POLAND IS GETTING LARGE and Who's to blame? (An Overweight Problem In The Making)

POLAND IS GETTING LARGE: Who's to blame? (An Overweight Problem In The Making)
DISCLAIMER: This video is meant to reflect observations and not to denigrate or ridicule anybody especially people dealing with weight issues.
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:50 Why I'm making this video
2:52 The Polish Diet
4:32 Study On Polish Nutritional Status
5:34 History and overfeeding
8:04 Wealth makes you fat?
9:05 The Westernification of Poland?
10:29 Physical Activity?
12:32 Final Thoughts
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[@pjdava]

Vigo’s Dad, This is fantastic! I subscribed because I love it!

[@philiprenshaw9184]

Poland needs to focus on it's rich history and tasty food, don't end up like the UK, its become an extension of America, too many fast food outlets. As a Brit living in Poland I value Polish culture its landscape and of course its cuisine. Embrace your heritage, once it's gone the chances are it will never return, I should know coming from the UK.

[@patrickfegerline]

How long you living in Poland matey?

[@xdlol59]

My parents are good example. During communism they ate oranges once a year, they didn't had access to chocolate or sweets too much or at all, my father didn't know how to eat banana as a teen, because he saw it for the first time in real life. And basically in the 70's 80's and 90's majority of people were VERY skinny. Now both of my parents are overweight almost obese 😢 I don't know what to do. They just eat too much and they have sitting lifestyle and work.

[@DS11129]

JT, When I saw the title here I was excited as I have personally seen the issue here in Poland since I first visited in 2001. My comment will be a little long but I want to touch on what I have seen that ties into what you are seeing with some clarification. As I noted in other videos my wife grew up in Communist Poland and left for Germany after the wall fell and the collapse of the zloty leading to her dad losing his business. She has stories of not only her family having family/friends in the states but others she new at the time with family in America. The family would send dollars and there were special stores where you could spend dollars to get the "good" stuff. Sugar and many staples were rationed and as a result it is true those in the times they would seek the sweets and other things that they would not normally have. Yet I feel because of how they grew up they would ration and still for the most part do so today. Which leads me to the second part my wife's generation and those generations before I do not think they really seek out sweets and overeat. I do see them hoard and have lots of leftovers. Like when you go to Babcia who has little but will feed you like a king. Where I see the issue is really those born after communism fell; about 35 and younger. Up until Poland joined the EU there really was not much of a weight issue and I would even go to say I did not really see a drastic change until about 2018. They say things take two generations to make a change and I think we are seeing that today. I know alot of western goods really hit hard in the stores in the late 2000s and have increased well beyond what I would have saw in 2001. More access to things that are just not healthy. This leads to the kids today who's parents kinda are the first generation with abundance to be even more overweight. Tie this in with electric scooters and entertainment systems and you will see what happened in America about 20 years ago happening in Poland today. What I do like is the government has done a great job stepping in to try to fix this and from where I live it does seem like the Poles are embracing the change. You now have the taxes on unhealthy products forcing prices much higher. While inflation plays some role Lays used to be less than 5PLN when I moved to Poland and you could easily get .5 liter coke for less than 3PLN. Now both are well over double that price. Which can be seen as a good thing. You get still get Tymbark Jalbko-Wisnia, for less than 3PLN. ;) Going on to the fitness side I have degrees in a few things one being business and also I am a certified personal trainer owning my own gym in the states for over 7 years so can see a few sides of other issues. I also face my own health battles and managed to lose over 40lbs the past 18 months here in Poland. Hard work paid off and I ran a marathon in Lithuania a few weeks back; running Warsaw this fall. What I find in Poland is the younger generation will flock to gyms if they are near but not the older generation. The older generation in my view gets more exercise not going to the gym as they tend to walk or bike more than those younger than them. Living in a small village and paths between villages I see many kids and adults bike or walk the few kms between towns. In our area it is normal. We had a McDonald's open the town over not long ago so more kids biking. Although food choices may offset the exercise. So for me don't discount those that don't go to the gym. I have my own in my basement but I tend to run or walk more. Sadly most westerners countries don't do that especially in the states and I think living a healthy lifestyle you need to walk and bike daily. Here is a link for Poland's walk/biking score. If you know the health habits of the nations here you can see how important walking is take France for example. One final note as I saw some comments on this. Our food is what we choose to eat. I choose to eat more of the healthier Polish food. As a result when I went home to the states for my oldest daughter's wedding my family and myself got sick off the fast food. This is food we used to eat regularly in the states but eating healthier in Poland we discovered how much garbage it is. So choose to eat healthy ;). Thank you for addressing such an important topic. Health is key for all of us and it just makes us feel so much better. All the best. www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/18gn6v7/what_percentage_of_european_adults_walk_or_cycle/www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/18gn6v7/what_percentage_of_european_adults_walk_or_cycle/

