Why do Poles just not "understand" healthy eating ??

spiritus:

Many of my Polish friends are great cooks yet drown their food with fat, butter and/or cream !!

When I try to tell them some of these are not necessary and unhealthy they look at me as if I'd just announced the moon is made from cheese.

Is healthy eating unpopular in Poland?

spiritusThreads: 53 Posts: 253 Joined: Oct 25, 06	Mar 23, 09, 14:11 / #
Many of my Polish friends are great cooks yet drown their food with fat, butter and/or cream !! When I try to tell them some of these are not necessary and unhealthy they look at me as if I'd just announced the moon is made from cheese. Is healthy eating unpopular in Poland?

JucheThreads: 13 Posts: 356 Joined: Feb 17, 09	Mar 23, 09, 14:14 / #
And Americans and Brits understand healthy eating? Since when do the people who brought us McDonalds and potato chips constitute authority on health foods? For socialistic sustenance, seek instead nutricious diet of North Korean roots and tubers.

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	Mar 23, 09, 14:18 / #
Enlighten us, Juche! Personally, I didn't find South Korean food to be that healthy. Is the food up north really so different? The Poles, due to family break-ups, seem to be eating less at home and more fast food. There are too many fast food joints here and not enough quality international restaurants.

JucheThreads: 13 Posts: 356 Joined: Feb 17, 09	Mar 23, 09, 14:37 / #
Seanus: The Poles, due to family break-ups, seem to be eating less at home and more fast food. broken family or no it is easy to buy an apple and a carrot in any shop, eating fast food is a consious choice. do not dare mock North Korea diet, for every day I wake at 4:30am to sound of military marching music, do 150 push ups (one hand each) then eat one raw pigeon egg plus one carrot and one handfull wild mushrooms which grow in countryside. then I drink water, while immediate after breakfasting I march to work, happy to do my duty for betterment of the collective.

z_dariusThreads: 22 Posts: 5,091 Joined: Oct 18, 07	Edited by: z_darius Mar 23, 09, 14:44 / #
spiritus: When I try to tell them some of these are not necessary and unhealthy they look at me as if I'd just announced the moon is made from cheese. I had a chat with a French fella on the subject. He view was: if you want sugar free, salt free, fat free etc then... why eat at all? I don't know what Poles eat these days. When I lived there "healthy food" was designed into the "social" policies. Food coupons for nutter, meat, sugar. Which government cares for the health of their citizens more? :) I have a feeling that with the newly found freedoms one of the first Poland's imports was junk food from the West. Poles, from what are hear, are still somewhat in ha;f decent shape but they may catch up with Brits pretty soon. Obesity is an important health problem in Poland affecting adolescents and adults. A study of a Lower Silesian population aged 20-40 years (25 400 participants), between 1993 and 2003, showed an increase in obese women from 8.9% to 15.0%, but no change in men (6.3% vs. 6.5%, respectively). Obesity was more frequent in girls and women (6% and 15%) compared to boys and men (4.0% and 6.5%, respectively). Estimation of obesity prevalence in various parts of Poland seems to be regionally dependent; the highest prevalence of obesity was observed in eastern regions of Poland. source. In UK: A further 32% of women and 46% of men are overweight, meaning that most people in England (58%) are now either fat or obese. source.

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	Mar 23, 09, 14:47 / #
Yes, it is easy but that doesn't mean that people do it. Apples have flies and pesticides anyway. Who was mocking? I was just saying that the SK diet isn't that healthy. I've never been to the north so I don't know but Seoul is pretty close to the border. Do you wipe the cowshit off of the mushroom before you eat it and start hallucinating? LOL I'll have to start calling you Hue with the way that you speak. Not 5 of 1, LOL

JucheThreads: 13 Posts: 356 Joined: Feb 17, 09	Mar 23, 09, 14:48 / #
Polish food so so healthy (fats , starches, and too much sugars common), Polish prefer cheap things to healthy (for example cooking with nasty cheap oils instead of healhty but more expensive olive oil and similair). However thanks in part to good system of public transport devloped by the socialistic Poles every day engage in physical exertion to catch buses, etc, which keeps them slimmer even if they eat junk food and other trappings of decadent capitalist lifestyle.

