What is Poland's view on obesity? How healthy, fit are Poles?

Make sure you read the article before you enjoy you next Happy Meal

grist.org/article/2010-01-05-cheap-food-ammonia-burgers

WHAT?! ARE YOU KIDDING?! Wow, I don't want to do that but I must agree with Harry - you guys don't have a clue about Poland!

It was a "fine" place to chow for 10 year olds 15 years ago (...you know those birthsday in Macs ;)
Now it's just a quick chow while shopping in mall. Also Kebab kiosques are at every cornener (they replaced the Zapiekanka booths).


No you don't.

Not America? A dog can only have one master, you know.

You should come again to vist. I invite you to my city - we can visit MacDonalds or some other fast food chain, or if you want to try Polish fast food, there are plenty of places. Seriously, why not come?

And he can come to my city, Poznań, too.

Open invitation PennBoy, what about it? I mean, I know you're more at home in places like Kielce, but - hey!

I don't eat fast food, we're just talking about the number of them.

lets keep it on topic

It is said that in Poland food still isn't so much processed - that's another advantage

I agree - a lot of it is wonderfully healthy. Though I worry sometims that there isn't much middle ground - it's either very healthy or very processed.

Also in Poland people eat many pickled stuff - vinegar helps loose weight if someone is intrested in that news ;)

Well i guess i am sort of overweight I'm 6 foot 200 pounds, but im active and play sports, I was just asking this question, because over here in the US we get the impression that all the other countries are super fit and frown on people if they are overweight. But thanks for all your comments.

You don't eat anything in Poland. Ever. Pity that you can't let a single post go by about that fact without whining to the mods about anybody saying anything about that. Such a shame that your daddy can't control the posting here: he'd no doubt make sure that we never posted twice badly about the regime!

Very normal in Poland - not out of the ordinary at all - you shouldn't worry.


Most of Europe isn't really. Nothing to worry about.

Poor diet is a lot of that. One thing Platforma could do is to up the tax on unhealthy processed foods like kielbasa and other wędliny plus vodka too, as well as all the sugary stuff; however that would not be a popular move in a country that produces so much wedliny, vodka and sugar.

PiS wouldn't even approach the problem; most of these things are produced in small towns where the PiS mafia hold sway.

Yes, it wouldn't be a bad idea at all. They're getting there with the ban on junk being sold in schools, but it's a long way yet.

Speaking of the ban on junk food in schools, there's been a huge amount of moaning by the people that operate such shops. Apparently kids won't buy healthy food, so they just won't buy anything at all. Boo hoo.

Having said that, the big problem with upping the tax on such things is that the money would probably be spent on social measures to help those most likely to buy such crap, so it's a vicious circle.

As to poor diet, I had in mind Polish traditional fare - just greasy wędliny and pork, cabbage and starches, no vitamins, no minerals which is for me an explanation why most Poles look old and much older than Westerners at same age and are also always sick. Also the lack of iodine explains the huge problems related to the thyroid gland. People don't eat fish. Someone told me that even on the coast, there is even no culture eating fish because fish are too small there and restaurants on the coast serve frozen fish ;). True too that a lot (most?) of younger generationsI don't eat any better. When shopping and waiting to pay, I take a look at people's baskets and trolleys and too often only crap: chocolate, sodas, chips, all kinds of artificial crap and beer. I've noticed a lot of Polish kids, who by the time they reach the age of 10 have their adult teeth already rotten because of too much sugar.

The government may decide to tax this or that, it won't help. The problem is unheatlhy diet. It is cultural and due to poverty and climate not allowing a lot of vegetables/fruit to grow.

I'm used to eating vegetables and fruit grown in the sun and you can believe me that vegetables and fruit in Poland have no taste. If people disagree, I bet they have never eaten vegetables and fruit grown in the sun. I bought melon a couple of days ago, it's completely dry Inside, no juice, no taste....

Would you eat fish from the horror that is the Baltic? I wouldn't... :)


Yes! I've noticed this as well - it's especially obvious if you go into Biedronka or other similar shops. There's plenty of decent stuff there (I'm forever making salads from there) - yet people are just buying rolls, sausages and all sorts of other crap.


