We need to sustain their interest in food related issues

Dr Richard Hutchins, IGD

Nutrition experts welcomed the evidence that children do understand the need to eat a balanced diet.

Concern has been growing about children's diets, with increasing numbers of obese children, and cases of adult-type diabetes found in overweight children.

And a recent study found a quarter of children eat sweets and crisps for breakfast.

But the IGD offers a ray of light, showing children do understand the importance of healthy eating.

It is calling for measures such as cookery kits to be introduced to sustain children's interest in food.

Encourage interest

The IGD surveyed 400 children aged seven to nine across the UK and interviewed children at schools in Hertfordshire and Staffordshire.

The research found that, in addition to asking their parents for information, around a third of children would obtain information about healthy foods from their teacher or TV cookery programmes.

Most did appear to eat at least one portion of fruit and vegetables each day, but many were unsure about how much they should be eating.

Like many adults, they often saw eating fruit and vegetables as a "trade-off" for eating foods they did not perceive as healthy.

Family meals

Most ate a broad range of foods, including Chinese and Indian, and enjoyed food that was entertaining, such as celery, which one child said could be peeled "like cheese straws".

Over 80% said they enjoyed cooking at home, particularly if it was something different, such as a curry.

The IGD found three quarters of families mostly or always eat at the same time, and 71% usually stick to the same foods.

A third eat together every day, though fewer families eat together "frequently" in the south.

Dr Richard Hutchins, report author and business director at IGD, told BBC News Online: "The food industry recognises that children are a very important group of consumers, consumers with purchasing power in their own right.

"We need to get the message about a balanced diet over to them in early life, and we need to sustain their interest in food-related issues."

A spokeswoman for the British Nutrition Foundation said: "It is really encouraging that they have found children understand how to eat healthily, and that this message is getting across."