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	Mar 23, 09, 14:53 / #
Many Polish people have good builds, not indicative of succumbing to the trappings of fast food. Olive oil is readily available here. Cabbage is quite healthy actually, Juche. Some cheap foods can be quite nutritious.

ShelleySThreads: 18 Posts: 3,647 Joined: Jun 26, 07	Edited by: ShelleyS Mar 23, 09, 15:03 / #
Seanus: Some cheap foods can be quite nutritious. I can vouch for that I could happily live on lentils and beans (dont mean beaked beans either). Although, I will say one thing, a few years ago when the Poles first arrived in the UK I didnt see one porker, now Im starting to see more and more porkers speaking Polish, more access to crappy processed food is obviously not good for anyone regardless of nationality. On the up side I didn't see one fatty when I was in Poland...

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	Mar 23, 09, 15:09 / #
There are beans here. The Poles seem to have overlooked lentil soup as a standard offering. I know it exists (zupa soczewice or sth like that) but other soups rank higher in the order of preference. Still, they eat kasza here (gruels/grain) which is healthy enough. It could be dubbed as Polish cous-cous. They have more stalls on the go than back home. Given the right season, they are very cheap. Britain has more options for porkers. We are more of a crisps culture too, I rarely see Poles eating them. We stuff our faces with them whilst watching the box.

ZIMMYThreads: 10 Posts: 2,353 Joined: Feb 21, 09	Mar 23, 09, 16:17 / #
Just pass the pork skins and be quiet.

JucheThreads: 13 Posts: 356 Joined: Feb 17, 09	Mar 23, 09, 16:36 / #
Seanus: It could be dubbed as Polish cous-cous. but much stinkier. Comrade Seanus I never say cheap food is bad or unnutritious, on contrary notion! Picking wild mushrooms cost nothing, no? And of course very nutritious! But living in socialistic society is more vigourous physically, more running and marching of course, plus non-commercial nature of life assures less junk being sold for empty shallow profit so capitalist class can line its pockets with wealth while working class lines itself with flab. My treatise on oil for cooking is of course uncomplete but worry not one day it will be included in the working peoples' polemics and what not.

Cardno85Threads: 33 Posts: 858 Joined: Jul 11, 08 MEMBER	Mar 23, 09, 21:16 / #
Rafal_1981: Well, you should just compare an average weight of a Polish guy and a typical British guy. Polish dietary habits are not that unhealthy after all, are they? ;-] That's exactly what I was thinking. There was an article in the Observer Food Monthly yesterday about the British Middle Class "Myth" about healthy eating. Basically what we are doing is unbalancing our meals resulting in a much less healthy diet. People sit about going "Oh you can't eat that, there's too much fat in it"...fat is not a bad thing, just don't overdo it.

pgtxThreads: 49 Posts: 6,327 Joined: Feb 14, 09 MEMBER	Mar 23, 09, 21:22 / #
of course Polish food is fat... lots of frying, sour cream, butter, oil, bread, dough... but even tho i've never visited gym in PL, i was never over weight... i walked everywhere so i got my exercise... but when i came to the us i gain a couple of pounds because i drive everywhere and my ass is always sitting, no matter where i go...

VaFunkooloThreads: 7 Posts: 823 Joined: Mar 24, 08	Mar 23, 09, 15:57 / #
spiritus: Why do Poles just not "understand" healthy eating ?? Obviously a rhetorical question

Rafal_1981	Edited by: Rafal_1981 Mar 23, 09, 16:17 / #
spiritus: Many of my Polish friends are great cooks yet drown their food with fat, butter and/or cream !! When I try to tell them some of these are not necessary and unhealthy they look at me as if I'd just announced the moon is made from cheese. Is healthy eating unpopular in Poland? Well, you should just compare an average weight of a Polish guy and a typical British guy. Polish dietary habits are not that unhealthy after all, are they? ;-]

time meansThreads: 9 Posts: 2,306 Joined: Apr 21, 08	Mar 23, 09, 16:32 / #
spiritus: they look at me as if I'd just announced the moon is made from cheese. it is, it`s a well known fact.