But even then - think about what you can buy in season. There's plenty of decent stuff available, and it doesn't take much effort to make seasonal salads. Even in the depths of winter, it's still perfectly possible to make decent soups using cheap local produce.

But why make a decent salad when you can just feed chips, sausages and bread to your obese child instead?

@Delph: I don't go to Polish coast (I need blue and warm sea ;)) but this is what I was told by a Pole.

I first was in Poland in March 1990 and the food situation was dramatic (I love potatoes so I did survive ;)) and fortunately now we can find almost everything but most people don't buy things that seem exotic to them (only the urban educated middle classes eat an international diet). Older people especially when not well off stick to pierogi and all similar starchy crap, potatoes, cucumber, greasy sausage..... They lack vitamins, minerals and the result they look old and they are always sick....

Unfortunately there is nothing the government can do.

And what about their salads? Cut into tiny pieces and full of industrial mayonnaise (they look like vomit to me).

PS: I won't talk about the "food" they serve in Polish hospitals ;)

It is indeed the problem of the western countries.

@Wulkan; not the Western countries. Child obesity is found mainly in countries like Poland, UK and Germany. It is not the case in Southern Europe. In Greece, even if people are now poor, they eat well (vegetables and fruit grown in the sun, fish, goat milk cheese, olive oïl and wine).

Polish overall population is not healthy and it's due to their poor diet.

Maybe the State could introduce nutrition lessons in school but it'll be extremely hard to change centuries of bad eating.

Really Delph? Scientifiic data to back that up? I go swimming in the sea most days, and while I generally keep my mouth shut, except when taking in air, it tastes OK...... certainly a lot better than swimming pools!

I don't suppose the fish would enjoy the latter either. The flatfish does taste disgusting, but I like Baltic cod :)
On the subject of obesity, some Poles should try the cabbage diet - al dente - not their slime version. A (large) friend went three weeks on this diet (cabbage and water) and lost 8 kilos :)

Cheap too!

Merged: Cabbage diet sought?

Someone on PF has just mentioned a cabbage diet for fatsos but it whizzed by me and don't remember what thread it was on. Anyone know?


Do you just parboil the cabbage (shredded, quartered or what) in boiling salted water until it still has some crunch left, drain it and eat it as is? No condiments like pepper,

Maggi or butter? Anything goes with it: spuds, rye bread, fresh tomatoes? How miuch does one eat per day by weight?

Not the same as Kwaśnica etc. Nothing like butter and no spices to add interest. It actually tastes quite nasty, especially as you have to eat very little else on the Cabbage Soup Diet. It was invented by a surgeon to make fatter patients lose weight suddenly before surgery. You can have a quick weight loss, but it invariably comes back on and the diet becomes monotonous very quickly.

Personally I'm not a fan of Polish cabbage soup either, same with kwasnica. There are neither soups and nicer ways to lose weight by following a calorie controlled diet. These crash diets are not usually great - the only good one is Banting and that has its costs too.

The best cure for obesity is sensible, enjoyable, flavoursome and healthy eating. Unfortunately that rules out most traditional Polish food so you have to go for the next best thing: moderation.

Alcohol, by the way is a no-no. It converts straight to fat. Bread is also bad for obesity. Basically carbohydrates in general, and they are responsible for a lot of the obesity in Poland.

Of course the best antidote to obesity is dust.

It's true that the diet in PL in not a healthy one - it seems like a glorified PRL diet: parówki, kanapki, crisps, pepsi/coke/nasty cheap juice, lots of white bread and plenty of highly processed foods + sugar... Polish children (under 10 or 12yo) are now supposedly most (or nearly) obese in the EU... I think the problem is mainly with the parents' sheer ignorance on the subject of basic nutrition... most seem to don't care, the more sweets/comfort foods the better... perhaps it stems from their personal experiences where such foods were luxury during the PRL years, and that they can afford it they think the more the better for their children...


