-- enough Vit. C in fruit, sauerkraut and vegetables to prevent scurvy.
Only after coming to America, the once-in-a-while dishes, esp. lots of meat, become a steady diet and high cholesterol and its consequences followed.
The same holds true for Italians. Heart atacks were rare in Italy thanks to the heart-healthy Mediterranean diet, but once in America the once mainly vegetable-based pasta sauces got loaded down with meat, and the Anglo steak fetish took hold and....

Thread attached on merging:
Healthy Polish recipies? Most of them are not...

Does anyone know any Polish recipes that are healthy? Everything that I know how to make definitely isn't... (my polish grandma also eats lard sandwiches so I don't think having her being my teacher helped :-) )

most of pl foods is healthy actually.

It may not be all healthy, but walking to the sklep every day helps keep them some what healthy.

plk123 what do you recommend?

i found this old thread on the same topic if anyone was interested

I find that when I cook Polish food at home it's very healthy and nourishing.
It depends on what you make and how you make it.
When I make Golabki I use ground venison. It calls for no oil or butter, just veggies (cabbage, onion, tomato sauce) and it's very delicious and well balanced.

I make soups (cabbage, mushroom, pickle, fruit etc.), cucumber salad (I use light sour cream - you can't tell the difference) fruit compotes, whole wheat egg noodles w/ cabbage, fruit nalesniki (yes, I have used whole wheat flour and they turn out great).

Sometimes when I get Polish food from a restaurant it is greasy and unhealthy but in general when you make home cooked meals from fresh and healthy ingredients, you are eating well. As a bonus, it's inexpensive!

Thats because cheese and butter does not make you fat! Its the excessive sugar and carbohydrates that people consume, while avoiding fat that makes people obese.

In fact saturated fats (not hydrogenated-trans fats) are extremely healthy for you, and help your body maintain a good balance of hormones and satiety that weaves of the fat.

a couple of months late but hey.... look past the sausage and golonka.. i recommend you get a polish recipe book. many polish foods are very healthy.. many are very veggie laden... polish cuisine is very deep and rich.. it's really hard to give one recommendation.,. it kind of depends on what one likes.. i prefer polish food over many others.. that's for sure.. bon appetit.

great thread. case and point....at least one of my old points.

LondonChick wrote:


lifestyle, lifestyle, lifestyle.

this forum loves to go on about how "the west" eats such crappy food....well, take a look at this thread. Polish food is full of oil, butter, meat, meat, few vegetables, meat, meat, cabbage with meat, bread with meat, pierogi fried in butter, kielbasa with butter and meat....you get the point.

there are plenty of fat asses in Poland. in general, the high school and college age kids are thinner because they can't afford to go out to restaurants and end up eating a lot of goracy kubek. secondly, none of them own cars. they're hoofin' it well into their twenties, some of which never even get a car till they're in their 30's. walking 6-7 kilometers a day means you can eat that greasy polish stuff and still be thinner than "the westerners"....but haven't you all noticed that once they get to around 35.....everything kind of falls apart?

lifestyle, lifestyle, lifestyle. for a 150 pound person, walking at a strong pace burns 340 calories per hour. i don't own a car and I walk no less than 2 hours a day. i'm a little more than 150, so let's say that's 700 calories per day.

a Big Mac is 485 calories.

give all those 18-28 year olds cars like they all drive in America, and everybody's ass in this country explodes just the same.

I second plk123. Get a Polish cookbook - and I don't mean a cookbook written in the UK or USA by someone whose great-grandmother once stood next to a plate of pierogi. I mean a typical Polish cookbook written in Poland by a Polish person for everyday Polish use. For example "Kuchnia polska". And start reading, preferably with the introductory recommendations about what constitutes a healthy diet.

BTW - kiełbasa with butter?! Don't let your imagination run wild ;-p

FEW VEGETABLES?????

Come on, I mean you can't order a glass of water without it being accompanied by chopped salad.

yes, few vegetables.

What Polish person eats that on a daily basis? I don't know anyone that does. I'm really wondering who is eating "kielbasa with butter and meat" - seriously, as Magdalena says, don't let your imagination run wild here.


Again, I'm wondering where you live, because I'm just not seeing them in Poland. There are some, but they're the exception rather than the rule.


Who is eating Goracy Kubek? High school kids will be eating what their parents provide, which given the Polish attitude towards making sure that people don't go hungry, they certainly won't be eating that!