[@gsgrzegorz98]

One thing I'll disagree with is equating physical activity with sports. That's the mistake that our education makes and the result is that PE lessons are basically nothing but playing football. When I was in school I did not receive a single lesson about how not to hurt yourself while going to the gym or about nutrition and different diets. What I did get was a failing grade because I was not able to run for 10km even though I was able to regularly do about 50-70km on a bike in my free time (Yes I'm still salty about this). Walking is not considered a sport. Casually riding a bike is not considered a sport. Casual hiking is not considered a sport. What is good for Poland is is not to have a population of athletes but a healthy population.

[@piter4e]

Mate, watching you from Australia for quite some time now. Great content, don't stop! Really appreciate your point of view on Poland.

[@wojstube9359]

In my opinion, it looks like this. We have too many carbohydrates in our diet compared to the ability to burn them through exercises. Unfortunately, this is a typical feature of highly developed countries.

[@mrfreddie04p]

Polish diet was always rich in carbs. The quality of food was better, people ate less, and, out of necessity, worked more physically and moved more.

[@bailaconmara]

Great video!! The food in Poland is just amazing I love it 😍...... The problem Worldwide is too much Sugar in Everything we eat, lowering ALL types and versions will help in every way!! thanks for your vídeos JT🙌🤗

[@next-next-finish]

On top of everything else that you said, I’d add the fact we had a pandemic not a long time ago and because people stayed locked at home for almost 2 years, it probably contributed to deteriorating their health (eating because of anxiety, not moving etc.). When I got vaccinated, blood exams and pressure were looking bad and it was a tough but steady recovery for me. I wonder how many other people had the willpower to “go back to normal” after this event, and didn’t give up halfway.

[@edytatehrani3934]

You are right. There are more overweight people in Poland now than there were even 20 years ago. And it has to do with lifestyle changes. Polish people have adopted American lifestyle of going everywhere by car and not walking/biking as much as they used to. They also eat more processed foods and eat out a lot more. These all combined results in higher rates of obesity. This needs to change and I think that younger people catch on it more and begin to change their diet and exercise more, but as you said, people over 65 are in the worst shape. That's why they don't live very long. It's sad, but true.

[@AnnaClaire17]

I grew up in Poland. I didn't realize how greasy our cuisine was until had to change my way of cooking for my husband (he has a huge sensitivity to fried foods, bloats him up and messes up with his tummy). That said, it sure is tasty!

[@forgottenhobbies]

This is an interesting topic, and I am glad you brought it up.

[@sylviasz2628]

Sad but true. Greetings from Korea to all the family. Processed food is a problem.

[@tyago1949]

Genius video ! Loved all of it. How about a video on topics more related on political views ? I know it can be a tense subject but my polish partner keeps saying to me that he would never ever move back to Poland because of how the country views certain aspects. I don't have examples to give you unfortunately. But you could you make a video i don't know .... about...Voting, is marriage in decline, how are homosexual people are treated in Poland etc.. Stuff like that. It could be very interesting.

[@c.g.6854]

Half a year in a gym and already starts coaching :D

[@Voykkaido]

Although it may not be considered a very "sporty" country, Poland does have the Walking Culture. By this I mean the social activity of going for a walk with friends, family, even on a date. This might not end up in activity stats. Indeed, older people do not seem to be very active. I compare (just as an observation) this to Japan, where you often see way more elderly people hiking in the hills and mountains than younger generations.