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	Mar 23, 09, 18:29 / #
I hope I wasn't implying that, Comrade Juche. Comrade, that's great!

PolskaManThreads: 3 Posts: 177 Joined: Jan 3, 09	Mar 23, 09, 21:18 / #
When i was back in Poland i didnt see alot of fat people compared to Canada

Pinching PeteThreads: 1 Posts: 1,111 Joined: Feb 23, 08	Mar 23, 09, 21:20 / #
PolskaMan: back in Poland i didnt see alot of fat people compared to Canada Poland doesn't have Canada's weather either.. freezing weather doesn't exactly do wonders for the metabolism.

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	Mar 23, 09, 22:46 / #
It's important to move around a lot. Salads are available here but Poland has such great salad ingredients that a home salad is quite the taste experience. Knorr make great sauces to add to them and not so high calorie. Kamis too.

pgtxThreads: 49 Posts: 6,327 Joined: Feb 14, 09 MEMBER	Mar 23, 09, 22:49 / #
Seanus: Knorr make great sauces i've learned that the best, more delicious are simple stuff... just some fresh squeezed lemon juice, some garlic, spices and salad dressed up...

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	Mar 23, 09, 22:52 / #
The problem with lemon juice from a fresh lemon is that pips (pestki) sneak out unnoticed and you chomp on one later :( Garlic, yeah, I should really use that more as a flavour provider. What spices do you throw in there?

pgtxThreads: 49 Posts: 6,327 Joined: Feb 14, 09 MEMBER	Mar 23, 09, 23:02 / #
Seanus: pips (pestki) sneak out unnoticed and you chomp on one later :( so don't just dump it to the salad but carefully take it out... are you in hurry? lol Seanus: What spices do you throw in there? usually salt and pepper and whatever fits your salad...

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	Mar 23, 09, 23:04 / #
They drop in unannounced ;( Not in a hurry, no :) Salt and pepper are common additions. More pepper though :) The herbs are often provided by the sauces I buy.

pgtxThreads: 49 Posts: 6,327 Joined: Feb 14, 09 MEMBER	Mar 23, 09, 23:07 / #
Seanus: The herbs are often provided by the sauces I buy. that's easy... get creative... ;) Seanus: They drop in unannounced ;( talk to the lemon before you start so everyone will be ready... lol

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	Mar 23, 09, 23:10 / #
Well, yeah, Poland has a fairly full range of spices. Gotta experiment with different ones. Talk to the lemon, what??? The lemon is supposed to be the fruit, not me ;)

pgtxThreads: 49 Posts: 6,327 Joined: Feb 14, 09 MEMBER	Mar 23, 09, 23:15 / #
Seanus: The lemon is supposed to be the fruit, not me ;) lol... that's one of my favorite dressings.... with not a drop of lemon... ;) 1/3 cup of red wine vinegar 2/3 cup of olive oil 2 clove garlic (chopped) 1-2 tablespoons of sugar 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar salt and pepper to taste

Cardno85Threads: 33 Posts: 858 Joined: Jul 11, 08 MEMBER	Mar 23, 09, 23:15 / #
a wee tip for your lemon woes (that i learned from years of working in cocktail bars) is get a bit of light material or a seive and squeeze the lemon through that...all the juice and no pips :)

SeanusThreads: 22 Posts: 30,158 Joined: Dec 25, 07	Mar 23, 09, 23:18 / #
Nice recipe, PGTX. Thanks Cardno. Now that I think about it, it stands to reason. Putting exp to good use is a large part of life. Better than concentrated lemon juice which, at best, is only good for dripping onto some kinds of fish.