The most compelling reason for eating plenty of fruit (and vegetables) is perhaps that they contain the crucial 'ACE' vitamins - that is to say, vitamins A, C and E, the anti-oxidants thought to protect against cancer and heart disease.
These foods also contain a range of minerals and other vitamins essential for all-round good health. Their fibre, for example, is needed for a healthy digestive tract. Their acidity helps to build strong bones and teeth, and vitamin C fights infections and promotes healing. Brightly coloured fruits and vegetables give the greatest benefit.
Eating habits can become fixed very early on. Early years settings are brilliantly placed to encourage good eating habits in children and their families. For example, if your puddings are usually fruit-based, that idea could remain in a child's mind for years as a way to end a meal and it may influence other family members.
However, children accustomed to heavily sweetened fare are less able to enjoy the gentler, more natural sweetness of fruit, so an important step is to cut out pre-sugared food and drinks.
Providing the fruit
* Unripe fruit is harder to chew, less tasty and juicy, more difficult to digest and of lower nutritive value, and may cause stomach ache, putting children off wanting it again. Unfortunately, fruit is not always ready to eat when it is put on sale, so plan to keep some fruits, especially pears, melons and bananas, for at least a week in a sunny position to ripen up.
When they are ready, pears and melons should 'give' slightly when pressed around their stem. Bananas are not ripe until their skins are well-mottled with black. Soft fruits are usually delicious only in summer, their natural season. If in doubt, leave fruit a day or two longer.
* Go for variety. Use the full range of soft fruits as they come into season.
* Buy from local markets and shops whenever you can, for fun, education and bargains.
* Forget commercial 'fruit' yoghurts and such - they're usually stuffed with sugar and contain minimal fruit.
Make it terrific
* By all means, tell children how fruit helps them ('It helps to stop you getting ill' or 'It helps your knees to heal up when you fall over'), but don't get solemn about it. Overall, concentrate on its sweetness, juiciness and flavour. Make it a treat item instead of confectionery. Try ways of making it special, and let children see you enjoying it.
* Sometimes you will want to offer choices between different fruits, but avoid presenting a choice between, say, fruit and confectionery, which is hardly fair. Avoid testing children; instead, lead them to perceive that eating fruit often is a normal (and nice) thing to do.
Tasty tips
* Serve fresh fruit washed, perhaps peeled cut up and ready to go. Vary the shapes and sizes of the pieces from day to day, and serve them attractively on brightly coloured plates.
* See how you can incorporate fruit into various dishes. For example, serve fresh or tinned peach or mango slices with your chicken curry. Stir thin banana slices and sultanas into all-milk porridge with a blob of honey.
* Make ice cream with apple puree, a little creme fraiche or yoghurt, sweetened with a little honey.
* Make 'lollipops' by freezing halved bananas or fruit slices.
* Dip the tip of orange segments into hot chocolate sauce and let set.
Winning puds
* Mix orange juice with creme fraiche or smatana. Add nutmeg, and stir in chunks of grape, ripe pear and banana.
* In summer, mash blackberries into plain yoghurt with a pinch of sugar and mixed spice.
* Slice strawberries into fresh orange juice. Add a blob of creme fraiche.
* In winter, fry or bake slices of fresh pineapple in a little butter and a sprinkling of sugar until the sugar browns, turning once. Eat warm.
* Make a jelly with fresh orange juice and gelatine and pack it with colourful, sliced fresh fruit.
* Make apple crumbles and pies. Add cinnamon, nutmeg and sultanas.
* Make apple fritters - everyone's favourite!
READER OFFER
* Dump The Junk! by Mary Whiting (Moonscape, 7.99) contains ideas on how to get children to eat healthy food and how to steer them away from junk.
We have five copies of Dump The Junk! to give away to Nursery World readers. Send your name and address on the back of a postcard or envelope, marked 'Dump the Junk', to the address on page 3. Winners will be the first five names drawn on 29 May.
SOURCES OF VITAMINS
The best sources of the ACE vitamins are:
* Vitamin A: apricots fresh or dried, peaches, mangoes, nectarines
* Vitamin C: blackcurrants, oranges, strawberries, kiwi fruit, mangoes
* Vitamin E:all green fruit.