How is your Energy Balence

How is your Energy Balence


It is important for people to eat as much food as they need to make sure they have the right amount of energy. If they eat too little food or the wrong kind of food they won't have enough energy. If they eat too much (food), they will put on weight. When we eat enough food for the exercise we take, we call this energy balance.

 In many parts of the modem world today, people eat a lot of fast food and don't take enough exercise. They also eat a lot of sweets between meals. Although most people know that fatty and sugary foods can cause a loss of their energy balance, they find it difficult to refrain from eating them. 

 A recent study shows that a large number of people who cannot manage to keep their energy balance are those who spend too much time in front of their TV sets. If people eat too many products which contain a large amount of fat and sugar - also called junk food, and too few products which provide them with enough quantities of fibre, it is because of the many advertisements to which they are exposed while watching TV. This study also shows that though parents advise their children to eat sensibly, a great many of these children don't pay much attention to the amount of fast food they eat, parental advice is no help at all if the children continue to be exposed to such advertisements. 

 Unfortunately, the loss of energy balance is not without health and social consequences. Owing to this loss, a lot of people today suffer from obesity. According to the World Health Organisation, for the first time in history, the world population counts more obese people than slim ones. As a result of overweight, many of them have developed diseases that cost the social security systems of their countries billions and billions of dollars every year. The financial problem of these security systems is likely to worsen as no concrete measures are taken to treat the real causes of overweight at world level.

 Since obesity in our modern times is caused mostly by a loss of energy balance, which is due mainly to the impact of junk food adverts, it is high time our governments passed laws to limit this influence. Advertisements of unhealthy foods are as harmful as advertisements for cigarettes. Therefore, they should be banned from the media, and health warnings should be added on the labels of fast food packages.