College students - some will be eating rubbish, some will be eating like kings. Just like in every normal country in the world.

But do American high school/college kids really go to restaurants on a regular basis? If so, that certainly explains the obesity problem!


Are you actually in Poland whatsoever? I'm really not recognising this country that you're talking about. I know plenty of people with cars, and many people that don't have cars simply don't need one - what's the point in owning a car if you're living, studying and working in the middle of a city?

I know plenty of people in the UK who don't own a car despite being in the mid 20's. What's the point in many cases, especially if you live in a major city?


Nope, not seeing it. In fact, Polish women tend to be quite a bit thinner than their Western counterparts even when they're well into their 50's.


Why would every 18-28 year old want to own a car in Europe? You might have noticed - we have actual cities with defined centres and life - unlike many American cities.

I'm really wondering what Poland you're living in, because it's certainly not the one I live in.

As for the few vegetables comment - again, I suspect you've ended up part of a very unhealthy Polish family, because I certainly get vegetables and veggie dishes rammed down my throat. Given that fresh vegetables are revoltingly cheap in Poland, it's kinda hard not to eat a significant amount of them.

Bread, meat, and cheese? Everyone eats that on a daily basis :)


There are quite a few here. And they are the exception, but they are here...


Quite a few kids here are starting to eat at fast food places on a regular basis... There is always a line at fast food places, and it's usually full of young people. The obesity problem in the states is because no one walks anywhere...


I think that's the point he was trying to make.

Have a look at some lekkostrawne (easily digestible) cookbooks and you will see that Poland has some healthy dishes, esp with cabbage. A few foods have salubrious properties, it all depends on the dose and how you balance your diet.

Burak soup - makes my beautiful urine red. :D

Beetroot soup is healthy but doesn't it contain a lot of sugar? The cup-o-soup version does but maybe the home-made version doesn't (more to taste). How about krupnik, the soup? I loved the alcohol, I had some merry moments with that (krupnik).

it's not that simple.. one could say the problem is because americans love their "super size"

Coffee is in my Longerberger mug, hot chocolate in my Pfaltzgraft Christmas mug because it is tall, and soup is in my Polish Pottery soup bowls. I really love my dinnerware that I got at Target a long time ago, but the plates are almost gone and I can't find them any longer. So it is time to look for new ones.

Polish foods are healthy. REAL polish food, homemade, not processed, is fresh, fresh fresh and uses the best ingredients. To make it healthier you have to watch the fat content and bake, and steam, not fry.But that's true of any cooking. For example, soups are a core component of Polish cuisine and a number of them are based on vegtables--barszcz (borscht). Pierogi's are great vegetarian fare, but you need to serve them steamed or baked with broth or sauce--not smothered in butter. Good Polish ham is leaner than most American cuts. Also, substitute vegtable oil for butter when sauteing onions or other vegtables.

Even babka isn't bad for you. It's an egg based bread and the raisins and walnuts are a good source of fiber----spread with fresh (no sugar added) jam. Yum! Trick is just to eat one piece.

Margaretko in NJ

margaretko wrote:


my favorite repeated line. "It's healthy because it's natural." ha!

I'd love to hear this conversation with a doctor and an obese man in Poland. "No doc, I AM eating healthy! All the butter and bread and kielbasa and vodka and smietana and schabowy is made from pure natural ingredients!"

ooooh man.....you're the best, Poland!

Sprouts is my first answer!

Last year I grew two dozen big sunflowers. Collected the seeds and have been using them as delicious variety to my daily veg supply.

Seeds need about 10 days to achieve such an eatable size as sprouts. I do the process of sprouting in simple jars - easiest of all.

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I cut down this plant in our veg plot twice a week, put in the jar filled with water and then regularly use up leaf after leaf.

What is this healthy thing?

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Don't get me wrong, I love most, but not all, Polish food, but Healthy Polish Food is surely an oxymoron!

Yes and no. Some is certainly carb-heavy winter food and of course wedliny etc is ultra-processed however there are some pretty healthy things, especially the soups and things like mizeria.

Plus the prepared food is only part of any country's cuisine and the fresh soft fruit is generally superb. Except for the rhubarb which is laughably poor.

Supermarkets though always default to the cheapest to produce. Same everywhere.

I disagree with the Brit Boy.
Cabbage (kapusta) is used in a lot of the Polish cuisine and is one of the healthiest foods on the face of the earth.

Not as much as outsiders think.