Energy for Life Worksheet

Your body changes the chemical energy contained within the food you eat into the energy you need to stay alive.

Different foods contain different amounts of energy. For example, a typical meal of a hamburger, chips and a fizzy drink contains about 4000 kJ of energy.

Fast food

The hamburger contains approximately 2000 kJ, the chips contain 1300 kJ and the fizzy drink contains about 700 kJ of energy.

This may seem like a lot of energy, but different people have different energy needs depending on their age and lifestyle. Shown below are the approximate energy needs of a wide range of people.

People of differing ages

Person	Energy need per day (kJ)
2 year old	4000
10 year old	8000
14 year old girl	10000
14 year old boy	12000
Adult female	10000
Adult male	11000
Adult male with an active job	14000

The energy needs depend on age and lifestyle. An active person requires more energy than a person who works at a computer most of the day.

It is important to provide your body with the correct amount of energy.

If a person takes in a lot of energy but does not lead an active lifestyle then they may become overweight, but a person who does not take in enough energy may become underweight, both of which can cause health issues.

It is also important to have a balanced diet, containing the correct amounts of vitamins and minerals.

Which of the following are the correct units for energy?

seconds

kiloJoules

decibels

Which of the following people do you think requires the greatest amount of energy per day?

A 35 year old male builder

B 25 year old female office worker

C 14 year old school boy

A

B

C

Match up the correct energy values on the left with the people on the right.

Column A	Column B
4000 kJ	Adult male with active job
14000 kJ	2 year old
10000 kJ	14 year old girl
12000 kJ	14 year old boy

Shown below is the label from a common food:

Food label

Use the table to help you work out how much energy is contained in a 300g portion.

1007 kJ

2014 kJ

3021 kJ

What can happen if you consume more energy than your body requires?

you may become underweight

you may become overweight

you will become stronger

Which of the following are part of a healthy diet?

Tick the answers you agree with.

vitamins

alcohol

minerals

a variety of foods

Thinking about your energy needs throughout the day, complete this sentence:

vitamins

alcohol

minerals

a variety of foods

Jade is going to be playing football this afternoon. Which of the following breakfasts do you think would be best for her in terms of both energy input and general health?

Tick any you agree with.

cereal, milk, fruit juice

fried bacon, sausage, eggs, has browns

scrambled egg, toast, banana, cup of tea

pancake with syrup, bagel with honey, chocolate milk

Once Jade has finished her football match, she is very hot and sweaty.

Girl footballer

Complete the following sentence:

cereal, milk, fruit juice

fried bacon, sausage, eggs, has browns

scrambled egg, toast, banana, cup of tea

pancake with syrup, bagel with honey, chocolate milk

ANSWERS

Question 1

Which of the following are the correct units for energy?

CORRECT ANSWER

kiloJoules

EDDIE SAYS

Energy is measured in Joules (J). Named after James Joule who was the first scientist to realise that there are many different forms of energy. So, 1000J of energy is 1KJ, following the metric system of SI units.

ANSWERS

Question 2

Which of the following people do you think requires the greatest amount of energy per day?

A 35 year old male builder

B 25 year old female office worker

C 14 year old school boy

CORRECT ANSWER

A

EDDIE SAYS

Adults with active jobs require lots of energy to remain healthy. So, the builder expends a great deal of energy during the day and so will need a bigger store of chemical (food) energy to draw from than the other two in order to complete his daily tasks.

ANSWERS

Question 3

Match up the correct energy values on the left with the people on the right.

CORRECT ANSWER

Column A	Column B
4000 kJ	2 year old
14000 kJ	Adult male with active job
10000 kJ	14 year old girl
12000 kJ	14 year old boy

EDDIE SAYS

Different people have different energy needs. The table in the introduction lists some of the approximate energy needs of a wide range of people. If you studied that, you'll have had some idea of people's needs and so realise that an active job requires more energy and that teenage boys need more energy than teenage girls.

ANSWERS

ANSWERS

Question 5

Shown below is the label from a common food:

Food label

Use the table to help you work out how much energy is contained in a 300g portion.

CORRECT ANSWER

3021 kJ

EDDIE SAYS

Food packaging must contain information of the chemical energy contained within the food, as well as providing information on salt content etc...
Here, we can see that 100g contains 1007 kJ of energy. This means that 300g would contain 3021 kJ, as 1007 x 3 = 3021.

ANSWERS

Question 6

What can happen if you consume more energy than your body requires?

CORRECT ANSWER

you may become overweight

EDDIE SAYS

It is important to lead a healthy lifestyle and make sure that, if you are going to consume lots of energy, you do the right amount of exercise to balance it out. Unfortunately, in today's world, the easy availability of cheap, sugary foods together with a lack of exercise mean that an awful lot of young people are becoming overweight as they are unable to work off all the energy they take in.

ANSWERS

Question 7

Which of the following are part of a healthy diet?

Tick the answers you agree with.

CORRECT ANSWER

vitamins
minerals
a variety of foods

EDDIE SAYS

A healthy diet should be balanced, which means it has a variety of foods that meet the your energy needs. Vitamins and minerals contain no energy but provide vital nutrients that ensure your body functions correctly.

ANSWERS

Question 8

Thinking about your energy needs throughout the day, complete this sentence:

CORRECT ANSWER

EDDIE SAYS

Si, it's a meal that many people either skip or just snack through, but in truth breakfast is really important to your body and to your ability to set yourself up for the day. Not only does it give you that initial energy 'kickstart' to your day, but it helps you concentrate through the morning.

ANSWERS

Question 9

Jade is going to be playing football this afternoon. Which of the following breakfasts do you think would be best for her in terms of both energy input and general health?

Tick any you agree with.

CORRECT ANSWER

cereal, milk, fruit juice
scrambled egg, toast, banana, cup of tea

EDDIE SAYS

OK, so they're all going to give energy, but some give too much and they're wrapped up in too much fat and sugar. Jade's body needs easily-accessible energy (carbohydrates), without too much tooth-rotting sugar and not too much fat, which is harder to extract the energy from.

ANSWERS

Question 10

Once Jade has finished her football match, she is very hot and sweaty.

Girl footballer

Complete the following sentence:

CORRECT ANSWER

EDDIE SAYS

As she has lost so much water in playing her match, the best thing for her to drink is the same thing her body has lost: water! Her digestive system doesn't have to do anything with it apart from absorb it into her body and use it replenish the diminished water reserves.