Agreed. Unfortunately, bad eating habits die VERY hard; in fact, most people would actually prefer to suffer the consequences than change, ie give up their comfort foods even when faced with disease/death... overall, much too much meats i PL diet - especially the nasty cheap and processed types... also, the food tends to be cooked to death...


I doubt any melons grow in PL. The golden rule is to eat local stuff. The good think in PL are the local food markets - from spring to autumn you can find good stuff grown locally with a little effort...


OK, bit it is the same all over when you have universal health care - have you ever seen what's served in, for instance, British hospitals?

By the way, I believe that pickled cabbage has important health benefits due to anaerobic bacteria - it is good for digestion and for immunity. Anyone else has something to add?

@Jardinero: 100% agreed with you! Polish parents stuff their kids with sweets and other garbage because they did not have them when they were kids. My parents were tiny kids during the war and as a result, at home we had a lot of sweets and crap and it was the same in all homes. Kids were not fat though because of balanced meals (with fish, vegetables, fruit) and also no eating between meals.

As to hospital, believe me, here, it beats everything. They have a budget of some 4 zl (= less than 1 euro) per person and per day ;). For instance, we'll serve bread, margarine and 2 slices of greasy mortadela. No fruit no vegetables besides potatoes cucumber and cabbage. When I go to hospital, I eat at the downstairs (private) cafetaria and I buy juice, yoghurt from private shops...

I Don't find Poles obese, but yeah, their diet is far away from being a good diet.

I was raised eating portuguese cuisine from my grandma, and i remember that just 1 hour after eating i was already feeling good with digestion. Meanwhile i find polish food tasty but i feel much heavier for hours after eat almost anything polish.

"@Delph: I don't go to Polish coast (I need blue and warm sea ;)"

I Was in Kolobrzeg last week and it is a lovely place. But the temperature of the water is ridiculously cold.

Please stick to the topic

edit Polish kids are among the most obese in Europe (together with Britons and Germans). It does NOT mean that all Poles are obese ;).

As to the seaside, sorry, Poland is not for me. I am used to much better ;)

A certain amount of blame should go to that Kubuś stuff marketed at young children as well as other sugary drinks. This is responsible for a lot of the child obesity in Poland.

It is very easy to forget how much energy is contained within drinks because they are drinks.

Also, there are many "juice drinks" in Poland, some with less than 20% actual juice, the rest being water, sugar, colors and flavors. They tend to be labelled in a way that makes them appear almost like real juice - until you find the word "drink" written somewhere in a smaller font. Good luck finding that when grocery shopping alone with a fussy kid! They are particularly bad because they don't even hydrate - they can actually cause dehydration.

Even hard to find real juice that isn't from concentrate.

Yes, and the big-selling brands vary in sugar content from country to country. In Poland they tend to be high in sugar. One can of Pepsi Cola or Coca Cola has about 9 spoonfuls of white sugar in. I've come across Poles living in the UK and Germany who bring bottles from Poland because the British/German Cola isn't sweet enough for them. This contributes massively to obesity.


You have to read the labels really carefully. Sugar and obesity by stealth.

Even some 'low fat' products are a long way from low calorie. People in Poland often trust brand names and are quite naive about the damage they can do. I looked everywhere for slimline tonic water - they just don't sell it. So I buy concentrate in the UK and put it through a sodastream.

Also the Polish diet is very high in salt. This doesn't in itself cause obesity but does have a negative effect on health that makes it harder to get/stay slim.

@Jardinero: for sure melons don't grow in Poland. The ideal would be to eat only local fruit and vegetables but in the case of Poland, it's extremely limited (+ considering that soil was most likely contaminated by Chernobyl ;)) and if we want to diversify our diet, we need to buy imported fruit and vegetables. It's true that they don't taste much as they get ripe in trucks and on planes.... but what to do? Last week, I bought grapes and absolutely no taste. Although I love oranges, I very rarely buy any (in Poland) since no taste, dry, no juice.. I don't buy tomatoes either outside of the "malina" and the "daktyle" kinds that we find only in summer.

Not easy to have access to good and healthy food!