Staying healthy need not be a chore. An hour of football three times a week keeps you physically and mentally fit - and is fun, too.

Studies have now proved what many in the football family have thought for a long time: in the long term, regular exercise, such as playing football, is the best guarantee of health. In 1997, the World Health Organization (WHO) named lack of exercise as the most frequent cause of coronary artery disease.

Since then, our understanding of the fatal consequences of physical inactivity has steadily increased. A main risk factor is obesity, one of the epidemics of our times.

More important than the body mass index however, is where the fat is - it is particularly dangerous in and around the abdomen. Your belt size is a useful guide. For men, it should be below 94cm and for women below 80cm. If the belt size is greater than 102cm (men) and 88cm (women) the risk of cardiovascular disease is significantly greater.

Public health awareness campaigns help most to know that exercise keeps us physically and mentally fit. But that does not necessarily mean we exercise more. Why should you exert yourself and dispense with comfort when you (still) feel so good? Many well-intended active programmes fail because many chronic diseases do not appear to be an immediate threat.

This is where football has an enormous advantage: If you enjoy playing the game and can use football to live out your exercise preferences, you will keep playing. For many, it is the psychosocial factors, not the biological ones, that fire our enthusiasm for exercise in the long term. And only then does it have an optimum preventive effect.

Although few people can become rich and famous through football, everyone can become and stay physically and mentally healthy.