[@katarzynalpzm0arajko-nenow32]

I guess we don't have healthy habits like we're not very sporty ppl. At least most of us aren't. I can compare to Norway as I lived there 2 years. A lot of ppl prioritises their job or their kids schedule and are spending a lot of time in cars. They're starting to recognize the problem when they're 15-20 kg overweight, just like me. 😒 I'm fighting it so I guess it will change over time but not everyone does it. Changing long lasting habits of not moving enough is difficult.

[@jozeffurtak]

Are you calling me fat ??? 😅😅😉

[@mrfreddie04p]

I do not believe in gyms. Outdoor Recreational activities or, better yet, a healthy dose of physical work are the best.

[@MikaComments]

Niestety ale Polacy nie doceniaja swoich wlasnych zasobow, wartosci jak np. wlasne rolnictwo czy tez wlasne jedzenie i leca jak wariaci za zachodnimi pogladami czy tez jedzeniem co ma zle konsekfencje.

[@ginterka381996]

Niestety to się zmienia na gorsze 😢 Sama mam parę nadprogramowych kilogramów, które chcę zrzucić.

[@impatryk2860]

Spal je, nie będę sugerował jak 😉

[@patrickfegerline]

Witam w klubie

[@slawekwojtowicz]

Nasze grzechy sa w tluszczu przechowywane

[@mrfreddie04p]

Polish food is great, but you have to be sensible about it. As with any cuisine, one can make good or poor choices.

[@andrzejkowalski4021]

In PRL we had no commmunisem but state capitalism! The quality of life in PRL was better than anywhere in Latin America. For example 33% of Poles in 1989 had running water and toilet in their home/ apartment , while in the city of Buenos Aires Argentina , which was the best in Latin America in 1990 only 20% of people had this. The level of education in the hard sciences in eastern block was vastly superior to the west. 99% of the present day collage students in STEM in the entire west , including MIT ,would not pass entreance exam to collage in PRL . This is the reason why the East Europe made such a fast progress.

[@annaboczynska5601]

True especially among young people that's sad. But on the other hand loads of people go to gym. which is good. This strong overweight problems started when fastfoods like M.......opened in Poland. During communism the problem was not as big as nowadays

[@michakakol5317]

You knew more process food more fast food and lockdown make us fatter, not our traditional food

[@jakubosiejewski9859]

I don't think the problem is that "Polish people have too much money", in my opinion it's the opposite, we can't afford healthy vegan alternatives, we work long hours and we can't cook healthy food (so a lot of Polish people just eat pre-made junk food), we don't have enough free time for exercise. It's not that we're getting richer, it's that the liberal government is taking our free time away.

[@Immigrantwriter]

rich countries are getting fatter, but among these countries it's the poorer people that suffer the most with processed, fattening foods. Somehow the richer the country, the harder it is to afford healthy lifestyle.

[@mrfreddie04p]

Excuses, excuses. Cooking healthy meals does not take that much time and effort. Vegan diet is not necessarily healthy. One thing I would change in Polish diet - I would limit the consumption of pork, which I do not think is a good choice. When it comes to exercise, you can walk instead of driving or use the stairs instead of the elevator. Go for a bike ride on a weekend. You don't have to spend time visiting the gym.

[@Immigrantwriter]

@@mrfreddie04p you would think so but cooking requires resources like time, skill level and also access to healtjy fresh ingrediente. White flour, plastic cheese, poor quality meat, oily stuff is often quicker and cheaper. And its addictive. Poland is still not that bad but UK and US for example shit food is often more accessible.

[@xdlol59]

No. In USA it is the case, but in Poland vegetables are very cheap.

[@Adriano70911]

Kraj wielorybów i lewaków przykre

[@ALPHABYTE64]

people can't afford better food cuz taxes are so high

[@rawenragnars4631]

CZŁOWIEKU..CO ZA OIERDY Z TYM KOMUNIZMEM..DOUCZ SIE A POTEM JUZ NIE RÓB Z SIEBIE BŁAZNA I NIEDOUKA.

[@chrisj699]

Nie krzycz tak bo powielasz tylko stereotyp niedomytego i niezbyt rozgarnietego polskiego awanturnika. Zamiast tego moglbys merytorycznie wytlumaczyc bledy w przekazie popelnione przez autora. Moze wtedy wszyscy moglibysmy sie czegos wartosciowego nauczyc.