With children's nutrition currently a hot election topic, a new book steers parents through the minefield of mealtimes. Lisa Salmon reports.

LL parents want to give their children the very best start in life - and healthy food is a huge part of that. But how can mums and dads get their children to eat healthily instead of the junk food they crave? In his new book, Natural Health For Kids, complementary health expert Dr John Briffa has a few answers.

Briffa, who runs two hospital-based practices, says the general rule is that children shouldn't eat processed foods, but should have fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, beans and eggs, freshly cooked.

''Children learn by example, and if they see their parents cooking fresh food at home, they'll learn that's the way to eat,'' he says. But he stresses: ''It's all very well knowing what's good for a child to eat, but parents need to know how to get the food into the child, how to develop a healthy food culture and how to weave it in so it doesn't create a problem - coercion and bribery don't help.''

Ways of encouraging healthy eating include families eating meals together, he says, and children repeatedly being offered a wide range of foods. ''If they don't want it, then that's the end of it at that meal, but offer it to them again next time,'' says Briffa.

Parents should tell children whether the food they're eating is healthy or not, and they shouldn't ban 'unhealthy' foods. Briffa says there's nothing wrong with children having a burger occasionally, for example, but they should be told that it's a treat.

''If you ban them, they'll want unhealthy foods more,'' he says. ''Letting them have the foods occasionally as a treat sends a very clear message, and educates them about food.''

Briffa says organic food is worth buying, but stresses: ''Using organic food is relatively marginal compared to whether children are eating natural, unprocessed food. Give them unprocessed food and if it's organic then that's the icing on the cake.''

His book also contains an assessment of common childhood complaints, like eczema, asthma, hyperactivity and recurrent tonsilitis, with suggested changes to diet which could help combat each problem.

Briffa believes many complaints are caused by food sensitivity - in the cases of asthma and eczema, for example, the sensitivity is often to cow's milk and related products like cheese. When the offending food is eliminated from a child's diet, the problem frequently disappears too.

He advises parents to read the labels on food, and says a good tip for children who can read is to tell them that if they can't pronounce an ingredient, or visualise it, then the product shouldn't be bought.

Briffa also believes there's no harm in giving children nutritional supplements. ''The general nutritional state of our diet is in decline, and a lot of children don't get the bare minimum of the nutrients they need, so why not give them added nutrients in the form of supplements?''

He concludes with the mantra: ''It's what a child eats most of the time, not some of the time, that parents should be concerned about.''

* Natural Health for Kids (Michael Joseph/Penguin, £16.99).