4. Healthy eating

We must agree, that in our time we have a very great choice of foods available in the shops. These include imported foods, which are a traditional part of eating in other countries, as well as from food manufacturers. As a result, it has become more difficult to know which foods to choose for a healthy diet.

Healthy eating helps reduce the risk of developing many diseases such as heart disease, cancer, obesity, and tooth decay. By eating a good variety and balance of foods, taking regular exercise, not drinking too much, and not smoking at all, you can give yourself the best chance of living, a better and healthier life.

I can mark some main rules of healthy eating. They are:

1. You must enjoy your food.

2. You must eat a variety of foods.

3. You must eat plenty of foods rich in starch and fibre.

4. Don't eat too much fat.

5. Don't eat sugary foods too often.

6. You must look after the vitamins and minerals in your food.

7. If you drink, keep within sensible limits.

8. Eat the right amount to be a healthy weight.

Eating is an important part of everyone's life. Foods are chosen for all sorts of reasons, not just to get the nutrients you need. The taste, smell, colour, and how foods look are all important. Religion, cost, availability, and the way you live may all affect the choices you make about the foods you eat. Eating may be a chance to sit down with the family or for a social occasion with friends. Or it may be a rushed snack grabbed during a spare five minutes.

Above all, it is important to enjoy food. All foods provide you with some nutrients and add variety, but some foods should not be eaten too often or in large quantities if you want to be more sure of enjoying good health.

Dairy products

Cheese

Fromage frais

Milk

Yoghurt

Food provides nutrients to help the body work properly. A mixture of nutrients is obtained from food. No single food contains them all in the amounts needed, so we have to eat a mixture of foods to get the right amount. You can make this easier by choosing foods from each of the four main food groups each day. To get as much variety as you can, it is important not always to select the same foods from each group.

The 4 food groups are:

Starchy food

Dairy foods

Meat, poultry, fish, and alternatives

Vegetables and fruit

There are other foods such as cakes, biscuits and sweets that add variety and can be part of a healthy diet, but they should not' replace the foods from these four food groups.

5. Business and Environment

For many years and in many countries the problems of the business community have often seemed to be very different from the problems of the environment. To be successful in business often means exploiting the environment in various ways. The more a business makes and sells, the more destructive to the earth it can be.

The examples of this conflict are numerous. The lumber industry cuts down trees for construction and for material. The automobile industry, one of the symbols of strong industrialized economies, uses many resources to produce its vehicles which then add greatly to the tire dumps and to air pollution all over the world. The oil and chemical industries have made life in the modern world much more convenient for people, and yet the damage caused because of leaks, accidents, storage, and pollution is becoming increasingly troublesome. Some industries focusing on the modern technologies tend to use and pollute big amounts of water. The list goes on and on. The business cycle never ends.

The conflict, then, between economic issues and environmental issues is a very real one. Can businesses become more environmentally responsible and still prosper financially? If the growth of certain types of business is slowed or stopped, what will happen to the workers affected? Will consumers buy products that are better for the environment? Will consumers pay higher prices for products that are better for the environment? Will national governments support free trade with other nations which use lower environmental standards for business?

Can ways be found to solve the conflicting needs of economy and environment so that businesses prosper, workers work, and the earth’s ecological system remains healthy? Many solutions have been known for a long time, e.g., solar and wind power for energy needs and electric cars for transportation. But they have never been accepted on a mass basis. Other solutions, such as recycling of aluminum, plastics and paper have become widespread in certain areas of the world. Still others have made the business community change the way it runs business, e.g., McDonald's is reducing its use of thick containers. And some businesses have developed new processes to deal with trash. One example is Thomas Ceramic, in Japan, which turns garbage into superhard ceramic bricks for construction.

Notes: lumber industry – деревообробна промисловість

free-range eggs - домашні яйця

Business and Environment

Since ancient times Nature has served Man, being the source of his life. For thousands of years people lived in harmony with environment and it seemed to them that natural riches were unlimited. But with the development of civilization man's interference in nature began to increase.

Large cities with thousands of smoky industrial enterprises appear all over the world today. The by-products of their activity pollute the air we breathe, the water we drink, the land we grow grain and vegetables on.

Every year world industry pollutes the atmosphere with about 1000 million tons of dust and other harmful substances. Many cities suffer from smog. Vast forests are cut and burn in fire. Their disappearance upsets the oxygen balance. As a result some rare species of animals, birds, fish and plants disappear forever, a number of rivers and lakes dry up.

The pollution of air and the world's ocean, destruction of the ozone layer is the result of man's careless interaction with nature, a sign of the ecological crises.

The most horrible ecological disaster befell Ukraine and its people after the Chernobyl tragedy in April 1986. About 18 percent of the territory of Byelarus were also polluted with radioactive substances. A great damage has been done to the agriculture, forests and people's health. The consequences of this explosion at the atomic power-station are tragic for the Ukrainian, Byelarussian and other nations.

Environmental protection is of a universal concern. That is why serious measures to create a system of ecological security should be taken.

Some progress has been already made in this direction. As many as 159 countries - members of the UNO - have set up environmental protection agencies. Numerous conferences have been held by these agencies to discuss problems facing ecologically poor regions including the Aral Sea, the South Urals, Kuzbass, Donbass, Semipalatinsk and Chernobyl. An international environmental research centre has been set up on Lake Baikal. The international organization Greenpeace is also doing much to preserve the environment.

But these are only the initial steps and they must be carried onward to protect nature, to save life on the planet not only for the sake of the present but also for the future generations.